Hamid and the crane booms

Room to move
Being here at RIVAL is good. It’s a good place to work. The people are friendly and considerate.

“There’s lots of light and fresh air. It’s spacious – there’s room to move," says Hamid Fadavi, who has worked for RIVAL since May 2007.

Hamid has machined 1,850 crane booms for HMF – and has only had to repair three over the course of a year and a half.

Hamid Fadavi
The first thing that strikes you about Hamid is his warm smile and firm handshake. A monster of a crane boom destined for Højbjerg Maskinfabrik is set into the drilling tool behind him. “It’s time for your interview...” “Right-o,” he says, readily shutting down the machine.

University of Teheran
The 50-year-old Hamid Fadavi was born and raised in Iran. He came to Denmark in 1987, having studied statistics at the University of Teheran. He originally wanted to be an engineer, while statistics came further down his list of priorities. “I just wanted to go to university because it was an exciting, dynamic place. You meet so many people with different ideas and backgrounds. It’s a fascinating environment. I studied for a year, and then I returned to my home town in the northern part of Iran, close to the Caspian Sea. I set up a fish farm with six others. We had 70 hectares, and we started from scratch by digging ponds for the fish and putting up buildings. It took us three years,” says Hamid, who also worked as a taxi driver during this period.

Room to move
He currently lives in Aarhus, which has been his home for the past 15 years. Since May 2007 he has worked for RIVAL. “My working day starts at six in the morning. I come in an hour before everyone else, that way I avoid the traffic on the ring road. I go over to my machine and start the day’s work. Usually, I’m the only one operating the machine, unless Højbjerg has placed a bigger order, in which case we work two shifts.” Hamid is happy to be working at RIVAL. “It’s good to be here. RIVAL is a nice place to work. The people are friendly and considerate. We all help each other. The new production facilities are great, much better than before. There’s lots of light and fresh air. It’s spacious – there’s room to move,” he says, laughing.

State and University Library , University of Århus
Before coming to RIVAL, Hamid Fadavi was self-employed. Between 2002 and 2007, he managed a takeaway and a pizzeria in Aarhus. “I was happy, but the work ended up getting on top of me. Almost all my time went into the business. Buying, accounts, staff management, preparation – there was so much to do. I chose to sell the business in April 2007, and I started working at RIVAL in May. It suits me just fine.

Suddenly, I’ve got time to read. I read about international politics and finance, and I spend quite a lot of time at the State and University Library. I’ve always been interested in politics.”

Punctuality part of Danish mentality
Hamid has found it easy to come to terms with the Danish way of thinking. “It’s obviously very different from the Iranian mentality, but the differences are in the details. Take punctuality, for instance. I went back to Iran about six months ago. When you agree to meet someone, there's no guarantee they'll turn up. They usually arrive at least half an hour late. In Denmark, something out of the ordinary has to happen for people to be late for an appointment," says Hamid Fadavi before he returns to his Union drilling machine. He has a few crane booms to finish for HMF.

HMF 8,500 crane booms