Learning from the past is an important part of life, but so
is knowing when to let go of the past.
While this is kind of a deeper philosophical concept, I want to focus on
this in terms of being a musician and work. Hopefully as a musician and a human being you are learning
something everyday. A friend of
mine had a saying that “every day is a school day,” meaning that you should
never stop learning. If this holds
true, then you should be wiser now than you were a day ago, a week ago, a month
ago, and definitely a year ago.
That knowledge gained from the past should be used in making decisions
today. But at the same time, that
knowledge has to be adapted and may change along the way.
Why am I talking about this? In working, and especially on ships, there is a tendency for
people to cling to the past. Many
times do people do something only because that is the way it has always been
done. The world changes and there
may be better and more efficient ways to do it now than compared to five years
ago. Or maybe the work settings and
environment aren’t exactly the same, so what worked in the past might not work
at present.
Experience is a valuable thing, but it can also get people
in trouble. I’ve heard so many
people say “On (insert name of ship), we did it this way…” or “But on my old ship we didn’t have
to do that.” While it
may be true and some things might be universal, maybe there is a reason for the
difference. When working in a
corporate environment, there will be things in different offices, or ships,
that will remain the same everywhere.
But then there are a lot of things that will differ from location to
location.
For instance, on ships of the same design and layout, the
safety and security procedures will remain the same. It would not be safe and would take too long to train
crewmembers from scratch every time they went to a different ship. But then for work procedures, many
times it will be different on each ship.
And that’s OK because no 2 ships are exactly alike. Even though the design may be the same
there are still a lot of ways to be different. Ships have different itineraries, home ports, demographics
and nationalities of passengers and crew onboard, lengths of cruise, and much
more. Let’s take two hypothetical
ships just to make a point. Ship 1
is a brand new huge ship, it has all the latest and greatest technologies, it
is based out of Fort Lauderdale doing 7-day Caribbean cruises and is full of
families and 90% of passengers come from the Unites States. Then Ship 2 is an older, smaller ship,
it has basic amenities but not all of the latest and greatest, it changes home
port every cruise and goes all over the world doing cruises lasting mostly 14
days and more and has passengers from all over the world but never more than a
handful of children. Ok, I said
hypothetical but I have based my 2 examples on ships I have actually worked
on. Imagine working on Ship #1 for
two years and then transferring to Ship #2, would you expect everything to be
ran the same? Would you expect to
play the same music? Of course
not!
My last two ships were sister ships, meaning exact same
layout. The itineraries and
demographics were nearly the same: doing world cruises with the average age
being nearly the same and both were itinerary-driven ships meaning the
passengers chose the ships usually based on their great itineraries. However, there were many things
different between the two ships.
For instance, on the first ship the orchestra wore a black suit every
single night and the dress shirt and tie combination was left up to each
person. On the second ship, we
wore black long-sleeved shirts and black pants almost every night and only wore
suits about once a week. Not a
major change, but it didn’t help when I showed up not needing 75% of the
clothes I brought and then having to ship for more black clothes in the next
port. In between the 2 contracts,
the company cut 3 musicians, meaning my workload increased when I went to the
second ship. Even though the ships
are owned by the same company and both ships are identical in layout and
design, there were still many things different. I had 2 choices: to either go kicking and screaming and
complain it wasn’t like my previous ship, or just go with the flow and learn
the new system.
Even on the same ship, the management will change and
therefore so will some of the more minor rules. For example, I was just working with a Hotel Director that
allowed crewmembers to use passenger elevators. In fact on a few occasions I even rode in a passenger
elevator along with him. Now we
have a different Hotel Director onboard and she does not allow any crew to use
the passenger elevators. Could we
complain that it’s not right to keep changing the rules? Maybe, but the better option is just to
adapt and learn the new system.
Another example, on several ships I had worked on, the staff mess
(dining area for crewmembers) opened at 5:30pm. Then on my last two ships, the mess opened at 6pm. I could choose to get caught up and
complain every time how I used to be able to eat at 5:30 and now I can’t, but
instead I just plan my meal times differently and go with the flow.
Of course there will always be exemptions based on your
personal ethics, morals, and beliefs.
If somebody is asking you to do something you know is either wrong or
illegal then by all means say something to somebody. If you work in the shops onboard and the other staff are
taking items and giving them to friends, then you have the right not to go
along with it.
If you find yourself in a new environment, try the new
system. You never know, over time
you might like the new system even better. Maybe it is more efficient and you will find yourself with
an easier schedule, or maybe it will give you more time to go sightseeing off
the ship. But in any case,
remember your past but also learn how to embrace the present.
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