Career Mirror -- by Mark Sproxton

To say work as a safety codes officer can be stressful is an understatement. "I never went bald until I started here," joked Jim Peatman, plumbing and gas senior safety code officer with the City of Calgary. But pressure comes with the territory.

Sitting at a desk full of paper, the phone rings. This is the fifth call in the last minute. And there's more to come. On an average day, there are 200 to 250 safety inspections required to be completed by a staff of 22. Peatman, and three other senior officers, have the task of co-ordinating the regular safety officers, reading plans, dealing with public enquiries, smoothing over troubles if a contractor and safety officer can't come to a workable solution themselves, and much more. Some officers are on 24-hour emergency call.

Over 21 years ago, however, Peatman never imagined himself taking this line of work. Having completed his journeyman tickets in plumbing and gas fitting, and after working for years as a tradesman, his work prospects one day came to a crashing halt, literally. While installing some pipe about nine metres (27 feet) above the ground, the platform he was working from crashed to the ground. A stint in the hospital and a discussion with the doctor had the easy-going tradesman looking for alternative work.

Hearing about work as a safety codes officer, Peatman made some enquiries. Having his two journeyman tickets, plus five years experience qualified him for the field. After putting in an application, and going through the interviews, he was hired and then received some safety code training. Twenty-one years later, things have changed.

In addition to requiring the journeyman tickets, safety codes officers now have to pass a training course specific to their trade or trades. (There are nine classifications for safety code officers.) The city, while paying for the training, allows new hires six months to pass their course, while private enterprise usually only hires those who are already certified as safety code officers.

And whether the officers are working for a municipality, or private company, the work is essentially the same. Through visual inspection, the officers use their knowledge of the trades to verify that work complies with the Safety Code Act. The work can be as simple as checking a basic plumbing installation in a private home, to examining a high-powered gas blowing unit mounted atop a manufacturing plant. Working closely with the city's engineering and sewage units, and gas companies, safety code officers may also be called to help the fire and police departments investigate the cause of a fire, and then try to determine if the equipment was legal, or installed legally.

"It can be quite interesting," Peatman explained. "You have a lot of power as a safety codes officer. If we feel there is a danger, we have access to any property at any reasonable time of the day. The responsibility and authority is more powerful than a lot of people realize." That amount of sway brings with it a negative side to the work, Peatman said, as officers are sometimes asked to look lightly on the work they're inspecting. "We can't ask for anything not specified by the code, but they can't do anything less. We don't make our own rules. We have a code book to go by, and that's what we've got to use."

Because the work involves constantly dealing with people, the job isn't for everyone. But many pick up the skills required simply by working on the job. "You need good negotiating skills," he said. "You can tell a guy he's a lousy plumber, and then leave the work site where your name is mud. Or, you an say it's not up to code and leave without anyone's feathers being ruffled. If you don't pick up those skills, you'll never make it through your apprenticeship anyway."