FAULT FINDING CULTURE

Entry log : December 04, 2017 Monday

Location : Ras Laffan Qatar

A few more days and I will be going now for a month here., and the ship has now berthed to Rass Raffan Qatar after almost a two week long travel.  Mooring wasn't that complicated, this LNG ship uses Rope for the mooring and all of them are dedicated for headline , breast line and spring lines. Absolutely no loose ropes for the mooring ops. The mooring is so easy even for liquid tanker standards.

Currently I'm assigned for the gangway and was surprised that handling it was more complicated than I thought it would be.

First off people have are obsessed on details even down to the minute. I can't imagine that (Filipino) crew here pressures to remember even names of the person who visited the ship and on top of that I have to even memorize how many tags are there currently on the ISPS box. ( Which is 15 visitor tags, and another 15 contractor tags). People here are so exaggeratedly on almost everything and if even I miss a small detail, I have to go the trouble of arguing and even explaining it - plus to make it more complicated is the fact that my fellow crew men here have a nasty habit of finding out whose fault it was and blaming it to other people rather than solving the problem head on. Such example was early morning when I immediately greeted with scolding by A.B. Patel, over a small lapse on visitors tags. And it only takes 3 tags for that fucker to be fired up like i made a mortal sin in writing it mistakenly on the Visitors log. It's no big deal for me but for them it's like someday is going to end the world.

Another thing that happened is the 3cm errors I made in reading the ships alignment on the shore side ., The officer's freaked out on my reading and even some of co-workers during the ship that they had to frequently lecture me about it . Unbelievable !!! It's just 3 cm and a person's thumb is even bigger than that gap measurement and yet they react that it's as big as a whale.

Anyway it's easier for them to blame the fault on other people , just to save their own skin from being fired. After all the System here doesn't tolerate even the smallest mistake and its takes only that to be fired instantly without fair judgment. Workers here work because of fear , not for money or for a comfortable environment, but because they're scared of being fired and it’s a very poor motivation.  

I'm ashamed that my fellow Filipino sailors here have degenerated so low. Rather than making a positive and welcoming environment for new crew , they end up dumping their own work problems to the new guys. Plus taking advantage of it. Such an unnatural perfectionist people ! Really pathetic ! And I'm not surprised that most of their younger crew fled out on this company because of this kind of working environment. Their work ethics and work practices are like the seafarers of the old ., Its amazing that despite the modernist of today's era in seafaring like the millennia's generation (and entire generation of seafarers that are exposed to social media etc.) ., there still exist a dark spot and it is UPL - Shell / Nakilat . 

NEAR DISCLOSURE

Entry log : December 02, 2017 Saturday

Location : Enroute to Qatar

"I advise anyone reading this that United Philippines Lines (UPL) / Shell - Nakilat principal to stay away from this company as much as possible because of Overly Exaggerated Oversafety Issues and Extremely uncomfortable to work. Any Seafarer Violating their rules will be subjected to Summary being fired from the Job without hearing their side even on petty offenses." 

Another much to my annoyance on Shell / Nakilat Rules. According to them even slightly tampering or any small slicing the coverall is prohibited - In other words I can't wear them and its "unsafe". Even if the slice on the coverall is 5cm on the side pockets and I do it because I need to let the air in on my coveralls for ventilation especially on this kind of weather. (qatar area)

The problem with Shell / Nakilat is their "Over safety" issue , which is feeding more on their problems than solving it. Given with their "Over safety" rule it even affects their flexibility work tactics severely, to the point that working on their ships is extremely comfortable despite being modern and advance. Their mentality and way of think is so backward that its already considered unfit and unsafety on the modern day seafaring. Any person violating their dogmatic oppressive "over safety" rules will be subjected to being report on the principal (employer) and face summary dismissal (fired from work) immediately and without due process.

Funny , Its never occurred to me (or even though) that they system here is still the  old seafaring ways. Despite having MLC / ILO implementation worldwide, UPL / Shell - Nakilat still remains on backward and left out on the modern world. Their old ways still get to fire people on the job without due process on petty offenses or  because they simply didn’t like the person.  

The Filipino crew here are no different from any typical old generation seafarer's I've encountered long ago  . ARROGANT , COCKY AND IGNORANT as usual.

