Persistent Bullies Should Be Removed from Ships

There a quite a few of those where I just left including one who would greet me warmly when I arrived for a relief trip but badmouthed me behind my back every chance he got. I managed to repair a few things that stumped him and it pissed him off.

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Weren’t that hard to spot John.

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While back had a job where in the nature of things a bully came into supervisory role above me.

Started well enough and some great ideas …. but in time I saw his paranoia and how he went thru harassing each team member in turn. One day it came my turn for the bullying treatment from this guy.

Got my coffee and called the CEO to say I wasn’t coming off my vacation to work for that silly guy. Ran out my excess leave and some weeks later went to the office for a chat, turn in my badge, get severance and receive a nice marine brass clock.

But the best part was the CEO told me to go downstairs and bore the guy a new backside for mistreating the younger staff. Privilege of age I suppose.

It’s all rather rare in real life … I met many despicable buggers onboard at MSC and in the Gulf and just had to suck it up … but this time luck ran my way.

CEO called me 6 months later to say the malefactor had been terminated after 3 others (all fine young people) quit after me. Still get a Christmas card and annual company party invite.

The respect I was shown after reporting the bully and just saying “screw that noise”probably meant more to me than the severance.

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No hard to spot but hard to manage because the office loves the nice and polite ones who don’t ever bother them with real problems.

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A thread full of people whining about bullies makes me again thankful that I typically work in the fishing industry.

Never met a bully.

Super glue is great for closing up open wounds on your knuckles.

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Exactly. When you call someone a bully you are addressing them from an inferior position. They love that & might claim you’re being over sensitive & maybe not mature or strong enough to be in a harsh, stressful environment. Call them a fucking asshole instead. Screw that weak political correctness speech.

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I’m kind curious the average age of those who made the complaints this article is referring to. I have been sailing since 1983 and while I have seen my fair share of bullies, for the most part, it is something that is handled through established company policy. We may be different than most work environments, but we’re not that different.

I’m not saying some things cannot get beyond reasonable but, this country is hemorrhaging snowflakes who get their “feelings” hurt if people don’t validate their every position and bend to their demands.

There is a never ending list of things to do at sea and instead of a participation trophy, we get a pretty good paycheck and the respect of those who know we are pretty damn good at what we do.

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“The ‘dress white’ crowd are almost always fine separately. It’s when they cluster up and run in packs that they become insufferable bullies and miscreants”

That’s a crock. They know their alumni of the same schools but there’s no secret society. If any discussions come up about what maritime colleges anyone went to it’s just that, a discussion. I’ve been doing this for more than 38 years. I’m a hawespiper and I have sailed with literally hundred and hundreds of buttchuggers, Maine, mass, GL, TX, SUNY and even a few CAL engineers. (That’s another story).

In the office, during hiring or conferences you may see that shit but at sea? In my experience, you are valued on how well you do what you get paid to do.

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Why is it that the smallest department on the ship has 90% of the problems? The Stewards Dept is ALWAYS fucked up.

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A crew member that acts like an asshole from time to time can most often be dealt with by the crew or just by the crewmember being affected.

But action by the crew alone is not the optimum way to deal with the “Persistent Bullies” referred to in the thread title. Such people are poison for the crew and can significantly impact crew effectiveness.

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Typical bully response:
“It’s not my fault they can’t take it”.

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So 35 plus years doing this doesn’t allow me to give an opinion? Seems like you took offense. I’ll try to sugar coat shit for you in the future as to not offend pumkin.

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Sometimes the people they are serving bring out the best in them.

I haven’t worked in an office. My experiences have been at sea. (Ok, I last worked in an office back in ‘93 but that was civil engineering, not maritime.)

Anytime several young, just graduated new hires from the same small school are put together at the same workplace they revert to familiar behaviors: they act like collage seniors. I’d bet this behavior is common in any industry.

It doesn’t help that American maritime schools on the East Coast seem to breed bullies.

Several years ago I went to SUNY to for a five minute test to upgrade my license (flashing light). A shipmate and SUNY graduate went along for old time sake. As we walked the campus he told me stories such as ‘that’s where the freshman have to walk along the wall.’ I wondered why they can’t just walk. I know at my (non-maritime public collage) as a freshman I just walked to class.

Of course the stupid stories go on and on. As freshman they got abused by the upperclassmen. As upperclassmen they abused the freshmen. That kind of shit didn’t happen at my school. But at maritime its “tradition” and “builds character.”

In subtle ways some maritime academies on the East Coast breed bullies. Then we wonder why many new officers (and some senior ones) abuse their unlicensed and other officers.

I see that shit year after year at sea.

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This is good guidance with regards to harassment and bullying:

The terms harassment and bullying are defined and examples given.

Bully_2

Harassment is a broader more general term while bullying is a specific form of harassment.

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I have to say that I am from KP and I spent 38 years on the Lakes and now do work with the Training Ship State of Michigan with GLMA. Since I knew of one or two other KP’ers working the Lakes and not with my outfit there is no ring knocker crap. Had plenty of Maine Engineers a few Mass and a couple from SUNY. When I started almost all were hawsepipers and now most are GLMA grads with the other schools thrown in. In the old days with big crews there were bullies of all stripes. And yes, the Steward’s Dept was often a mess but not rife with bullies mostly rumors. Nowadays with 1 man galleys and 18 or less in the crew bullys are fewer. However, having gone through the process of getting somebody off of the ship for cause is an exercise is total frustration. If they have a union then you have to jump through a host of hoops and you have to get people to put their names on a complaint. I had a cook who I had written up several times, I had counseled and I had jumped the hoops. I had the crew on board and it went into their meeting minutes, I had all the deck officers on board but I could not get 1 engineer, even the chief who would not eat in the galley or the 2nd or loudly griped everyday, to sign a petition because he was a union brother. What a crock. I finally shamed the Chief into at least contacting the hall and telling them I was not wrong. Bang, guy was gone, but I learned a lesson in human dynamics. Easy to say get rid of the bully but in practice a different story and this doesn’t include what you have to do to get the office pukes to do something they don’t want to deal with.

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The problem with this argument is the logic fails, the replacement is going to be a union brother (or sister) too.

The unlicensed deep-sea SIU contract general freightship contract I’m familiar with doesn’t require a petition. a couple statements from crew members would suffice.

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I have had the unfortunate task of terminating people in the past. As @Kennebec_Captain said above, I didn’t need a petition to show them the gangway.

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What few employees that needed to be shown the door, was not that hard to do. Office pukes did not hear from me very much. But when they did, it was actionable, with desired results.

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My experience has been the same. Maritime union members have no patience with members who reflect badly on us as a group. If the police and teacher’s unions, among a few others would adopt the same attitude it would help all unions. If you’re member of a union you are expected to adhere to certain standards. There is no room nor need to defend " a few bad apples."

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