Superintendent role

[piedpiper]

does anybody know what a superintendents role really is ? On the last boat I was on the role seemed to involve upsetting the troops, sitting on your arse supping coffee with the skipper, and a complete inability to operate the sub. I havn’t had much experience of them before so wondered if this is the norm.

piedpiper

[Ray Shields]

That sounds about right…

Tho a Superintendent in the proper sense of the word is supposedly there to co-ordinate larger jobs, leaving the Supervisor to run his particular ROV system. Normally it would be a multi ROV job or a job which involves co-ordinating various teams (rov, survey, other contractors) and liasing with the Client. Offshore Vessel Manager is another title for the same job.

In reality the title Superintendent varies from company to company. Some do the above job (or are supposed to ), others are basically Senior Supervisors or Supervisors who have been with the company for a long time so in order to keep them you have to pay them more thus have to callthem somethimng else.

Theres also the well known saying of "you are always promoted one level abouve your incompetence". In theory the Superintendent should be able to fly and fix the ROV as he would have progressed up from Trainee though PT, Sub Eng and Supervisor. In reality…

[Scott Beveridge]

Ray,

To be fair, I’d say there’s a 50-50 % balance of Supt. who are worthy of the title.

[piedpiper]

I guess my experience was about normal then !

looks like I posted this in the wrong section aswell……..nevermind.

piedpiper

[James McLauchlan]

I guess my experience was about normal then !

looks like I posted this in the wrong section aswell……..nevermind.

piedpiper

I guess not as it was a Rookie type question 😉 ….. or failing that it could have been added to the jokes section.

[luckyjim37]

Of course there are a growing number of people who claim the title of superintendant who should in reality only be a tech but then that is just my opinion.

I think though if the guys on deck at rookie level do not know what the job of each level within the team is then the training within that firm is lacking.

[James McLauchlan]

I think though if the guys on deck at rookie level do not know what the job of each level within the team is then the training within that firm is lacking.

Fair comment.

[rigwash]

The title Superintendant and Talking ballast, are usually interchangeable

[Ray Shields]

Of course there are a growing number of people who claim the title of superintendant who should in reality only be a tech but then that is just my opinion.

You’re kidding! Would you let half the Stupidnintendos you’ve met actually work on a sub? And expect it to work again? Even Tech would be too high a grade 😀

[ROV_VALLEY_COMMANDO]

Ray, I presume your comments are based on people you have worked with at Fugro seen as that is where you have spent most of your ROV career? Unitil you work for one of the major players (and Fugro is not one of them) where you have 3 or 4 and even 5 in some cases ROV systems on a large construction vessel/barge you shouldn’t tar all superintedents with the same brush (and no i’m not one) some may not be the best pilots or techs but they have other skills like coordinating operations, paperwork, keeping the OCM/client happy when things are going wrong talking the talk as they say, going to three or four meetings a day, risk assesments, HIRA’s and all the other shite that the other crew members cant be arsed doing, whilst getting it in the neck because some underskilled twat of a trainee/tech thinks he is the best pilot out there and gets wrapped round a structure 6 times and f***ks the sub and it’s only been 5 mins!
I agree if you only have 1 system onboard there is no need for a superintendent but 2 or more it generally makes life a lot easier for the supervisors.

[HelpMaBoab]

Rov Valley Commando,

Well said! With real companies you don’t see Supt’s on drill support jobs, unless that is either it is to up man and there is nobody else available and his days req making up, trouble shoot if there has been problems, or more than likely shoved out of harms way, Oceaneering incidently has 2 Supt grades…Mind you most of their supts are on 3 man Bed support jobs.
After being involved with ROV’s since 1981, I have to be honest I am quite happy as a shift supv, as the crap a construction vessel supt has to put up with is unbelievable, 18hr days the norm and the whinging from our own guys, greetin’ from the reps, HSE bollox etc.
Carry on guys, your welcome to the extra few pounds a day…

[Andy Shiers]

I know of quite a few Supervisors who are adept at being superintendants On a major contract where you need to deal with all the departments , i.e Survey , Ships crew , Client , Crew changes -orifice , safety meetings , Paperwork , Paperwork , Orifice – Projects managers , More paperwork , Day to Day operations , More paperwork.
It’s just common sense to ‘av ’em 🙂
The superintendants don’t necessarily have to be good at fixing or flying , Just have to be good at diplomacy and paperwork 😯

[luckyjim37]

Could not agree more with Lostboy. The problem was highlighted earlier when you have superintendants (or those people who claim to be) basically being glorified supervisors.

What concerned me is that this thread was started by someone working offshore who was unsure of the roles and responsibilities of the top person involved with the ROV on a day to day basis.

Surely everyone should be given that kind of information or at least have it available so that everyone knows where the lie on the ROV ladder.

And more importantly you then know who to blame when it all goes wrong. Although it is not about blame its about accountability these days!!!!!

[Andy Shiers]

Too right Luckyjim37 🙂
Shit will always inevitably find gravity and end up in the pilots’ lap 😀

[Ray Shields]

Ray, I presume your comments are based on people you have worked with at Fugro seen as that is where you have spent most of your ROV career? Unitil you work for one of the major players (and Fugro is not one of them) where you have 3 or 4 and even 5 in some cases ROV systems on a large construction vessel/barge you shouldn’t tar all superintedents with the same brush (and no i’m not one)

I was replying back to Luckyjim37, about the Superintendents that he had worked with, knowing where he has been working over the last few years. I did not say all Superintendents are like that. I certainly agree that the ones in the likes of Technip who run large jobs are what I would class a proper Superintendent.

More and more nowadays, unfortunately, you get people who are given that position because they have been with the company a long time, not be cause they can necessarily do the proper role of a Superintendent (nor indeed do some companys – such as the one you mentioned – normally carry out jobs that require a Superintendent role in the first place).

And when you have companys who have 2,3 or even 5 grades of Superintendent, its obvious they are doing this just to stick some kind of pay grading scale in, not because they need Superintendents to superintend jobs.

And Jim, from your description of Superintendents, it would make more sense financially for a company to supply an offshore secretary in a lot of cases instead of a Superintendent 😀

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