SS7 Getting hammered on this Forum – Why?

[James McLauchlan]

This is the biggest ROV site that exists.
I write my opinion here, as most others do.

It seems that most people have negative experiences with SS7 and a negative opinion.

As previous mentioned, the Numnuts will not leave and for others it is a family replacement.

Eat shit, 1 000 000 flies can,t be wrong?

Something you wanted to say _the_Rat, or just biting the hand that feeds you.

There are plenty of other sources of good food out there, and often you are not expected to eat food brown stuff in the dark!

Broad (aka: flat-non sloping) shoulders are needed to survive in this game. If you don’t have them, then by all means mumble away in the background, but please, whatever you do, don’t voice your opinion out loud at any time in case it happens to upset those that throw scraps of food at you from time to time… along with a few skinny carrots of course.
Just keep quiet and be grateful!

[iROV]

This is the biggest ROV site that exists.
I write my opinion here, as most others do.

It seems that most people have negative experiences with SS7 and a negative opinion.

As previous mentioned, the Numnuts will not leave and for others it is a family replacement.

Eat shit, 1 000 000 flies can,t be wrong?

Something you wanted to say _the_Rat, or just biting the hand that feeds you.

There are plenty of other sources of good food out there, and often you are not expected to eat food brown stuff in the dark!

Broad (aka: flat-non sloping) shoulders are needed to survive in this game. If you don’t have them, then by all means mumble away in the background, but please, whatever you do, don’t voice your opinion out loud at any time in case it happens to upset those that throw scraps of food at you from time to time… along with a few skinny carrots of course.
Just keep quiet and be grateful!

Waving the rules now

[James McLauchlan]

Read between the lines. The comments were not aimed at you but were painting a generalised scenario.

[DJansen]

I agree that there are some nuggets employed by the company, but why is it that every agency guy that comes out claims to have 10+years experience on all sorts of systems, but can’t even figure out what blue roll is. This has nothing to do with company vs agency and supposed tea shack talks. Sorry but if you have that kind of experience you should be able to contribute to a team, the principles are the same on every system and sure there is a little bit of a learning curve, but where do we draw the line. I am patiently waiting for a good agency hand, we need them especially with the influx of cheaper labour where the language barrier has become quite evident. Please tell me where the good agency guys go cause maybe I will go also.

I know exactly what you saying.. My problem is in being an agency guy when I arrive on a new job where nobody knows me it seems to be assumed that I wil be a useless make-weight..Luckily it usually only take a shift or two for the guys onboard to realise their mistake.. Then one of two things happens.. Either..

1. They are glad to get a motivated experienced hand who can fly, fix and is quite happy to muck in with all the run of the mill jobs. I can Supv/Supt or I can be a Sub Eng.. Still happy to wash down, empty bins, make tea or replace the winch slip rings.. It’s all part of the job. I just want an easy going happy shift.. I don’t interfere with established routines but will suggest alternatives if I see an easier/better method. As I like to go from job to job I know I’m only there as a ‘fill in’ so I know usually it’s just better to go with the flow. If however I’m in charge I like to run the job in a way I know will be sucessful.. This then hopefully reflects on the whole team.

2. The guys on the job get the hump cos I suggest an alternative method or make their flying look ragged.. Or think I’m on higher dayrate than them. Worse the Supv has only been at it for three trips and is revelling in his new found authority but feeling kinda insecure.. He want’s to do everything the hard way and continues to invent pointless jobs to keep the guys ‘busy’. Unwilling to discuss any aspects of the job and acts as everything is ‘need to know’ He hogs the sticks and ends up with the more exp guys on his team cleaning up and making tea.. This just makes the team look bad as the guys aren’t being used to their full potential…

In fact many jobs I go on are a combination of the above.. Some guys accept you others dont’.. The one thing I do see often though is the inexperinced guys supervising meanwhile there are two ‘techs’ with years in the game doing the ‘kaffa’ work.. Why is that ? Don’t the companies want the exp guys in charge or would they ratehr prefer a ‘yes’ man who they can control ?