In other news ….

This ship had recently a safety meeting at the recreation room , nothing special and just the normal talk and stuff until the newly arrived electrician mentioned something about some crew who were not in "proper" safety gear in the pilot access (not wearing safety harness and life vest) . Considering that this is shell / nakilat principal which they have a super exaggerated over policy issues  , It is a big deal for them and considered a grave offense ( enough to be fired ). The electrician is exactly pointing out the details about the pilot access area in which me and A.B. Ronnie were attending at during that moment.

Of course I kept silent given that this new electrician cannot positively identify me  after all I was wearing a bonnet and on top of that most new joiner's will cannot facially recognize crew until after a few days .

Whatever the situation maybe , its certain that it will brew trouble.

RECEIVING FLAK

Entry log : November 29, 2017 Wednesday

Location : Enroute to Qatar

Disappointments have put me off lately., not with work (well most of it) but to some of my so called "friends" on the social media., Recently I had been posting a lot of negative stuff about my employer UPL Shell / Nakilat and as a result two of my former friends (that what I call them now) has said to me that I should keep my mouth shut because I deserve it and I signed the contract willingly, and have just ignore it or deal with it. Another one also said (an Oiler) that there nothing much I can do about it.

WHAT THE FUCK ?!!!!! Do they even know how difficult it is to work with so many restriction ?! Easy for them to say because they never have been on a tight ass security all their seafaring lives' and they perfectly live on their very own happiness bubble. I'm disappointed on them that they could have been at least sympathetic on this rather than immediately side with Companies., They should have at least put themselves on my shoes. - Totally frustrating that there are people like that, a bunch of cowards and company loving folks.

Anyway were Filipino's seafarer's , it's pretty much normal / typical for a Filipino sailor to be a company booth licker - probably on the fact that most of them are a bunch of cowards when they're already questioning the policies of any shipping companies. The Seafaring world of Filipino's is not exactly democratic even on the social media , almost everything is always suppress., here almost everything is free to criticize except "shipping companies" - which some even consider above the law.

Anyway I don’t want to continue to write about those former unsympathetic friends of mine , I'd just simply drop them off on my friends list and that will be the end of it .

In other news …..

Recently during the tool box meeting this morning , it was a discussion about whether the "Riding Party" this ship has (which includes me) will be used for mooring operations and during cargo ops as well. Based on the latest decision made by the captain .,  The "Riding party" (maintenance party) will not be used during that and only regular crew will be on the mooring. As for the Cargo Operations (ship in port) it is still not yet settled but is rumored that "Riding party" will only do the usual day work maintenance stuff.

Guess it means that as a riding crew I'm permanently stuck being on day work which suit's me fine if not best. I have less things to worry about and besides ., I'm not enjoying my work here as well because of too many restrictions. It's just suffocating for me and from my initial analysis the working environment here is too "rigid" and intolerant for me to professionally grow - resulting for me to lose interest in even pursuing to settle here. I'm not even expecting that my evaluation reports (or grades here) will be that high for re-employment., and I won't bother if that is the case, I just want to finish my contract and have no incidents and be back on the road again to find another suitable company . UPL - Shell / Nakilat is not worth the effort, plain and simple. A Company of tight asses !!!

So most likely I'd be doing chipping rust , polishing metal surfaces and painting plus occasional random maintenance work for the rest of six months. Nothing fancy and nothing labor intensive, the only real challenge will be most likely the rumored "Dry Docking" of this ship which will be labor work intensive.

Another rumor I heard on the treadmill was there's a possibility of a "Riding crew" rotation for the O.S. when it comes to watch keeping. Anyway it's still being considered from what I heard , so it's not confirmed yet. What I do know is that O.S. Hesus Pamorada will be swapping roles on deck watchkeep to O.S. "Jerson" by beginning December. Maybe for these two O.S. will be swapping roles on the best of my knowledge, but on my case I think I'm staying as O.S. for the maintenance and don’t mind staying there for a very good reason.

