Funny how not that long ago, they were looking at ways to cut costs and hiring. Now here we are under a different Marad leadership, Well kiddies from all the schools, there are jobs available.
I wouldnt mind working there if there pay was better. Not to mention you will catch hell trying to find a relief, but a job is a job, especially for new people coming to this industry
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OT can double the base pay on the right ship.
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“If” you can get on the right ship. If it was guaranteed I would have no problem working there.
Life doesn’t come with guarantees and neither does MSC. It might take you a few hitches to find that happy place.
Not only double the pay but look at the bennies.Not too shabby.
This is true of union jobs with better relief, vacation pay, and less risk of being stuck on a crappy ship for 8 months
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It is, but at the entry level stage or times of downturn I’d go with whoever is hiring now as opposed to sitting on the couch twiddling my thumbs wishing the phone would ring.
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MSC almost always opens hiring for entry level every six months or so, with exceptions like when they were paying people to leave in 2017. That of course was just after that were offering hiring bonuses to positions rather than promoting from within. (Which was coincidentally around the time KP-ers on my FOC ship were getting letters pointing out they were shirking their obligation…)
Perhaps they are hiring now because they’ve created such a miserable work environment by taking a mismanaged work schedule and combining it with the mismanaged gangway-up restrictions?
(Just to add…yes, versus sitting on the couch, take the job that’s available. I started my career with MSC, saw the world, learned a shit ton, earned my keep before translating that to greener pastures)
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Sounds like how most of us started out, you get the shit jobs to work your way to the good jobs. That the KP’ers were getting letters while on your ship was a bit confusing,until I reread your post and saw that they were on FOC vessels . It is hard as hell to find work on Jones Act vessels, I get it…It is a downer that MSC sometimes do not promote from within, big mistake in my opinion. The fact that some got letters regarding their commitment says it is being monitored a bit more closely than prior times. I mentioned in another post, while my son was doing his Naval Reserve obligation, one of his tasks was to identify out of a list of over 2000 SSO officers who weren’t living up to their obligations. Perhaps it was overlooked in the past, but not so much nowadays. P.S… the gangway up disparities and the pandemic shit have greatly affected retainment, no brainer there.
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A am /was union. They are facing similar problems deep sea as MSC and many other nations’ seafarers with this pandemic shit. Was glad to see MSC reaching out for more mariners.
Again, not surprising that there are vacancies:
“Everything just went downhill then,” said a civmar on board. Some civmars couldn’t sleep. Some struggled to eat after putting their friend’s body in a fridge where the food on their plate may have been stored. Some dreaded the bridge. The woman who was the alleged victim of racial harassment was helicoptered off the ship. At least two crew members were taken off steering duty. “We wanted them to bring on a psychologist but we knew they never would.”
At some points during the pandemic, more than 900 civmars were overdue, according to the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots.
Regarding the suicide on EARHART, the leadership was toxic. MSC breeds and tolerates a leadership more toxic than you usually find at real shipping companies. The third mate’s only mistake before harming himself was that he didn’t prevent the leadership that had tormented and berated him from doing it to others.
If you are driven to suicide by toxic assholes please stop the assholes that made you hurt yourself from hurting others after you’re gone.
If toxic assholes thought someone might stop them from being toxic assholes maybe they’d reconsider the wisdom of being toxic assholes in the first place.
If I’m ever driven to discharge my firearm against myself because of toxic assholes I’ll first make the world a better place before I leave it.
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I am on an Alumni online group, and there was a recent posting about how aggressive MARAD is about chasing down those who may not be living up to their commitment; maybe even overly aggressive.
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Perhaps by being aggressive they are sending a signal to future shirkers. It annoys me to no end to know of a KP grad making $200,000+ a year for the last few years yet none of his classmates know of him fulfilling his obligation though he is quite healthy.
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No argument from me.
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Do you know if the 900 overdue civmar (per the article) were/are overdue on account of actual shortages or due to covid travel restrictions? Or a bit of both?
How about just traditional MSC incompetence?
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In reality, MSC’s deficiencies stick with us because we’re seafarers but MSC is no different than other enterprises managed by Uncle Sam. No one in a government environment is surprised by being told one day that a critical mission is scrubbed because the money didn’t come through and being told the next day to go out and spend so the budget allocations won’t be reduced next year.
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I have been there, where a shipmate’s body was stored in the very reefer we ate from, all because of the political and logistical difficulties of getting the man’s body home. He did not die by suicide, but by accidental means- but it was still something that stuck with me decades later. Yeah, there were sick jokes, but we were young people trying to deal with it.