Discussion
I came through the service side 20 years ago and often worked between 260-300 days a year and was bloody grateful to be employed having experienced first hand what it's like to be made redundant. It's no secret that the oil industry has more than it's fair share of whingers who either play the safety card to avoid putting out, or complain who hard done by they are. These people need a reality check, the industry is on its arse and we need to be flexible to adapt, or die out like the dinosaurs some of you are!
Guffy said:
I came through the service side 20 years ago and often worked between 260-300 days a year and was bloody grateful to be employed having experienced first hand what it's like to be made redundant. It's no secret that the oil industry has more than it's fair share of whingers who either play the safety card to avoid putting out, or complain who hard done by they are. These people need a reality check, the industry is on its arse and we need to be flexible to adapt, or die out like the dinosaurs some of you are!
Am guessing casing or wellheads for that amount of offshore daysJust the typical offshore mentality though isn't it.
We have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
We have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
Se7enheaven said:
Just the typical offshore mentality though isn't it.
We have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
And home every night and weekends to do as I please We have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
Mike22233 said:
Se7enheaven said:
Just the typical offshore mentality though isn't it.
We have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
And home every night and weekends to do as I please We have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
Se7enheaven said:
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
Then there's the 104 weekend days.
Offshore worker on a 3/3 rotation = 182 days at 12hrs = 2184hrs
Onshore worker on a 9-5 with 30 days holiday = 231 days at 7.5hrs = 1732.5hrs
So an offshore worker at the very minimum works 26% more hours each year. That's not including the weather/flight delays, 182 days usually turns into 190 days.
Salary wise, an onshore worker on £50k a year (£28.86ph) earns more than an offshore worker on £60k a year (£27.47ph) in terms of hourly pay. (Break even point would be £50k onshore, £63k offshore)
A lot of offshore workers being forced onto equal time patterns are beginning to realise that the pay isn't much better and are quitting offshore life for positions back on the beach, the monotony of spending literally half of your life away from your family in the middle of nowhere for comparable onshore hourly pay is just not attractive anymore.
There's no real fix to be honest, there are 100 guys who will walk straight into your position if you kick up a fuss and the wages are being driven down by 'ethnic minorities' from poor countries. Saipem are currently recruiting for floorhands at 110 Euro per day, barely NMW in the UK. Eastern Europeans will no doubt jump into these positions.
Industry is buggered.
Edited by MitchyRS on Thursday 21st May 09:50
Se7enheaven said:
Just the typical offshore mentality though isn't it.
We have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
Se7enheavenWe have all seen it over the years, everyone feels they are being pumped by their employer, hard done by on their schedule, not enough salary , bonuses cut, multi tasking , having to travel further a field to work. Meanwhile being bogged down with more safety regulations and compliance, more pressure. No craic left in the job , blah , blah blah. The list goes on.
But you know what , that's life. The oil companies, operators, drilling contractors , service companies, are all there to make money. It's a business. And of course the price of oil commands this industry at source to make changes long before other related businesses .
You employer holds the cards as to what they will or will not do. And as usual we the employee have no say. This is a very unstable game and will never change. It will only get worse.
So IMO , if you don't like how it works and you have serious issues with time off , equal or otherwise , then it's time to find another career.
Try and go back to the 9 to 5 monotony and look forward to your 4 weeks holiday a year.
You're spot on if you don't like the rota's look elsewhere, I and several others I worked alongside have just packed in offshore due to shifting to a 3:3 rota.
I can't speak for the others, but I have never had a preferred rota(2:3 or2:2,2:4) but have always been 2:2. I never did a three weeker in over 30 years offshore, and you got premium rate for it then, so I certainly was not going to do it for straight time. Plus "her indoors" did not want me away for three weeks at a time.
I was up on a Shell platform in the East Shetland basin when we went on strike in 1990, it was certainly short term pain as I had mortgage(and not with the low interest rates people have now) and family commitments then, but the long term gain was well worth it as the wages and T's & C's improved rapidly, and surprise, surprise the official trade unions never backed the workforce, only the OILC.
I always remember a couple of guys I worked with in my earlier years offshore saying that they didn't realise how much that they hated offshore until they left. I finished officially on the 1st April and so far I can say that I agree 100% with what they said, I have no regrets leaving, money isn't everything, it's like a load of my mind as I was finding it harder and harder to go back each year. The changing rota's ,breaking pay deals and bludgeoning of T's & C's made my mind up for me.
MitchyRS said:
A week onshore is 5 days and the bare minimum legal entitlement is 28 days. The norm for most companies though is between 30-35 days. That's 6-7 weeks holiday a year, not 4 as you state.
Then there's the 104 weekend days.
Offshore worker on a 3/3 rotation = 182 days at 12hrs = 2184hrs
Onshore worker on a 9-5 with 30 days holiday = 231 days at 7.5hrs = 1732.5hrs
So an offshore worker at the very minimum works 26% more hours each year. That's not including the weather/flight delays, 182 days usually turns into 190 days.