Why the hell would I be working on the job description that is for an A.B. . As far as I know , UPL - Shell / Nakilat is just short changing people on salaries. Imagine I'm doing a job that is an A.B. Unofficially and yet my salary is base as an O.S. plus on top of that I'm officially an O.S. by papers and contract. My salary is just 1129 U.S. here and I will be forced to do work as an A.B. Compared to back when I was with Career NSB where I'm paid higher (1400 U.S.D.) as an O.S. and don’t even have to do a job as an A.B. . As far as I'm concerned UPL - Shell / Nakilat is just paying me short. If they want me to be interested they should paid me a little bit more for my efforts , otherwise I'd just think that they're just scamming me and cheating on the crew -

(problem with an elderly Filipino sailors is that mostly they swindle on work and deceit their fellow younger sailors , like for example your being paid as an O.S. and yet doing work as an A.B. . The A.B. gets to do almost nothing and yet be paid regular as an A.B. , while the O.S. gets to be forced to do his work because of deception and be only paid in salary scale as an O.S. and not as an A.B. )    

   

WORK ROUTINE IN SHELL

Entry log : November 28, 2017 Tuesday

Location : Enroute to Qatar

Work Schedule and practices here in this (and probably in Whole shell management) is in polite term , to be "demanding and difficult" even for a liquid tanker crew myself. Practically all days here are "Mondays" - which meant for me to be working Sundays till Saturdays, and to add weekdays have extended working hours which is starts 7:30 am and ends at 6:00 pm. On Saturdays it’s the 7:30 am till 5:00pm which is very much the same as weekdays and on Sunday's it half a day work (7.30 am to 12 noon).

I am still up to now adjusting to this kind of Work practices, Its surprising that this LNG ship has this kind of demanding work schedule , even though work here is quiet light for liquid tanker standards. Anyway there isn't much to expect , and it's only natural to assume that work here will be demanding given that the principal is the infamous Shell.

Frankly i don't really mind on the work schedule, and liquid tankers do have these  kinds of situation every now and then but the part that tick me off was the company policy here that forbids use of any tools that a crew brought along for work. To simply say all the stuff that I had on luggage , is unusable (that means my work belt and everything in it). According to them any use of "unofficial" equipment is deemed "unsafe"

When I found out I immediately lost interest in working with UPL - Shell / Nakilat and in general even staying to the company because of the so many rules / and       so many prohibition that I find it, too inconvenient and uncomfortable to work. It's just hard to professionally grow on this kind of company with so many Do's and Don'ts . Too much trouble for the effort and it better take my chances on other companies than this .

Another thing that annoys me on their work practices is this so called "P.I" system (which is called positive intervention)which is an anonymous reporting system. May sound cool , but for a typical seaman's point of view - it's nothing more than just a basic crackdown on crew like a secret police. Anyone who gets reported on the P.I. system gets punished heavily and worse summarily dismissed (sent home / fired ) because of questionable "unsafe" working practices. You don’t know basically who will play Judas on any of your crew members and betray you and a helpless crew member won't know until he gets tagged by the P.I. system. If someone is just simply unhappy on how you work , they simply file a "P.I" and find dirt on your work and tag it as "unsafe" working practice and that's the end of it.  

The scariest part of it is that its company sponsored and they encourage crew members to report often on P.I. system and they will give a reward of a bunch of chocolate bars to the person who reported it. In fact the main fleet of shell requires their crew to have a P.I. , Honestly they may be professionally right to practice this to maintain "safety standards" , but if a normal person would analyze if this is morally and ethically right ? It's definitely a big NO . It's not good to pay Judas and betray people and never is , in fact the word betrayal is dismaying as well and do Shell people even think that a person's conscience and ethical moral standards is just worth a few candy bars ??? That's totally sick !!! Its barbaric and draconian , in every sense of it .

Yes it’s a good practice to punish the guilty by the P.I. system , But how about the people who are just simply being bullied or just simply being harassed ? Do they even bother to investigate P.I. reports or even analyze if the P.I. reports were justifiable ? Do they even hear the side of the crew member accused ? , obviously they don't and people get fired on the jobs for petty reasons , because of their obsessive quest, called  "safe" practices. It’s a perfectionist system that makes the work place uncomfortable.

Of course Shell crew never speak about this ., especially Filipino sailors because they're afraid of losing their jobs and be "black listed" . If this was a law enforcement system , I would say that it is unfair and unjust and not fit for the modern world . However since this is the seafaring , where there is no true sense of justice like in land , companies and people can get away with this.

