I feel like a MASSIVE newbie asking this but...

I am having a bit of a "heated debate" with a couple of friends also wanting to join the RN about how often you actually work.

One of my friends(A) says that after training you only work monday - friday unless you are on deployment (out at sea) and my other friend (B) says that you work 7 days a week except from the 6 weeks you get off?

Does friend B mean by "work" you stay on base 7 days a week and only work Monday - Friday?

Again apologises for the massively newbish question, but cant seem to find the correct answer on the RN website (Was down)

Thanks

 

I dont think I should answer this one being a WAFU and all..... :roll: 8O or is this another one of them occupational surveys from Fleet??? :lol:

 

http://www.connexions-direct.com/jobs4u/index.cfm?pid=62&catalogueContentID=2213

Just found it here. Monday - Friday (normal office hours) - I presume this means 9am to 5pm?
And again, I presume this is only after one is fully trained?

 

Generally when shoreside you'll work Mon-Fri however, you will also have duty watch commitments which will entail working over weekends, depending on where you are based will depend on whether your 1 in 4, 1 in 6 etc etc. When deployed on ships you'll be working (either days or watchkeeping) 7 days a week unless you're alongside somewhere, in that case you'll also be in a duty watch and have duties in port forming the fire party etc. The ratio of these again varies from ship to ship, generally though you'll be 1 in 4 alongside. Standing by to be corrected!

 

Thanks guys, im actually tempted to delete my account after this thread due to shame and embarrasment but whilst i'm on the roll of asking newbie questions....

1) So each deployment is roughly 6months long (so ive read) and there is a rotar, so you cant do one deployment after another etc. What would a fully trained Warfare Officer do whilst ashore? What sort of jobs would he/she be asked to do?
I cant imagine what they would be doing other than more training / helping tutor other warfare officers under training / desk jobs at the AFCO?

and does the 1/4, 1/6 ratio means, for every deployment there will be 4 (or 6) other deployments that you cannot be on?

So if its 1/4, you will do one deployment in say 2012 and then not another until 2014? (4 extra 6 months - 2years)?

 

Is this a wind up?

1 in 4, basically means that you'll be working 1 weekend in every 4, I'll leave you to work out what 1 in 6 is!

 

Right, if this is about Warfare Officers, I'll give you a decent answer...

You'll be "at sea" for at least your first 2 jobs (about 3 - 4 years). "At sea" can mean different things: week running (sail monday, back friday), a couple of weeks away, or a deployment. Whilst at sea you will be 1 in 3 on the bridge (4 hours on, 8 huors off) all the time. Around that you will have to fit in the "paperwork" side of your life. As a running average, I would expect you to get about 7 hours sleep in 24 (although not necessarily in one block), plus an hours phys a day (if you want). Alongside in a "at sea" job will generally see you working 0800 - 1600, although you will work to requirement - there is not a lot of tolerance for missing deadlines. You will also be part of a roster as Officer of the Day (OOD). Once qualified you can expect to be anything from 1 in 2 (Navs and me on a Small Ship for about 2 months) to 1 in 14 (at the end of a 8 month deployment). It depends on how (and who) organises your roster, but you'll have little voice in the regularity, although you'll probably be able to swap days etc.

Deployments happen as they happen. Everyone in the RN should spend no more than 660 days in a rolling 3 year period away from their base port; this does not apply to Officers in their first 10 years in assignment. In 5 years I've racked up 1189 days away from my base port, and I'm not particularly overworked. When I returned from my last deployment I'd accrued 42 days leave, again, not noteworthy. I've just left a ship that will be doing at least one 6 month deployment every year for 3 years, however the ship that's currently working the most away from home has been based solely in the UK for the last 14 months. Don't expect this to get any less pressurised post-SDSR: as it stands we've shed no tasks but lost 4 units, with another 4 to go soon.

As you become more senior (i.e. mid-seniority Lt onwards) shore appointments may be available, but the general feeling is that the only place for junior Warfare Officers is at sea. I would suggest that we'd probably keep more junior Officers if we didn't keep them licking windows for years at a time, but I'm not 2SL (yet), so be prepared to fight your corner. Work time on a shore draft can vary from 0800 - 1600 Mon - Thurs, 0800 - 1200 Fri (fairly rare, ultimately boring) to jobs like Flag Lt to a Senior Officer that can see you working harder than you ever would at sea.

