Ian Day, Maintenance Manager, Estates Division

Ian Day is the Maintenance Manager for the South Team at South Kensington campus. He is responsible for two teams of technical staff, covering two shifts of maintenance and responsive repairs for all buildings across half the campus, and on other campuses when called on. He talks here to Janet Carberry, Communications Officer (Estates Division). 

Ian has worked at Imperial College since 1998, first joining as a Building Services Engineer for Sir Alexander Fleming building. He has seen changes to structures since then, along with the remit of buildings to look after. He presents me with a data fact. In the last 22 years he has processed exactly 9,876 orders. "What are they, what’s involved?" I ask him. It is then it becomes clear that apart from a being a qualified electrical design engineer he is also a timetravelling detective. “Someone will say they need a ‘yellow thing with a pipe sticking out’, or ‘two of those’ handing over an object,” he tells me, “and then I have to try and source it.” He researches the equipment or machinery it is needed for, finding out when it was manufactured, whether the part is available or there is a more modern replacement that would be a better long-term solution, for example by improving performance. Then follows the paperwork to justify costs and make the order. It’s a part of the job he really enjoys, "a legacy from my past."

Ian started out doing an ‘old-fashioned apprenticeship’, with day release and continuing his studies at night school to gain higher qualifications as an electrical maintenance technician and design engineer. That’s just a small part of the job, which is largely responsive to maintenance needs of the buildings in South Kensington, with ‘defects affecting critical areas and people’, especially during the pandemic, jumping to the top of his daily to do list. Then of course there are his team management responsibilities. Ian first became a manager aged just 24 in the company where he trained.

In an ideal world, Ian would be able to tuck himself away when having to do routine admin, but in the real world there is a revolving door of new things to respond to, which is the pleasure of the job, making it never monotonous or boring. “My time isn’t my own, work finds me, and when urgent I have to respond,” he says. “Before I know it, it's 5pm. He shares an office with Building Manager Rod Coppard, which, as building managers are the interface between Maintenance and the end-users helps smooth pressures for all. The pleasure of the job is greater if there is something major or unusual to respond to, when his expertise is called on and tested. He says, ‘I’m not an innovator, but I recognise ideas from others and am willing to try things. I feel I’ve had the courage to pilot many things that have been adopted more widely across College.” He cites as one example the use of Mikrofill, a small box on the wall which effectively automates top-up of heating and cooling systems.

Looking back, Ian says he was probably pushed into mechanical engineering by the comprehensive school he attended in Wembley, where he grew up. “Now”, he says, “I can’t imagine doing anything else, and it does suit me.” Concerned, he says, “Engineering is not given the status it deserves, consequently there are not enough people now entering the profession. “I think it is a problem for our future.” The one-time rugby player who as a lad also used to sneak into Wembley stadium to watch matches by squeezing through the concertina gates, now settles for coarse fishing as his hobby. He’s set himself a target to catch a 60lb catfish when the next season is open. His younger self set out to build a steam engine. Although content with life and work, somehow it got in the way of that goal. “It will probably be in retirement that I'll join a model engineering club and achieve that.”