Page 95 - Mariners Cricket Club (Singapore) - Souvenir Magazine 2020

Seafarers – Salt of the earth

pproximately 80-90% of global trade is sea borne. Every single commodity that you
can imagine is likely to have spent some time being transported on a ship. These are
Awell known facts; however, the wider world generally knows little about the lives of
Seafarers who run these ships. They are the lifeblood of a seaborne trade that is the lifeline to
our very existence. The consequence of a world without ships is unimaginable.

Life on board is not easy. Seafarers are subject to a lot of occupational stressors. It is therefore
not surprising that Seafarers experience more mental health problems than the average
human working ashore. What is surprising though is that very little has been done to address
the mental well being of Seafarers.

During the ongoing pandemic, like all other frontline workers, Seafarers have continued to
work tirelessly to transport essential supplies to all parts of the world

Despite being designated as “keyworkers” during the pandemic, most seafarers have been
forced to serve extended tenures on board. Travel restrictions, inconsistent application of

protocols and guidelines and vastly varying Country and region-specific policies have created
numerous challenges making it almost impossible for the Seafarer to return home timely after
completion of their contracts. Times like these define the coping abilities with the stressors.

Categorically, Seafarers’ stressors are physical, psychosocial, social, high management tasks
and high work demand. Studies show that social stressors are the most dominant factor in
seafarers.

Stress is defined as a situation in which the demands experienced by a person exceed his or
her coping resources. Coping is the process of thoughts and behaviours that people use to
manage the demands imposed by stressful situations.

A coping strategy should be addressed at 3 levels, namely, Organization level, Individual
level and Industry level. Coping strategies are yet to be implemented or addressed in many
shipping companies across the world. Since the occupational hazards cannot be changed,
emotion-focused coping would provide a good solution to manage seafaring stress.

At the organizational level, following coping strategies could be adopted:

a) Social interaction is proven to reduce anxiety and work-related stress. A revival of
the smoke room legacy, watching humour or playing community games would all be
helpful. May be it is time to re-christen the smokeroom?

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