[DJansen]

"ozfifer"

There seems to be a high supply of supposed Supervisors that can’t tie their own shoes or even fill a pilot tech position. So needless to say I do not want to be painted with the same brush. I realise not every agency guy is a complete nugget but they must be few and very far between.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:59 pm

Why is it, one wonders, that there are so many posts/positions advertised for Supervisors in general?

Are they all shite?

Are people being advanced into the Peter Principle position?

Actually my theory is that companies just promote guys now rather than giving them a pay rise..

Ie.. the rates remain fixed and the guys move up the scale getting a change of title each year or so.. But they just receive exactly what a Supv was getting a year before.. This way the companies manage to hold the pay in stasis.. This then means you have a lot of guys with only 3-4 years in the game .. relatively little exp of a variety of jobs/subs/etc but in charge.. Worse the two guys with them will be a 2 year P/T and a trainee.. Not much of an ROV team IMHO…

[xxx]

Who know the secret to a good ROV team memeber. The supervisor has a lot to do with how the team performs and its motivation. I have been on jobs as a pilot tech (despite being a supervisor for 10 years) and been treated very badly by the sub eng acting supervisor, making the tea washing the floor, not allowed to fly etc and you are just demotivated and take the money and go home. About 6 months later this Sub eng was working for me and he was quite humble when he actual found out my experience and saw me operating. So I guess what we need is good supervisors who actually take time to find out the skills of the people the have.

Problem then is all the bull that some people tell you so perhaps you just can’t win.

As for SS7 I think the biggest problem is the office staff think people who work offshore are an inconvience that they just have to put up with and without them their job would be easier.

[Eddie Wok]

they do seem to forget that without us they wouldn’t have a job.

but atleast SS7 are getting smarter and realising they get absolute shite from agency so they may as well plunk a philipino in the seat that will contribute about the same amount to the team and only have to pay him 48 pounds a day. atleast the tea and biscuits keep coming. dont get me wrong they are nice lads and i am impressed with one, just hope he fights for equal pay.

[subman]

The problem is there all the main line companys are doing it sending out lots of trainees , Only a month back I got a phone call from a trainee I know on a boat over in the middle east asking for help on how to fix a Thruster problem on a Panther .
When asked why cant any of the guys on the boat fix it I was told no body knew how to .

In the end someone from the workshop came out to fix it and traced the problem to a duff bulkhead connector just a basic little problem ! Need I say any more .

Cheers

Subman

[James McLauchlan]

they do seem to forget that without us they wouldn’t have a job.

but atleast SS7 are getting smarter and realising they get absolute shite from agency so they may as well plunk a philipino in the seat that will contribute about the same amount to the team and only have to pay him 48 pounds a day.

How Naive. There is nothing smart about that at all and I amazed that you even think it OK for the practice of replacing people like yourself in this fashion to be allowed to happen on the same team as you!

The so called absolute shite supplied by agencies (that you refer to) is only down to the fault of the very company that you probably work for. It is your company that has accept the people as fit for the job not the agency, therefore the blame, on quality of personel supplied, falls squarely on the shoulders of your companies base HR staff.
So don’t look to blame anyone else other than your bosses for not vetting agency personnel correctly and being slap happy in sending out ‘absolute shite’ Plus also blame them for starting to replace you with people on GBP48.00/day…….. read on.

Imagine this… Your bosses select shite agency people for a while, this pisses all the good old company boys, like yourself, off and then they send out a few ultra keen Filipinos and you go wow! this is better.
Oh! no, I forgot, a company would never play that kind of dirty trick on their offshore family would they?

dont get me wrong they are nice lads and i am impressed with one, just hope he fights for equal pay.

With what you have written it is very easy to take you the wrong way. Have you thought of the bigger long term picture? Or are you just thinking that for now you are OK because you have a job and boy aren’t you glad that you are not trying to break into the industry by having to compete with somebody earning £48.00 a day!

Tell you what, you keep working with, and training, these guys and they will take your bjob over. Look around the boats and see how many UK deck hands and riggers have been replaced with foreign (aka cheaper) labour.
Now look at your team and remember that the foreign workers you are working with will one day certainly take your job!

Filipino people as a rule are pretty nice and easy to get along with, they often speak very good English. GBP48.00/day is good money for them at home!

