The shipping industry must perhaps be the only business that generates big profits making use of somewhat dubious skills. The downward slide in quality of staff, both officers and crew, since I last wrote about it, appears to be spinning out of control. One gets concerned to think what the future has in store for us when the staff that is now serving in junior ranks rises to take charge in the next few years.
Further, our employers periodically send us messages with vivid description of events that have caused seafarers to end up in jail. The underlying wisdom that governs such thinking is that the more you scare seafarers, the less inclined they will be to break rules.
This is a WRONG policy and needs to be condemned by all who go out to sea. Especially because it is an indirect admission of failure. Failure to engage seafarers with proper tools such as in-house training programmes, proper pre-joining briefing, motivating shipboard staff by addressing their genuine needs and innovative mentoring programmes rather than simply relying on older-staff-MUST-teach-the-newer-staff approach.
The Business model of shipping, where you treat crew wages as an "expense", has spelt the doom of professionalism at sea. The malady has been creeping up on us since the past 15 years and has now reached epidemic proportion.
Stop pushing more of the same down the throats of seafarers. Change tack. Combine skills of yester-years with those of today. Most of all, please STOP flogging the seafarer.
Quality cannot be beat into a seafarer, it has to be taught patiently.
2 comments:
Its really saddening to see the response from the shore management when it comes to the human aspect.
With the MLC 2006 being called the seafarer's bill of rights, it will be interesting to see if things change or the MLC 2006 becomes one more publication on the bridge.
Your problem seems similar to that of education in the United States.
In order to maintain high graduation rates, courses have been dumbed-down to the extent that many high school graduates can barely read and write, with many having difficulty doing simple math. As a result, colleges and universities have also dumbed-down their programs, the only exception being in the maths and sciences.
Thus some businesses hiring workers, even some with college degrees, who are marginal employees at best
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