“Can you update your Pisano?” “Meet me by the shell gate, deck 2 midship” “tell me”.

Aviation is full of acronyms and made up words. Shiplife? times that by about 100.

I was fortunate having grown up on the water as part of my parents business that I learned the difference between a boat and ship, port, starboard, aft, fwd, bow and stern.  What I didn't know was the alternate language that crew use to name or describe something.  For example, when I joined the ship I heard many crew members use the word “Pisano”.  They would use it in reference to confirming information, “please take this form to your Pisano” a crew member would say to another.

For my first 30 days on the ship I thought and believed that “Pisano” was a supervisor of some sort on the ship, I in fact believed that it was a position or rank onboard.  When I found out that “Pisano” meant “person from the same country as you” I felt, well, out of touch.  I was so confused… I now happily share this story with new hires as an example of what it is like to adjust to ship-life.  Although it is an Italian word, every nationality on the ship uses it.  

What are some other words/terms have I learned?

• “Tell me” - It is universal amongst crew when you call them that the start of the conversation almost always goes like the below.  The conversations are all so fast and efficient, “tell me” is the common way of saying “whats up?” or “what can I do for you?”.  
  

• ME - “Hi, it’s T&D Jeffrey”
• THEM “Hi! Tell me”

• I-95 - Down in the belly of the vessel, in the crew areas there is a massive corridor that on most ships runs straight from the bow of the vessel to the stern.  It is the “crew highway” that allow crew, supplies and equipment to move from one end of the ship to the next.  Most ships also have an I-94, a smaller corridor running in parallel.  When the ship is turning around between voyages the I-95 is very very busy and crew are asked to transit via I-94 to avoid congestion.

• Turn Around Day - This is the day between voyages, it is like a symphony, brain surgery and magic all rolled up together.  In one day (usually 8-12 hours) the ship arrives, disembarks thousands of guests, turns over all the state rooms, cleaning, sanitizing.  The ships garbage and recycling is offloaded and new provisions including food, beverages, glassware, and a number of other supplies are brought onboard.  This day is very busy for the ships HR team, it is all hands on deck as we prepare to receive the “sign-ons” and disembark the “sign-offs”.  Each turn around day there will be an influx of crew leaving and coming the number differs from ship to ship the largest ships in the fleet there can be up to 250 sign-ons, on my ship the average is closer to 40.  In this group up to 25% are new-hires whereas the rest are returning crew coming off vacation.  The HR team splits up to manage the process, I head out to the crew bus with the Crew Relations Specialist and we start to receive the sign-ons, verifying their documents, passports etc.  Clearing them through security, bringing them onto the ship and then running each person through their contract and sign-on paperwork.  Then we hand then to the medical team who verify their medicals and fitness for duty.  The day is not done there… We have to explain the training and process and then we greet them later in the day at the HR Centre to take their pictures and issue their crew ID’s. 

The dictionary is growing, I wonder how many words, terms that I will bring home with me…

• RING! RING!, RING! RING!! “Hello”
• “Hi! It’s Mom!”
• “Hi Mom! tell me…” 

Speak well, 

Jeff  

You wont find much information online that provides a full picture of what it is like to live and work on a ship, mine being a 90,000 ton floating city with 850 crew and 2200 guests.  

One of the first things I learned, or rather, came to know was that time means almost nothing on a ship.  What I mean is that the date is irrelevant, we count voyages, and voyage days.  So, Tuesday June _ or Saturday June _ are referred to as “Day 3” or “Day 5”.  The only reason I know that Friday has rolled around is that I lead the weekly Jewish Shabbat prayer service onboard, and if that wasn’t indicated in my calendar I would have no idea it even happened. 

Time, as far as hours go is also another factor.  7:00AM or 7:00PM mean nothing, the ship is always working.  Now, we take breaks and have rest time but the only part of the day that signifies to me that it is night time is 6:00PM.  Why? because that is the time I change into my formal evening uniform.  The amazing thing is that I could teach 3 classes, have 4 meetings and conduct 8 interviews and if you told me it was 9:00PM I would have no clue.  

Now, don't assume that we work all the time, because we don’t.  In fact, every crew member has strictly monitored and enforced rest and duty rules.  So we always are ensured 10 hours of rest every 24 hours.  The difference from a land or “shoreside” based position is the ship is humming and alive 24 hours a day.  We plan for this and schedule accordingly.  This is also another reason why the date doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is if it is Day 2 or 7. 

Meals are another interesting aspect.  The crew are offered 3 main meals a day, snacks are always available and then a late night hot meal is also available for those working night or off hour shifts.  Because the time doesn't matter you really have to pay attention to the clock so that you don’t accidentally work through a meal… 

Your cabin is determined based on your rank and role on the ship.  One of the things that I have come to love though is that, because crew cabins are generally on the lower decks of the ship is that I can hear the ocean running along the hull of the ship and that sound is the most amazing, therapeutic white noise I have ever experienced.  I may have to download this sound for when I return home for my vacation.  

A final fringe benefit of living and working on a ship is the commute.  I can walk out of my cabin and be at my office in less than 3 minutes, 6 if I stop by the coffee shop.  Gym? I can be there in 2 minutes.  This is huge, back home if I wanted to leave work to go to the gym I would need to carve 4 hours out of my day to do a 2 hour workout.  On the ship? 2.5 hours from working to gym to showered and back to work or off and relaxing.  

Live well,

Jeff

So, here I am.  Sitting in Seat 20A on my Lufthansa flight to Munich.  It is June 17th and after 3 months on the Serenade of the Seas I am “transferring” to another ship, the Grandeur of the Seas.  In a few days I will join the Grandeur to serve out 4 weeks before signing off at the end of July to start my 2.5 months of vacation.

I intended to be more active with blog posts, alas, here I am posting after all this time.  There are several reasons for the delay, namely;

 - Ship life was far busier than I ever imagined
 - Internet is a challenge 
 - I had/have no concept of time while on the ship

As I said in my previous post, I took a leave from my airline career to give a long time dream a try.  I accepted a role with the worlds leading cruise line to serve as Training & Development Manager onboard a ship.  What surprises many that I talk with is that cruise ships are so large now that they require a full human resources team onboard to provide full life cycle HR services.  My role as an educator is to provide learning, educational support, coaching and leadership development to more than 850 crew members. 

The role is a blend of corporate trainer/hr consultant/safety officer.  I would say that I spend about 30% of my time actively facilitating with the remaining time spent one-on-one with crew, onboard leadership or in meetings.  

One of the interesting elements that I have noticed about my role, is that the position of Training & Development Manager or “The T&D” as we say on this ship, is that it is a much beloved role by the entire crew.  The T&D is known as a safe person to talk to, a mentor, guide, moral compass.  This is a change from previous experience where the role of Training Manager could be perceived more as “enforcer”.  

My very first post on my blog was about how I explain my role to people, settling on “I teach”.  On the ship, when meeting and socializing with guests I have found that my answer to “and what do you do on the ship” I proudly respond with “I am the ships teacher”, a warm and wide smile generally appears on their faces as they discover that behind the scenes, crew support and crew welfare are on the top of the priority list for the organization.  

So, here I am, in 20A.  I will arrive in Munich, change planes and then jet across the atlantic to Washington DC where I join my next ship.  Although I will enjoy the day off in between I can’t wait to meet my next crew and see what I can do to help make their dreams come true.  

Keep learning, 

Jeff