Salary wise, an onshore worker on £50k a year (£28.86ph) earns more than an offshore worker on £60k a year (£27.47ph) in terms of hourly pay. (Break even point would be £50k onshore, £63k offshore)
A lot of offshore workers being forced onto equal time patterns are beginning to realise that the pay isn't much better and are quitting offshore life for positions back on the beach, the monotony of spending literally half of your life away from your family in the middle of nowhere for comparable onshore hourly pay is just not attractive anymore.
There's no real fix to be honest, there are 100 guys who will walk straight into your position if you kick up a fuss and the wages are being driven down by 'ethnic minorities' from poor countries. Saipem are currently recruiting for floorhands at 110 Euro per day, barely NMW in the UK. Eastern Europeans will no doubt jump into these positions.
Industry is buggered.
Some interesting maths however I'd say the reality is closer to the following:Then there's the 104 weekend days.
Offshore worker on a 3/3 rotation = 182 days at 12hrs = 2184hrs
Onshore worker on a 9-5 with 30 days holiday = 231 days at 7.5hrs = 1732.5hrs
So an offshore worker at the very minimum works 26% more hours each year. That's not including the weather/flight delays, 182 days usually turns into 190 days.
Salary wise, an onshore worker on £50k a year (£28.86ph) earns more than an offshore worker on £60k a year (£27.47ph) in terms of hourly pay. (Break even point would be £50k onshore, £63k offshore)
A lot of offshore workers being forced onto equal time patterns are beginning to realise that the pay isn't much better and are quitting offshore life for positions back on the beach, the monotony of spending literally half of your life away from your family in the middle of nowhere for comparable onshore hourly pay is just not attractive anymore.
There's no real fix to be honest, there are 100 guys who will walk straight into your position if you kick up a fuss and the wages are being driven down by 'ethnic minorities' from poor countries. Saipem are currently recruiting for floorhands at 110 Euro per day, barely NMW in the UK. Eastern Europeans will no doubt jump into these positions.
Industry is buggered.
Edited by MitchyRS on Thursday 21st May 09:50
Offshore worker on a 3/3 rotation = 182 days at 12hrs = 2184hrs
Onshore worker on a 9-5 with 30 days holiday = 231 days at 7.5hrs = 1732.5hrs + Travelling to work, 1hr a day? so you're up to 1,963.5hrs and people in a fairly senior role will work more than prescribed hours.
Let's be honest here, most offshore workers are sub 20% productive. I sat through a working together workshop with an operator recently who was down at 12% productivity. So of your 2184hrs, less than 300hrs of them a productive hours, the rest is spend waiting on permits and the like! Although on the flip side you could argue how productive some people are in the office...
I was out in Qatar earlier this year, and it was interesting to see the shift patterns on some of the drilling rigs.
Senior staff (with maybe 5 years or more experience) were on a 4/4 rota. However more junior staff (new start roustabouts etc.) were on a 6/2 rota.
Most of the catering and cleaning staff were from India or Sri Lanka and would spend long periods offshore. Some of the oil companies were ensuring that these staff had a field break (ie trip onshore) at least once every 3 months, but in the past it was not uncommon for people to spend a year or more offshore without coming back onshore.
Surprisingly, the enforced field breaks are unpopular amongst some of the offshore workers, as when they are offshore they have to pay for their own accommodation, food, laundry, medicines, utilities, TV etc, and this seriously cuts into the amount of money they can send back home to their families. They would far rather spend a year or two offshore without coming onshore! There was talk that many of these workers can get unwell during field extended field breaks of two weeks or more, as they tend to go for the cheapest options for accommodation (often sleeping on the floor, up to 10 to a room) and don't buy bottled water for drinking etc.
Senior staff (with maybe 5 years or more experience) were on a 4/4 rota. However more junior staff (new start roustabouts etc.) were on a 6/2 rota.
Most of the catering and cleaning staff were from India or Sri Lanka and would spend long periods offshore. Some of the oil companies were ensuring that these staff had a field break (ie trip onshore) at least once every 3 months, but in the past it was not uncommon for people to spend a year or more offshore without coming back onshore.
Surprisingly, the enforced field breaks are unpopular amongst some of the offshore workers, as when they are offshore they have to pay for their own accommodation, food, laundry, medicines, utilities, TV etc, and this seriously cuts into the amount of money they can send back home to their families. They would far rather spend a year or two offshore without coming onshore! There was talk that many of these workers can get unwell during field extended field breaks of two weeks or more, as they tend to go for the cheapest options for accommodation (often sleeping on the floor, up to 10 to a room) and don't buy bottled water for drinking etc.
I was in Qatar Jan/Feb and found exactly this too John - terrible for the Sri Lankans - nice people too.
Currently on the Judy and ConocoPhillips and all core crew have just been told they're moving to 2/2 with one trip per year off as a holiday, so giving a 6 week stint at home. A few glum faces, but not bad i'd say!!!
Currently on the Judy and ConocoPhillips and all core crew have just been told they're moving to 2/2 with one trip per year off as a holiday, so giving a 6 week stint at home. A few glum faces, but not bad i'd say!!!
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