“How can I not be proud, when I know that everything that was built from the ground up over here was done by just a handful of people?” Interview with Ioan Țăran, electrical shift leader (HS Sebeș)

Ioan Țăran knows of everything that moves on the Sebeș platform of Holzindustrie Schweighofer. One of the first people to join the company ever since it set up shop in Romania, Ioan has a story for every corner of the sawmill and for every ditch he dug on the Sebeș platform.

February 2003. There are just a bit more than 15 kilometres between Alba Iulia and Sebeș. The weather is really bad, and there are no regular car rides towards the small town…. so Ioan Țăran decides to get on his bike and start pedalling wind blowing in his face.

“I arrived to Sebeș all right, but when I got to the company’s ‘headquarters’, I froze!” Ioan remembers, smiling. “There was only one pole in the middle of a field, with a light bulb and a container. And they didn’t even let me in, because that was not the day when they were receiving job applications…”

15 years down the road, Ioan is now electrical shift leader for the first sawmill Holzindustrie Schweighofer opened in Romania, in Sebeș.

He doesn’t pedal 15 kilometres to work every day anymore… “My joints can’t take it anymore, I am 52 now,” he says jokingly. “However, what I like most about my job at Holzindustrie is that in the entire area around Sebeș you can’t find anyone as good as us! I work with electricians who grew by my side, who in two years of work accomplished wonders! And I am still looking for good people, I only have 8 right now, and I need about 12…”

The confidence of the ‘job well done’

When one gets to meet Ioan for the first time, one cannot help but notice the pride he exudes, as well as the confidence of a person who knows how to do their job. “I really don’t remember if, in 15 years, I ever experienced failure… Yeah, I got upset once that one engine broke, but that wasn’t my fault… And yes, hardships do appear from time to time, but in the end, that’s life!” adds the leader of the electricians in the Sebeș sawmill.

There are also challenges, he says, but, looking around, at every parcel he worked on, he remembers the early times, when he was digging ditches and pulling cables, rain and wind withstanding. And he’s proud. “How can I not be proud when everything that’s there, everything that was built from the ground up, was built by us? A handful of people!”

The early times were a bit of a shock for the professional who was coming from a “cosy” job at a company that was building refractory bricks in Alba Iulia, to, “suddenly rubber boots and rain coats and digging ditches! The impact was terrible, I was brooding around the house that I had left a cosy job, for half the pay, just out of a stupid, ambition-driven whim!”

But that didn’t last for long, however, as once the foreign automation suppliers came in to help Schweighofer build its first investment in Romania, Ioan Țăran, the professional, stood out. “I saw then how these people thought, at what level they were working, how meticulous, serious and calm they were! Not dumb and crazy, like we were! And then I started to like what I was doing, and they noticed it! When those companies saw and understood that I was really good at my job, they didn’t let me dig ditches and pull cables anymore, they promoted me to connecting wires…. And I connected wires for about 3 months, about 1,000 connections per day, to the point that all I was seeing when I got home at night was wires, just like Charlie Chaplin in that movie when he was putting together some pieces on an assembly line and he didn’t know of anything else! And I didn’t do any mistake, no company came to give me a hard time because I did not do my job the right way!”

From a simple electrician to the teacher role

Ioan passionately loves his job!

“I adore this job, and for as long as I have whom to teach and guide, I will do it!” he says decisively.

An ordinary workday for the one who has turned his passion into a way of life starts before the usual starting time, when all his colleagues come to work. “I come to work earlier, I want to be able to talk to the night shift, to see if there were any problems, how were they solved or if we can solve them! I then make sure all machines work properly and that production is not stalled on our account,” says Ioan. Securing the stock of materials needed for the good functioning of the entire operation is another detail without which the day cannot start to the liking of the electricians’ leader, as well as inspecting all installations and repairing on the spot any accidental faults that may appear on one machine or another.

Is there really no problem with working in the sawmill?

Ioan smiles mischievously…. “Well, small misunderstandings happen between departments, people sometimes overstep their marks, but whenever that happens they call me, and things get clear…”

How would a day look like for Ioan, when he wouldn’t have to come to work anymore? “Hmm… I love to read. And I see myself on a mountain top, on a chaise long, with a good book in one hand and a view to die for…”