If you are considering applying to Sealift Command do not do it. It’s all a lie. When you arrive there to Norfolk you will be treated with contempt and total indifference. The threats regarding chain of command and being written up and terminated by these entitled civilian navy wannabes will begin immediately.
Just passing on some good advice to spare all from having a bad experience there.
As a former employee I saw some crazy things but never what I am hearing from people still sailing there. No liberty on ships now due to war! No thanks. Gangs, prostitution, officers being threatened or scared to enforce the ship’s orders, experienced sailors have left in large numbers, overdue reliefs still outrageous. Unless you do not care about a life at home then MSC is great! Spend 10 months a year away and go home where your gf/wife will tell you to not unpack you are just visiting.
We all have a price. $70,000-100,000k a month and I’m sure many sailors will put up with a lot of BS.
Did you mean a year?
10 month deployments earn you a $1,000,000?
Almost everyone coming into MSC is entry level positions, Wiper/OS/SU. Most are young and new to the maritime industry. And…most lack any work ethic and are basically unemployable. It is not surprising the disciplinary issues start right from day 1 at NEO in Norfolk. MSC is in a full meltdown with regards to manning and hiring nothing but entry level mariners who have zero interest in working on ships & going to sea is not helping anything.
He’s saying if they paid 100k a month people wouldn’t bitch as much. But they don’t, so people do.
So far everything I’ve read in this thread is true. MSC does lead with threats, coercion, because they view mariners as thugs.
Last year I was 3 months overdue. I thought since COVID was ending it will get better. Now this year I am faced with another 3 months overdue. My rate last year was manned at 86%, this year at 66%. That is based on their own N12 Weekly Snapshot. An internal manning report.
I will probably tough it out because I want to use the leave I have accrued which is worth $12K. Then I will resign.
They really never change anything. The only measures they take to address issues are temporary. I have 20 years experience here and that is all I have seen.
I’m trying to understand the path of thinking that would lead to one asking this question, but I keep coming to dead ends.
It made it sound like the sailors were getting paid a million buck a year more or less, I kind of skipped the part about IF they were getting paid at that rate.
Actually they probably would. This is known as “golden handcuffs” when you have a job you hate but it pays so well you can’t quit.
Let’s be honest here, at this point many of the people they have recently hired are thugs.
Well in all fairness, thug life vs sea life. There are not many jobs out their that pays an entry level 18-19 year old $80k plus a year without risking jail time.
The offer sounds like a dream come true for the thugs until you ‘diss’ them by expecting them to work.
What’s is a “thug” in modern parlance? Criminal? How do they pass the background check?
Not biting. Given everything that’s been said about MSC on this forum, are you really that slow or just pretending?
Slow i guess. God know I sailed with some nuts who were one step from the law when not sailing but “thugs”? Nope we’d deposit a thug at the next port. Thugs meaning at the time assholes that liked to fight or push folks around. Most got the idea and left on their own after seeing how big the ocean was.
I did this video last year and it seems to be getting worse.
The other problem MSC has is there the Admirals now want to push so much navy bs training and reports on the ships. So it is nonstop requirements from the office or reports need to be sent in.
I had several 1 A/Es lose it when many new hire wipers or unlicensed would not do anything and if you counseled them or threw the book at them you were reported to EEO for being racist or sexual harassment. Many firsts had all of their facts documented properly and when the EEO complaints came in after a disciplinary they were over it and several resigned or just looked the other way. It was not worth the headache added on top of the work not getting done taxing the few hard workers in the engine department. I understand today it is out of control. Inmates are truly running the asylum. The office is really struggling but they only care so much as they go home every night and do not get audited or investigated like a ship. That would be a nice IG complaint….hmmmm
Man it sure looks like it keeps worse since I left and no end in sight.
Ship Officers have no support and the Admirals that want to shove usn training down CIVMAR throats.
WTF!!!
The former sailing CIVMARS now comfortable in their shoreside office have added to this paralysis.
Concur time for a really BIG and through IG investigation and recall the two recently retired Admirals that IMHO added nothing to improve MSC.
MSC has always played the EEO card. My sister was #2 at EEOC, and I learned a trick or two and went undefeated in all cases. One time CHENG wrote someone up who refused to show up for work. MSC EEO office would call in several of the engine dept and make them sit in the EEO office all day so they could not work. CHENG was told he needed to “settle” the case or they would not stop, and he was getting a bit stressed. CHENG said he did not know what to do and I told him to just sit back and watch. After making a call to my sister, I filed an EEOC case against MSC EEO program for abuse on a Friday and by Monday COMSC was calling me to clear up the misunderstanding. I heard the paper work submitted was quite professionally worded and caused an extreme amount of stress at MSC.