4 Expectations About Living Offshore

If your work requires you to commit to living offshore, you’re hopefully doing so with the full support of your spouse and/or other loved ones.

You’ve also hopefully discussed with those closest to you a game plan for dealing with emergencies should they arise while you’re away.

It’s imperative that not only you are comfortable with working away, but also your loved ones will be able to cope in your absence.

If you have personal relationship pressures at home, you need to reconsider your career choice.

Acknowledging that workers typically can maintain contact with spouses, children and others from offshore facilities via phone and the Internet is critical to overcoming your distance-related limitations.

Even if you do have stable relationships, it’s still important to plan ahead in case of dramas at home in your absence so other family and friends can pull together if they need to act on your behalf.

Always ensure your employer has contact details of your emergency contact at home and that your family has details of your employer should they need to get sensitive information to you.

If you are a supervisor then you will probably have access to a phone at all times of the day and night that your loved ones can ring you on.

However, if you work on the deck or are directly involved in the drilling operations then people at home cannot directly contact you.

Prepare for a harsh working environment

Working offshore can be physically demanding, and your time on the clock most certainly will not be 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. – particularly if you’re a newcomer.

Instead, prepare to be on duty at least 12 hours straight each day you’re on the rig or platform.

The work schedule is unrelenting and many at the bottom rung of the offshore hierarchy find the long hours a major adjustment.

As a newcomer, you will almost be guaranteed of having to work unreasonably hard to gain respect and prove your worth.

Expect long, tiring days out on the deck and further dedicate your time participating in training and safety meetings.

While you will be told you will be working 12-hour shifts, in reality, it is more like a guaranteed 13-hour shift with pre-tour meetings and handover time spent with your back-to-back co-worker.

But on the plus side, there are a huge number of benefits when working offshore, one of which is that offshore workers get plenty of downtime too.

The usual pattern is to work for two weeks offshore, followed by two weeks back at home, which is a major attraction for many workers.

Some rigs offer three weeks of working followed by three weeks off, but there is always a huge amount of time that can be spent back at home, doing whatever you like.

Offshore workers are subject to a 21-day limit on the rigs, after which time they are obliged to spend a minimum of 7 days onshore.

Respect everyone’s personal space and time

Space is at a premium on an offshore facility, and there’s a good chance that you will be sharing sleeping quarters with co-workers.

Following a few simple shared room etiquette rules will pay dividends in terms of camaraderie

It makes for a much happier relationship if you respect each other’s personal space.

Always leave your room tidy and take everything with you that you will need throughout your shift so you don’t have to return to your room and disturb the off-tour personnel.

Being quiet while inside the accommodation block is imperative as sleep is a much sought-after commodity offshore.

To be sure, suppliers of offshore accommodations do try to make the time off-tour as peaceful as possible.

Be mindful of the bandwidth

Nowadays, offshore workers commonly enjoy access to the Internet via wireless networks.

That does not mean that you’ll be able to download movies or e-books with ease offshore.

If you do want to watch movies or read on your mobile device in your downtime, save yourself and your co-workers some frustration by loading the content at home before your hitch begins.

While most rigs will now provide Wi-Fi facilities, they are always inadequate to deal with larger data requirements.

It’s important to prepare for this before leaving home to make sure you have downloaded any apps or e-books that you might need as these may not be able to be downloaded offshore.

In addition, sending or receiving large photos, videos or data files can be difficult as well.

Make sure all recipients are able to compress file sizes as much as possible before attempting to send.

It’s extremely frustrating waiting for a video of a loved one to download before going to bed and missing out on an hour of much-needed sleep in the process.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have discussed preparing yourself for a harsh working environment as well as not leaving shore without a support network.

we also mentioned how you should respect everyone’s personal time and space and be mindful of the bandwidth when accessing the internet offshore.

These are some things you need to know about living offshore.