I predict soon MSC will be hiring people for almost all the rates. We are currently deployed and unable to get reliefs for anyone. Answer is to just gap billets and sail short. Strange this is happening in our poor economy. Rumor has it the MSC Kiddie-Pool in Norfolk is empty. There are absolutely NO Ordinary Seaman. Too bad for the O/Ss on the ship who have all thier A/B credentials, MSC will not move them up to an A/B spot even though there are gapped A/B billets down on deck. One of the causes is that MSC is getting more new ships than they are laying up old ships. New AKE’s (Prepo Program) / New T-AGM (yes, CIVAMR crew!!) / Sub-Tenders / New JSHV (something like HSV Swift) / Placement of Engineers on USS Warships / etc… Looks like CIVMARS are in high-demand. Guess I may have a tough time getting off of here.
[QUOTE=UnRepKing;38091]I predict soon MSC will be hiring people for almost all the rates. We are currently deployed and unable to get reliefs for anyone. Answer is to just gap billets and sail short. Strange this is happening in our poor economy. Rumor has it the MSC Kiddie-Pool in Norfolk is empty. There are absolutely NO Ordinary Seaman. Too bad for the O/Ss on the ship who have all thier A/B credentials, MSC will not move them up to an A/B spot even though there are gapped A/B billets down on deck. One of the causes is that MSC is getting more new ships than they are laying up old ships. New AKE’s (Prepo Program) / New T-AGM (yes, CIVAMR crew!!) / Sub-Tenders / New JSHV (something like HSV Swift) / Placement of Engineers on USS Warships / etc… Looks like CIVMARS are in high-demand. Guess I may have a tough time getting off of here.[/QUOTE]
You’re prediction is probably right, but it won’t help for reliefs this summer! Even if they could hire people next week you wouldn’t see replacements walking up gangways until after Labor Day. 
Have fun in Djibouti!
In the good old days they would have just went to downtown Oakland and picked up a van load of homeless guys off the street. 
My ship is changing its international callsign to:
[B]N[/B]ovember
[B]F[/B]oxtrot
[B]F[/B]oxtrot
[B]D[/B]elta
might even change the hull number to 107.
Quite right on the prediction unrepking, look at their website; 23 positions either open now or opening soon.
We just got an A/B out of the pool. He said between Norfolk and SD pool there were only 3 A/Bs that were fit for duty. Don’t even think about getting an O/S either. Every time we e-mail the office we get the “out of office auto reply”. I’m looking to get off in about a month…we’ll see how this goes. Maybe they can just gap my billet, we have done it for everyone else. Or maybe I may suffer from a short-term case of “high blood pressure”. Just kidding, I would never pull that 107 bull-s*&t, that type of behavoir annoy’s me. Soon these ships are going to look like a “real” merchant ship, with 20 people aboard.
This is a thread from last summer. Same shit different year.
Last summer? Been the same story for over 30 years. If Msc would ever learn to care better for the mariner then there would be a waiting list for a job. But as we see, this is far from the case even in a very and economy. I heard not long ago that a study showed manning turnover rates at 100% over a six year period. Better install a revolving door at MSFSC or MSCLANT or whatever they call themselves these days sense my departure.
major overhaul is due, this sounds like I am going to sail with good people who cannot possibly be running on all cylinders. a safety and security issue arises when people are asked to operate professionally and then given a plate of shit to eat. all the training and safety being preached to sailors plus the security checks are just wasted if you cannot keep good people on the ship.
I hear the new trend these days is to reduce rig teams ( manning), also some sort of "pilot " program to cut the need for RET1 billets by having only one on watch. Voices from the present masters made the points that sailing short is not safe due to the usn demanding the same service. Also sailing with fewer rig teams when a ship cannot get replacements will be even more of an issue. ( it’s been proven in the past that when Msc reduces the manning levels it does not equate to being able to support the new standard of manning) One comment from a master hit the nail on the head " only msc management could turn their manning failure into a “pilot program”.
What gets me is that Msc has been fighting this same issue for years now. The only thing that seems to change is the names of management.
Yep. Some of my classmates 10 years ago went MSC and back then there was the same issue. Long tours with no reliefs.
They’ve started doing suicide prevention classes at the pool. How’s that for an indicator of the current climate at MSC.
The sad thing is Msc could have been a really good place to work. Sadly, without the right leadership for years now, too much usn involvement trying to make Msc just like the navy the house of cards has once more fallen down around the ears of management. I suppose we will soon see Msc renaming various locations and commands. Always seems to be the knee jerk reaction. Oh, and let’s not forget a blue ribbon panel to study why msc can’t keep employees, and a climate survey shoved out to the fleet to keep the shoreside shuffling paper and reporting to DC.
Yep, same song, different gondola.
How aware is shoreside management of the level of contempt sea going senior management have for them?
[QUOTE=KneelbeforeZod!;52119]How aware is shoreside management of the level of contempt sea going senior management have for them?[/QUOTE]
Since contempt is not factored into their pay and benefits package, I suspect the parasitic elements in DC could care less what ships crews think of them.
kneel, good question. the fix isn’t getting done, probably because some shitty people like it like that, who really has the power to come to a solution?
I would have to agree. In the past someone new would come in, ask " what’s wrong with Msc in your view", data would be collected but by the time all he filters were applied very little if anything ever got addresses that the ships crews thought were important. A good example would be last year a retired usn 06 ( female that had command of a tanker once in her life) came to the ships employed as a fact finder on various “why are we losing people” topics. Her constant focus was some stupid Women On the Water conference that was going to be held. I know a number of females in Msc, none of them ever voiced any need or desire to attend any “WOW” conference. All they wanted was a level playing field not some cheerleading group. Shows you how disconnected the shoreside is from the afloat community. Basically, they DC, and for that matter MSFSC don’t care what the mariner thinks, oh they may say they do when asked, but the proof is in the pudding as they say. To be sure at all levels of Msc there are shore side personnel that do actually care about the mariner, but they are normally the exception, and often times in the past ostracized by the other shore siders they move on to another federal job, or get " promoted" to an area they don’t have contact with the mariners.
MSC is looking to hire C/M, 2/M and 2AE off the street. Anyone remember the last time C/M jobs popped up on the Sealift Command website?
While I’m at it, anyone know how full the pools are these days? I’ll be in San Diego pool in a month and I’d like to know if I’ll be there long enough to justify bringing my car.
Yep, stands to reason, a lot of senior masters departed recently and more to follow over the next few months. Msc promoted all the chief mates that could be promoted ( only a few that were mentally impaired were promoted ). Now they don’t have any chief mates. They always need second mates, and engineers are a given, they always need engineers.
Yes, First Officer popped up last year, as did 2nd and 3rd Officer.