Did anyone see the program last night on Health and Safety and why it has become a laughing stock/ gravy train/ obscene offspring of a noble parent.
Well BP Shipping represents that and then some with their policies - I hope some of the idiots in the office/ senior management took some notice. They probably didn't mind, but it would be nice if they remembered the phrase all over the original legislation - "Reasonable Practicality" - i.e. we can actually think for ourselves
(Cloud)
Satanic Mechanic,
You know as well as I do that anyone who would dare to speak out against such policies/people within that organisation are automatically labelled as the likes of a thought criminal/unhelpful/no team ethic etc etc.
One of the main reasons I got out.
They'd not long brought in the laughable concept that was ASA when I left, although I'm led to believe it's metamorphisised into something else now.
I remember looking through the form one day after we were told we *had* to do 2 a month, as one of the Indian ships had been submitting something incredible like 80 SLCO3's/month and many dozens of ASA's (none of them flogged I'm sure).
If I remember rightly there was a column in which you were to record the reaction/actual activity of the person you were interrogating, one of those ticky boxes was "dodging/hiding". Said it all really, what a crock of ****.
Things like the 'Stair Code', 'Door Code' and other nonsense like that really was the final straw - Bullsh*t baffles brains right enough.
I recall a safety moment down in Sunbury (on my only visit to the new office) for a 2 day brainwashing session (Seastaff Workshop). All the main men were there, including Uncle Bob and his Yank entourage plus of course his poodle (Dave W - a real creep). They asked for a safety moment before we started the meeting, and one of the lads at the back (whose Father is on this site) shouted out "Don't eat yellow snow!". Uncle Bob didn't quite get it but the rest were fuming, it was like being in a school classroom with the reaction. Hahaha.
I legged it shortly afterwards, life in the real world is so much more pleasant!
Arrgghh - Not the stair code - What was to turn out to be my last time in the office in Sunbury I went down the stairs two at a time while rotating not holding onto any hand rails and with a finger on each hand held aloft.
Don't forget the coffee code
What was most distressing is that people actually believed that this was safety and that were willing to accept be treated like this - they really had been shorn of all personal pride.
Dave W - of course famous for complaining in writing in an official report that he wasn't greeted onboard a certain vessel by the ships company dressed in full uniform - ****** of the highest order.
Bob F - yes I can also provide you with a copy of that report as well - I got a copy of a bp Oil Rig where they thought it most amusing
Chronic underinvestment by a particularly spineless super - who if memory serves was once seen running away out of Shields College with a certain Electrical Super when a colleague of mine took him to task on a number of issues. He then went crying to management about he had been made to look stupid in front of Junior Staff!!!!!
I'll think about the report - it just might be a bit traceable - if you get my drift!!!
Where I am now - I am about as happy as it is to be, of course I started off at near rock bottom happiness level so you could have put in my own special circle of Hell and it would have been an improvement, but despite that for the first time in about 6 years I am actually happy working again - with professionals and not self serving enthusiastic amateurs - Looking back I still wonder how I put up with that companies crap for so long and I wonder how there are those who still do
Plane Sailing,
You're amongst kindred spirits!
I know a few lads who are still with BP (most have left) and occasionally I get a look at the crewlists and I really struggle to recognise any of the names. I didn't know everyone by any stretch of the imagination, but at least those names you didn't know you'd generally heard of.
They reckoned that circa 2000 they had about 500 British Officers serving on 20 ships, now they've got about 3 times that number with 150 Brits and most of them new recruits. It just shows how things have changed.
Most of the lads I know still there are either just biding their time before moving onto pastures new or are just there because of the Mortgage.
When did you pack it in?
I left in 2001, very disillusioned with being lied to and generally treated like dirt. Took it personally for a while but then realised there were a lot of others in the same boat, if you'll pardon the pun. BP's loss at the end of the day.
I'm a great believer that people are a company's greatest asset and you abuse them at your peril.
Have to agree with you that many stay only because of the mortgage and certainly not out of any loyalty towards the company.
Well Plane Sailing,
You should be thankfull you got a lot more mileage out of your company than others did. It is all very sad that the deception lasted so long.
I joined the company( British Tanker Co. as it was then) in 1954 as an engineer apprentice and the nearest I got to OH&S was in 1956 on the British Gratitude. We had Fire drill once a fortnight and Lifeboat drill (weather permitting of course!!) on the alternate week. We were expected to be responsible for our own safety and that of others and the system seemed to work o.k.
I sympathise with you blokes who have had to put up with the official version of OH&S as I also have come up against shoreside here in Australia. Many jobs have been lost because of the massive expenditure spent on it without showing any positive gains. The only gains have been made by the OH&S "experts" who have read the book.
Took a voyage on a tanker in the mid-nineties (as a supernumery), after almost 30 yrs away from them.
Felt quite at home when I saw them taking ullages with a wooden float on a piece of knotted yarn. Some things don't change.
Anyway apart from that, about 4 hrs prior to sailing I was having morning tea with the Master, (who had retired but was there as a casual because they were short handed) when the agent arrived with about 6 fat volumes, about a yard wide in total, which were the operating and safety procedures as recently required by the ISM code.
The Master was supposed to familiarise himself with these before the voyage commenced, however, he told me to start reading them as he was too busy making up the menus. Some things do change!
I guess that wWhen you are multi-skilled there are conflicting priorities.
Cheers
Rod H
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