I'm glad that my contract here is just only six months , and I can freely publish this blog after that without any restrictions.

LIFE UNDER RESPRESSION

Entry log : November 24, 2017 Friday

Location : Enroute to Qatar (bunkering)

A lot of people say that being in Shell company is such a big privilege, good opportunities , stable employment and that people who join that company will most likely stay for the long term. Now that I'm here in this company , I beg to disagree on those statements - maybe its positive if I was a land base employee but if a sailor, It more horror and a nightmare for me.  It too much repressive and subjugation - too many rules , and Don'ts, professionally it's not good for me and I won't professionally grow on that kind of environment.

For now the ship is in Singapore for bunker (refuel) on the day of arrival I was told to be on stand by and await further announcements by the phone at 3pm. As expected the rang two hours earlier and asked me to assist the riding A.B. in rigging the pilot access (this is not present in Liquid tankers). As usual this "Riding A.B." crew keeps bragging that Liquid tankers don’t have these because they lack "safety" . I'm not exactly sure if "A.B." riding crew here is arrogant or ignorant on his statement , I myself used to work from a liquid tanker and safety was never an issue there and we have our own set of safety standards rules. In any case at least liquid tankers are not overkill when it comes to safety compared to UPL Shell / Nakilat were they exaggerate things to the point that they have paranoia.

The pilot boarded a few minutes later, and after that I told by bosun to wait again. Which I did for another hour and received a call . When I got out everyone is already busy doing something on the provisions while I was assigned on the task in the garbage disposal. Work was semi-finished at around 10.30pm I was told by Bosun to rest and wait to 10.30 am

I took a shower and after that immediately the phone ring again and said. I should hurry and go to the manifold area starboard side. Outside I was greeted  instantly to head to the pilot access to escort two crew men from a nearby barge. Inside I was asked by the A.B. on why I wasn’t responding on the phone cabin, I told him that in ever heard the phone cabin ring and if it did I couldn’t hear it on the fact that I was in the bathroom taking a bath . He lashed out saying "In shell, this is what we do things, even if you're in the middle of something - you have to respond immediately, that includes if you're shitting". To avoid trouble I just kept silent and listen to his ramble , but I was definitely ticked off on what he said. Easy for him to say that because I bet he was never on that kind of situation.

Lucky for me I'm not staying in UPL - Shell / Nakilat. This is my first and last contract with them.

FIREWORKS

Entry log : November 22, 2017 Wednesday

Location : Enroute to Singapore

Due to work politics / policies here onboard, my "Side arm tool" is prohibited from being used. This setback adds more on my discomfort in working with UPL - Shell / Nakilat, on the fact that I had been using that equipment since I time and memoria when I became a seafarer few years back (since I was deck cadet way back 2010). Now that equipment will just on the corner of my cabin collecting dust for the rest of my contract - all because of tougher exaggerated "safety policies" here.  For now I'm stuck and left only with my wits on working here.

On this unfortunate events, I am now conducting research on some spy / stealth gadget equipment's which make me be able to use a small compact version of my tools and at the same time maintain concealment. I haven't thought of any suitable gear yet but its certain that I'd invest my time and effort in building one.

Latest news that came in is that there is an incident in the morning involving the Bosun and the "Algerian" Chiefmate. They had a big argument on the tool box meeting in the morning and even resulted to the bosun calling in the captain in order to resolve the dispute. Their argument was huge and I could only just stood silently and be amaze on how the exchange heated words,

Apparently based on the what I heard in the argument, the chief mate is complaining that the last time he visited the workplace he couldn't see people around and hinted that some crew might had took off and hid from work. Of course this has led to a heated misunderstanding as Bosun tells him that nobody ditched work and everybody was busy doing their job. The scene was spectacular seeing these two argue and when the captain came they were still arguing.   

In reality the Algerian chief mate's accusation was not baseless, Although almost all of the deck crew maybe off doing work , but on my case I was already inside my cabin hiding at around 5.30pm. It's not that I did it willingly , I didn’t saw any people around 5.15 to 5.20 pm so I mistook that they were already inside and went on the accommodation and then hid on the toiler area in the cabin until 5.55pm , I never went outside my cabin until 6.15pm just to make sure that nobody notices me. It was a blessing that this ship was huge that it's hard to keep track of people and took advantage of that situation.

