But Who's In Charge?

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I’ve decided I’ve got to stop beating up on Starner. I mean in this blog. But before I do, I have to note that he was late to work again today. I don’t know how late, but it must have been very late, because I didn’t see him on the ship, on the pier, or in the office trailer all day. I didn’t see him until quitting time when he was handing out the checks. Not that I missed him. The various supervisors visiting my job are a pain in the ass because I have to stop working and explain what I’m doing. Today was a good day because I only remember two stopping by. Usually I get four or more.

One who stopped by today was Eric Hall. He’s in overall charge for my department, the shipfitters, on this particular ship. His visit was actually useful, because they still haven’t solved the problem of how many firewatches we need on the ship (rocket science?), so Elmore and I had a welder but he couldn’t do anything because we didn’t have any firewatches. Eric managed to get us one and arrange for us to share another with Vince. It’s not often that a supervisor gives us any help. The other visitor was ship superintendent Saul Gannatt, who’s been given the nickname "Rudolph" (as in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) because of his red nose. Actually Rudolph’s nose, and whole face, is more purple and liverish than red in my opinion - - a mass of burst blood vessels, presumably the result of alcohol. A ship superintendent, by the way, is over all the trades, not just my department, as well as the subcontractors. Gannatt is actually a subordinate of the lead ship superintendent. There are four or five of them in all, and supposedly they have the various work items on the ship divided up between them.

Which brings me to the question of organization and chain of command. Chain of command, division of labor, delegation of responsibility - - to me these are basic components of organization. But they seem to be unknown concepts where I work. It continually amazes me that they don’t understand chain of command given that so many of the big shots come out of the Navy, and the company worships (or pretends to worship) the Navy. Sucks up to the Navy might be more accurate. For example, every year at the time of the Army-Navy football game they put up a big banner at the entrance to the yard, "Go Navy, Beat Army." Anyhow, we have all these supervisors but for the most part they have no clear delineation of responsibility. They all seem to operate independently. A couple of weeks ago I had two welding supervisors tell me two contrary things about the weld joint design for the butt joints in a bulkhead I was working with Joe. So I asked one of them, Henry, which one was in charge. I didn’t want to argue about this stuff all day and I wanted to know who to go to for a definitive answer. Henry’s answer was that they were both in charge. How can they both be in charge? Obviously they weren’t on the same page and they weren’t comparing notes. Now for the shipfitters I think there are seven supervisors on my ship. One of them, Tim Babbit, has been out sick for weeks. He’s overweight, sedentary, has diabetes, a heart condition, and who knows what else. He’s on numerous medications, along with his wife, and it seems like he’s been out for most of the past year. Jack Barnes is younger than Tim, but he’s also overweight and has health problems. He didn’t come to work today, and he "lays out," as we say, quite a lot. When he comes up on the ship he moves like an old man. He and Hilton Dines are the only ones who don’t visit my job, but it is Hilton alone who ever seems to have anything to do. Then there’s Starner, who you already know about. In name at least, he is my supervisor. There’s also Eric Hall, who I’ve mentioned, but he only stops by every few days. Ditto Ronnie Wilson, who is nominally under Eric, and Marc Malloy, a retired Navy chief petty officer and heavy smoker, whose place in the pecking order is vague, at least to me. I should also mention Bobby Lee Palmer, the assistant department foreman, who comes up on the ship frequently. Oh, and I should mention Harry Edwards, a crew leader (the lowest echelon of supervisor). So far as I know, I’m not part of his crew, but he comes on my job, apparently to check up on me, anyhow. None of them seem to have any contact with each other from the standpoint of chain of command or division of labor, since any of them might stop by and give me orders. If they’re under pressure from somebody they’ll do this often. If not, they don’t seem to care what I’m doing.

Meanwhile Elmore and I have been keeping ourselves pretty busy, moving the job along despite the obstacles and interference. I prefer to stay busy because it makes the day go fast. I try to do a good job for my own sake, as a sort of hobby. It’s the stupidity that gets to me. And the waste of money.