Chief Petty Officer Weapon Engineer
Royal Navy
A Day in the Life: CPO Pete Spayne
My name is Pete Spayne and I’m a Chief Petty Officer Weapon Engineer within the Royal Navy, I’ve been serving for 19 years. Presently, I live in Lancaster with my family, but my work can take me all over the world. In my time with the Navy, I’ve managed to achieve an MSc and become a Chartered Engineer, (Not bad for joining without GCSE’s!). I have served mostly in the Middle East, but I have enjoyed tours across the Baltics and Far East too. In my spare time I work on my PhD and when not doing that it is back on the tools restoring our falling-down-house with the kids.
How would you describe your Normal Day
Presently, I am desk based within DE&S, which is great after nearly 2 decades at sea and I am currently lucky that my organisation supports working from home. A typical day in the home-office begins with an 08:00 when I Log in to clear down emails, this is then followed by an 09:00 morning briefing. My job is to assure safety and security artifacts and collate them into a certificate that certifies the equipment is ready to be used. Predominantly this is for Mine Hunting equipment. To do this there’s lots of phone calls and emails to manufacturers, equipment managers, ships, and various other safety authorities. From time to time I’ll visit regenerating ships and help them stay on track with their testing and trials that they conduct to get a warship in the water and back to sea. When working from home I’d recommend keeping your laptop well away from where you chill out, its all to easy to work through the night from the sofa, just checking ‘one last email!’
What you do to maintain your Work Life Balance?
Outside of work a Work/Life balance is really important to me, a career in the navy working away at sea or residing on base throughout the week can really catch up with you. I like to make sure I switch off at 16:00 every day and focus my time on my own family, interests, and goals. When I can, I do all the cooking! So, you’ll normally find me in the kitchen after work making sure all the little mouths are fed.
This year I signed up to do a part time PHD, I told myself I’d devote the time I’d usually devote to PlayStation or Netflix to research so that takes up a couple of hours every evening. In a few years though it’ll be a distant
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