It was already 6.15 and I was going down to the crew mess, then Admin officer "Fao" saw and called me ., he said that I should tell the Bosun to repairs the hinges on the locker room, because he can't sleep on the banging sound every time it opens and threaten that if I don’t he will closet the locker room and prevent access on it . (in other words I can use my standard working equipment). Admin ofiicer "Fao" was being an asshole and total dick just because of a minor issue. 

TRIP HAZARD

Entry log : November 21, 2017 Tuesday

Location : Enroute to Singapore

According to paper. Shell / Nakilat (along with UPL) has been bragging about safety culture shit and modernity when it comes to equipment and such. True ! They do have the most modern facilities and advance equipment I had seen so far. So advance that even normal liquid Tanker crews would drool over it. However despite their modernity. Working on UPL Shell / Nakilat is never comfortable and never enjoying - oh no , far from it.

Has people have heard of a term called "Over safety" ? . Few people in the maritime industry mention this and even on my part , I had only heard of this during my college years. To summary "over safety" is a term used when too much  safety equipment is put on that its already considered impractical and unsafe.

Recently I was assigned to the usual deck maintenance , which is usual chipping rust , polishing the area and painting it. Based on my experience here, it was a chore and troublesome doing the same job here compared to that in a liquid tanker. Here an ordinary task gets overly complicated because of too much safety equipment - ( that its more becoming of a hazard than a protection ) . It's so over safety that its already ridiculous. This is an example

POLISHING CHIPPED RUST AREA's

I have to wear the basic PPE, then on my helmet I have to attach a Visor and inside the visor I have to wear goggles. On my body aside from coveralls I have to wear a safety harness along with an leather apron and gloves. Bottom line I looked more of like a bomb disposal unit from the explosive ordinance division of SWAT

I'm forced to wore this too much safety equipment that I have a hard time moving and seeing visually. Aside from that the leather apron is a trip hazard when climbing  up pipes, not to mention I can't see well resulting to me having a lot of trouble accomplishing my work. Another thing that annoys me is that they overcomplicate things, aside from the annoyance of difficulty on movement - I have to be reminded that I should adjust my "safety Harness" every now and then, If I forgot to adjust some of my crew mates (or even ship officers) would zoom in and say to me that I should adjust my harness every few minutes or so, and super annoyance.

REVIEWING THE DARK SIDE

Entry log : November 17, 2017 Friday

Location : Enroute to Singapore

How is day to day life onboard an LNG tanker for me ? First and foremost , not all in UPL-Shell that they advertise are true. The reality is that it's just half as packaged and not really worth the effort to join their fleet. It didn’t surprise me to find out that something was indeed going on and I got good reasons to be suspicious, thankfully I have a natural talent of being one.

On my previous blog entry I have already establish that my theory was right and the truth behind why are they mass hiring O.S. ratings.

And here are some negative aspects I had noticed in just a few days' time, although the Filipino crew here are helpful on their fellow Filipino's (and I am thankful enough that they did) ., They're helpfulness are somewhat restrained as if something is wrong - and one thing I had notice is that they are afraid of something - something big which I suspect they are afraid of ship officers here. Here is some debatable facts.

Every time i turn the wheel of the fire hydrant, A.B. "art" is uneasy and scared over it.  Mumbling always about breaking the fire hydrant drill and point id be in big trouble if I break it. In a liquid tanker this may seemed harmless because we occasionally suffer equipment breakdown every now and then (especially on my previous ship and that's the reason why we're doing maintenance. If it breaks then just simply call Pump man and he'd fix it up.). I was puzzled why A.B. "Art" reacts like that as if like it’s a big deal and mortal sin if I break something.

Anyway the only logical reason I could think of , is that Filipino crew here are somewhat afraid of ship officers - and no matters how much they say that ratings here have their own voice. From my perspective it doesn’t look that way here and that things here are still backward - like in the old days. It was dismaying that the world has moved on and there is MLC and ILO , and yet here in UPL Shell / Nakilat principal  things here are still what it used to - way back in the 90's . Even other long time crew members are somewhat like this in some way and that they still think ship officers here still have the power of "life and death" were they can terminate a person's employment., even to the extent that even a simple and minor argument with any ship officer could be professionally deadly. (nowadays this practice has been banned thanks to MLC / ILO)
 

For now I will still write about what I had experience on work. What I can comment is that Filipino deck ratings here are unusually terrified when it comes to  Ship officers and terrified on the management as well. I am still establishing the link in why this is the situation.

