Ship Management: Fighting Stress

Ship management provides a demanding environment for its workers, there is little time for anything and yet there are seemingly hundreds of tasks that need to be completed. When there is a lull in these demands people become tired and bored, and their alertness suffers. The opposite is true when demands increase – people become aroused and alert, delivering positive outcomes for their tasks as they work faster and with more focus, identifying elements of risk and potential error that would otherwise have passed unnoticed.

Being Stressed in Ship Management

In demanding times chemical reactions in the brain make us feel the will to fight and work hard. We want to have success and we need those challenges in order to feel alive. Being aroused and challenged ultimately pays us off with the feeling of being useful and important; knowing our place in the world.

But, what about fighting every day? What about when we feel that the fight cannot be won, because it is never ending, regardless of our continuing efforts? It is here today and will be here tomorrow, the day after; in one month and in ten years. The wild animal in us likes to challenge the enemy, it is seeking out the fight, but all of a sudden there are a hundred foes and they are all coming at you together. Every one of them demands a piece of your power, your will and your stamina.

Stress is exactly this, it means that you cannot meet the challenge anymore, because it is not one but one hundred in ship management. It is the ultimate defeat of the fighter that lives within us.

We plant our face in our hands and feel tired, eyes touching the palms; we sigh because we know it will be a hard day with little pleasure and too much to do. The day before was the same and we do not want to look forward any more as we know that all of the upcoming days will be like this one too. A question arises: “Why am I doing this to myself?”

For a while you can fight, you can drag your tired mind through each day – but ultimately it will end in burnout.

Fighting Stress in Ship Management

There are two elements to fighting stress: Firstly, we need to give the fighter a timeout, the animal within us needs rest too; it needs to lick its wounds in order to be ready for the next round. Secondly, we need to remember why we are doing it. It is about bringing that old feeling back, when the challenges did not pin us up against the wall; when we were eager for the next round, feeling strength in our hearts, looking ahead keenly.

It’s a potentially lofty proposal that all you need is to feel joy working again, but joy is a simple and powerful concept; it makes burdens easier to carry and acts as a shield against stress.

How to start

Start with your private life; a home and a family should form part of an environment where your inner animal can rest. It is the safe harbor that empowers us to fight for the people we care about. You cannot feel joy at work when something is running seriously wrong here; it will reduce your stress resistance to a minimum.

There are many things that can trouble people: Illness in the family, caring for elders and not being loved any more by your significant other all add to your burdens and can be long-term struggles.

In the shipping business you cannot simply take a break, furthermore you see people coming and going all the time, so telling your superior that you are not able to take it anymore does not seem to be a good solution. However, talking about stress is. Talk about it to an entrusted person, it relieves your heart, and it is common practice among police and fire fighters.

The next step is to become motivated again. Motivation arises only by finding a reason to be motivated. Ask yourself what motivated you in the past: Did something inspire you? A vision of future success or feeling proud that the fleet stayed on the water because of your contribution? It is probable that the tasks of those days are still in existence now. Common de-motivating elements are terrible colleagues and being challenged beyond your limitations.

Getting down the workload in Ship Management

We can get our old spirit back by understanding that we will only consent to struggle when there is hope for improvement. To enable our inner fighter to breathe we should avoid overstraining. Hence, tackling the complexity and the processing time of ship management tasks and working packages is the best way forward.

Lets take a look at fleet management: This task will never vanish from your list, but you might find ways of making it less painful. Procure better fleet management software to improve the administrational process and reduce paper work. Additionally, fight for flat hierarchies and analyze the working steps within the process and its third party connections.

Improving processes is a difficult task and will probably increase stress initially, but it will have a positive long-term effect on your workload. Saving 20% of time spent completing each task by reducing paperwork and reducing requests to other departments (automatization) could save you 10 hours in a 50 hour week – even five hours would be good.

The next strategy is to stop driving yourself too hard; there is a limited number of functions you can perform at once. Do the important things first and give your very best effort. For now, forget about the other tasks; wait until they become important. Better organization should be a further target. Remember one thing: Ships do not sink because of the water surrounding them, but because of the water inside them.

Developing your colleagues

Shipping tasks demand cooperation between multiple departments and people, even when they do not like each other. As long as we treat each other in a friendly and respectful manner this should not be a problem.

Sadly, that is not always the case; some people cross the line, taking it to a personal level. This can be particularly stressful when the individual has a bottleneck position and you need them to prioritize your work. They are in the more powerful position and let you know it every time you need them.

Dealing with such people is complicated, as you have no leverage against them. All you can do is confront them directly by explaining your emotions and the troublesome situation. This is not a discussion about who is responsible for the situation, it is one of these honest heart-to-heart talks which should take place in private. What you want is their cooperation, to make the working environment better for both of you.

Often such people feel unfairly treated, perhaps you hurt them unintentionally in the past or you both have assumptions about each other that are misguided. Offer to start anew. Most sane people will agree because they are likely to be suffering the same stress as you and will prefer to take any opportunity to reduce that stress. The next step is often more complicated – leaving the trampled paths of bad behavior towards each other behind.

However, some people seek to be your archenemy or they simply enjoy making others suffer – you will only know that after the talk. Do not argue with them, there is no reasoning with them because they are exactly where they would like to be. The only (and small) chance you have is to publish the conflict and seek open confrontation. Do so by talking to your line manager, he has an interest in work being completed in time and has a different standing to the manager of the person in question. Perhaps they can come to an agreement where it has not been possible between you and your work colleague.