You are living in cuckoo land of you think they are going to rock the boat to fight for equal pay and potentially lose a good paying job to another Filipino. It’s never going happen in your lifetime.

Please wise up now, on the job, and not at home when you will wonder where your job went!

[Mike Kidd]

SS7 have to be very carefull, they are lucky to have a loyal workforce and no they are not all numnuts who would not be able to work anywhere else, As the company has been in existance in its many forms since 19canteen they have a lot invested, what pisses me off is that the generation of I want it and I want now seem to be very loud on this forum, yes they do probably pay less, but when you factor in family health care, dental and pensions it may not be too bad. To some people money is not everything (sad I know) but this eroding of the skills of the guys by cheap replacement labour is a short sighted and will bite them on the arse, maybe not know but when they are into major downtime costs and loss of reputation within the industry.

ps this is my most serious post for ages

Yes I am a SS7 rov’er and also in the RMT

[quaich]

What flycatcher wrote is exactly how I feel.
I’ve worked for SS7 for many years and would say I was a "good ole company boy" and showed a lot of loyalty to them.
I haven’t been shafted yet (apart from the collective shafting we all get) but I see exactly what the company are capable of now and I don’t like it at all.
Theres many reasons people stay at SS7 and flycatcher has named a few already. I stay with them due to regular work in a safe enviroment and am still treated relatively well. Money isn’t everyhthing to me.
I know guys who have left and advise me to do the same as I wouldn’t regret it. That day is getting nearer. Yes I’m apprehensive but thats not due to lack of confidence in my own ability. It’s because I’ve worked for SS7 far too long and am well and truely in my comfort zone.
In my own experience SS7 aren’t that bad to work for however their going down the wrong road.
If someone who was as loyal as I was feels this way how must the guys who haven’t been their so long feel ?

As for agency hands. I’ve worked with some outstanding ones who bring a lot to the job both in abilty and ideas. These guys see a lot more than I do and not to tap into that experience is a huge mistake IMO.
The gobshites are usually easy to spot within a couple of shifts but even these guys can sometimes come up with solutions and ideas I may have overlooked. A good trainee is exactly the same.

[James McLauchlan]

Good to see some open SS7 responses.

I agree with your sentiment concerning loyalty to the company.
It can at times feel pretty good to work with people, systems and vessels you know very well.

When I was living in Penang, Malaysia, I myself worked for a company in Singapore (direct) for a few years. It was a happy ROV family, we had the comfort zone you speak of and life was good.

One day I was offshore, running a job, when I received a phone call from my wife who, at the time was offshore in the North Sea. Gina went on to say that she had heard through the grapevine (in the UK) that the company I was loyal to had cut a deal with Oceaneering to swap all their ROV assets for all Oceaneering’s diving assets.

When I queried the office about it, mentioning what I had just heard from my wife in the UK (of all sources), they simply said.. "Oh yeah, we were going to announce it soon!" What a let down!

So much for being loyal and allowing ourselves to feel that we were all part of tight knit group working together.

Needless to say OI were not on my list of desired employers so I buggered off and went down the Agency cable PLIB route for a few years and then back to O & G.

[thinsub]

I agree alot with what the other subsea 7 staffies are saying. There is a lot of discontent offshore now with the silly rates being paid for third world guys.

Subsea 7 rates for UK staffies are not that far behind other companies and the overall package is good and if you know when your crew changes are etc it is nice being a staffy.

I have dayrated and staffed with a few companies in my time and subsea 7 are now losing a lot of the loyalty that they have built up over the years. They have now got in some senior manageament from Siepem who are changing things for the worst at the expence of the solid loyalty of the staff members. Even the offshore managers are getting told to put up with the ride or get off the bus.

I know they have been hammering down the agency rates hence a lot of the bad feeling on this forum. However the staffies are also getting hit but a little less in the pocket for now.

We are all pissed, when you read their 2nd quater profits. In addition getting fed up with all the cuts when everything for the fat cats appears to be going up. All this about downturn, it just seems to be an excuse to destroy what was a good company for short term gain, with a long term who knows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Author]

Posts