  

POST WITHELD FOR THE TIME BEING (UNTIL MAY 2018)

Due to the sensitivity of information of my blog post, I will with held my blog post for the time being until May 2018.,

Obviously not all people / Philippine manning companies will like my post but i don't give a shit about them,  ... and to avoid any further trouble like what happened to my previous employer (CF Sharp / Norstar Ship Management) were they had to violate privacy just to get information against me and hunt me down, i will postpone all my blog post for 5 months . Just to be on the safe side

PARADISE LOST

LOG ENTRY NOVEMBER 16, 2017 Thursday

Location: Incheon, South Korea

After the long hurdle I went thru just to be here, I am now having second doubts about staying here on this company on a long term basis. As much as the demonstration of generosity shown while I was back in the Philippines., there is a grim reality and a "Dark side" on the UPL - Shell company and it only gets revealed on the last minute (or first few minutes onboard). I'd start first on my situation

I was right on my earlier suspicion (or theory) during induction seminar in the philipppines. Turns out The main reason why UPL Shell was "mass hiring" Ordinary Seaman position was the fact that most existing O.S. personnel they have already left on numerous reasons - ranging from work related thermal stress (due to the fact that the company is operating middle east to Asia) , down to certain weird strict policies imposed, some of which are very ridiculous and only being said for the ruse of "safety". If any by chance an unsuspecting sailor get caught up unintentionally ., there is a possibility that the sailor will be fired from the job over a minor and trivial reason. Bottom line there is no such thing as job security over exaggerated strict "safety" policies. Despite they advertise (or I am told) that ratings here have more democratic say when it comes to work, It always comes down to their rule "if you have a problem with our safety (exaggerated) practices, then you should find another company to work with" . Meaning it's not exactly a democratic process

So as a result on the exodus of their ratings was mass, so huge that they were hiring folks on that are almost utterly under qualified or even not qualified at all.

On my situation., there was a significant misinformation being told on new hires like me. I was never told that I was signing up on a "maintenance riding crew" and what even appears on my contract was a regular Ordinary Seaman position. Absolutely no one told me what I was exactly doing and only found out a few minutes went I stepped here on this ship.

Now that I'm a riding crew , its means that I'm currently a temporary crew member doing a specific difficult task which means , as I found out that id be actively here until "Dry docking" of this ship is finished. Whatever the case the whole plot is reveal why I was hired here. The only good or positive part about UPL-Shell is that the contracts are short which is relatively six months and if by chance I encounter any problems whatsoever - it will be very easy to correct and remedy with.

Also just to add, situation here is not as "full package" as advertised or in some case misleading. Supplies here are not apparently plentiful as what they mentioned during induction., what I saw first is that the menu and food supplies are no different from any tankers I had been previous with , be it chemical , product or this a gas tanker.

In regards to working culture here , the culture is not as lenient as what I experienced on before. Working schedules here are very long, as matter of fact almost every day here is a working day. Weekdays work here starts as early as 7.25 am (for the tool box meeting) and goes as far as 6pm based on what I heard. On weekdays , there is still work being conducted - Saturdays work is 8am to 5pm , while on Sundays is considered half day work. I should take note that this is the moment working schedule and will most likely be a lot worst (and hectic) as dry dock arrives by February or march.

Onboard internet here in Shell / Nakilat is somewhat limited and has only a cap of 4GB and an allowance of 2GB per two weeks. Although its quiet big even to be noticed ., it doesn’t mean that it allows access all the time the only fair treatment here is that at least it's free.

So overall to end my entry ., I have solved the riddle on why UPL-Shell is mass hiring Ordinary Seaman positions. They're were not hiring because they bought new ships , and they were hiring on the fact that most existing O.S. they have left.  So it proves my theory that they were mass hiring because they were mass firing on the other side., and I assume that they are fire people and use the scape goat excuse of "failing" safety policies