Shore appointments for Warfare Officers typically become the norm post PWO/Ops appointment; you could be looking at 12 - 15 years in service before achieving this. Obviously, once you become a senior Lt Cdr, there are possibly only 1 or 2 jobs left at sea for you, although increasingly more senior Officers are being sent to Bahrain and Afg to fill Joint jobs for 6 - 12 months at a time.

 

lol, no, it most certainly isnt a wind up!
Thanks for clarifying that though. I was getting confused with the deployment rotar that I read about.

Again, apologies for the newbie questions, but this is the newbie section and if I dont ask, then I wont learn

 

One little point.

You are not asked to do anything.

You are told.

 

Alfred, thats fantastic. Thanks for the detail! Much appreciated

 

Being in refit, I only 'work' Monday to Thursday. With a 3 day weekend.

 

That's an interesting bit of info.
I'm applying for WEO and got to chatting with a DWEO on Saturday on the St. Albans.
From finishing Dartmouth to being on shore deployment I was told 3-4 years and then you could be there for quite a while.
I guess it shows the different aspects of the jobs.

All good info. I'm too long in the tooth for Warfare Officer, but interesting to see how a general career progression evolves.

 

What does refit mean?

 

The idea of a refit is to keep the RN's vessels working and fully up to date. The ship / submarine is effectively taken out of service for a while and goes into dock - while in dock, the vessel undergoes a program of repair / replacement / upgrading. Much of the work is done by dockyard staff but there's a need to keep a proportion of the crew attached to the vessel; generally the vessel is rendered uninhabitable so you're living ashore somewhere - and since the vessel is not operating, working routines are different while in dock, hence the 3 days weekends referred to by LustyBus.

 

It all depends on where, what, when, who and how you are doing.

Sometimes you dip in and you get to have a massive doss. I once spent 3 months turning to on Tuesday mornings for an hour or two and then fcuking off until next Tuesday. But sometimes you dip out big style and get to do BOST* then when BOST is finished you get transferred to another ship and get to do BOST again straight away.

They tried to sort out deployments into some kind of order a few years back with Topmast. The basic principle being that each ship had 130% manning, the idea was that the extra 30% could be on courses or leave while the rest where deployed, then have a little swap over half way through. A good idea in theory but it failed to take into account the fact that a huge percentage of the mob is made up of medically downgraded wasters who refuse to go to sea. Invariably it turned into a gang fcuk and meant in some cases lads ended up spending more time at sea than they used to.

*For the uninitiated, BOST is 10 weeks of being completely and utterly fcuked about, working 15 hours a day plus watches. I'll save the rest of the details as I don't want to spoil the surprise. You'll love it.

 

I loved BOST, makes a better matelot. Fun fun fun.

 

We always (i know iknow) worked 7 days a week when at sea(full days)and only duty watch in harbour and that was only two hours

 

The other branches will have a life much like you described: one sea job (as Deputy) at least 2 shore jobs and then back to sea as a Lt Cdr for your Head of Department appointment. It's is probably the only 2 sea jobs you will do in your career, although there are a couple of extra sea jobs around at each rank, and as ever OpTours remain available for all and sundry*. It's important to note though that their shore time is as important as the 2nd and 3rd jobs for Warfare Officers. Thinking it's going to be a 8 - 4 doss for 6 years means you won't get promoted. To get promoted you'll be working extremely hard doing some equally hard jobs!

*In fact, many of the more junior OpTours that are available are frankly much more interesting than bridge watchkeeping. As the traditional attitude is to keep junior Warfare Officers at sea, they're unable to take part in an important part of career broadening and subsequently dip out.

 

Chomping at the bit at the thought of it.
I do more hours now and it isn't exactly fulfilling. So having the opportunity to get stuck in with something that has purpose.
Well, read above

 

BOST makes the heart grow fonder.

I like mid-BOST mess parties that roll from one watch to the next. The Jimmy never does though.