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The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant shift in global work patterns, especially for office workers, as many jobs transitioned to remote digital work.
This change was more feasible in wealthier countries with better access to technology, while regions with limited resources faced greater challenges. Essential workers in healthcare and manual labour were less impacted by remote work trends, unlike office workers who enjoyed more flexibility.
The debate on whether remote work should continue after the pandemic remains ongoing. Advocates highlight the benefits of avoiding long commutes and office-related expenses. However, some businesses argue that in-person interactions are crucial for fostering teamwork, creativity, and company culture. As a result, many companies are striving to find a balance between remote and office work.
Seafarers were also profoundly impacted by the pandemic, many of them stranded on ships without the ability to take shore leave or return home. This isolation was a painful experience for seafarers, whose situation had long been overlooked. In many areas, but by no means all, restrictions have eased for seafarers. More generally, however, has the global shipping industry (like other businesses) also debated the balance between efficiency and humanity in working life and applied these lessons to improve seafarers’ working conditions? Other industries have recognized that simple cost-efficiency is not always the most sustainable approach if it ignores the human aspects of work.
While the shipping industry is embracing digital technology and low-carbon fuels, the needs of seafarers often remain secondary. A recent keynote speech that I heard, by a politician from a leading maritime nation, focused on vessel efficiency and cost, and named the major issues facing the industry over the next 5-10 years, but did not address the human aspects of seafarers’ working lives. Historically, life on ships provided seafarers with a strong sense of team and community, sometimes with crew quarters even designed to feel like a “home away from home.” This “work homing” (i.e. creating dimensions of home and community aboard ship) fostered human connection, in contrast to the impersonal approach highlighted in the speech.
Digital technology has enabled seafarers to stay connected with their families, but it can also increase seafarers’ sense of isolation. While seafarers are aware of family events, both their joys and challenges, unless there is a strong human community aboard, they may lack a supportive community in which to share these experiences. Seafarers’ sense of isolation can actually be increased by this. This raises the question of the wisdom of prioritizing short-term operational efficiency over the well-being of crew.
Conditions aboard ships should not focus solely on minimizing costs but also on ensuring the health and well-being of the crew. Humanly, as well as operationally sustainable crew sizes, shift rotations, and shore leave are essential for maintaining the mental and physical health of seafarers. Overworked crew members are more likely to make costly mistakes, which can harm the shipping industry of course, but the more important aspect is to understand seafarers as much more than a simple resource. Those who enable global trade to function are human beings who will invariably flourish in a web of warm and healthy human relationships.
At its core, any human activity such as a commercial activity like shipping should serve the flourishing of humanity, and this includes the well-being of seafarers. The Mission, grounded in faith and a vision that values human dignity and human community in and of itself, continues to advocate for seafarers’ well-being and we are glad to partner with others in the shipping industry who share these values.
