Epaulettes

[moose]

I think it's nice to be able to be distinguished from the hotel and entertainment staff via stripes. What I do find annoying is that they get colours surrounding their stripes, much like an engineer officer. I think instead of gold stripes, they should be a solid colour of whatever represents their department e.g. red for medical and white for hotel.
However, a job is a job, you get paid and go home to spend it!

The guest relations manager is of similar rank to a 1st assistant engineer too apparently! Glad I'm not on cruises!

[CharlieDelta]

Epaulettes

In fairness to the hotel staff:

The one stripe front of house manager has at least six direct reports, a considerable administrative workload and a lot of stress. He or she will usually be in their mid to late twenties, with a degree plus experience ashore. In an emergency, he or she will be in charge of a muster station, looking after hundreds of passengers. He or she is paid very little compared to...

The one stripe third officer has no direct reports and his or her duties consist of watch keeping (as junior - not in charge of the watch) and some ancillary jobs (usually assisting in gathering information for passage planning, monthly boat checks, drawing up passenger display charts). Emergency duties are GMDSS operator or fire party 2I/C, then I/C rescue boat. He or she will usually be in their early twenties with an HND/FD and minimal experience in the job.

In the world of aviation, pilots recognise and appreciate the work and responsibilities of the cabin crew. Cabin crew don't just serve drinks, they have actual safety responsibilities. On cruise ships, the hotel staff have actual safety responsibilities too. While those in the fire teams may be hailed as heroes, the hotel staff are the ones controlling the muster and movement of passengers and crew.

So I don't begrudge them their stripes. If it makes the passengers happy and aids in their identification in an emergency then what's the problem? This isn't the military, it's a business and its purpose is to make money. Happy, safe passengers seeing lots of stripes? Money. Company makes money, I have a safe job (money) and the shareholders win (money).

[Pilot Chris]

CD is right! my wife who was a 1 stripe purser said I did bugger all compared to her until I got to 1st officer and upwards!

[YoungMariner]

Agree the last few comments, because yes if your ego can't handle non deck/engine officers wearing stripes then you really have problems. Seriously, you have to look at the bigger picture on a cruise ship and so often I've come across Deck and Engine Officers who fail to see that the actual objective is passenger revenue (obviously in the safest and most professional way possible) and that does involve hotel officers wearing stripes because the management believe in that.
As long as you appreciate the requirement and forget the ego, life becomes a lot easier. I do like wearing uniform though, only because it means I don't have to worry about what to wear at work, that decision is made for me :-)

[JonathanI]

Wow I opened a can of worms with this haha

[Martyboy]

I know it isn't an option, but if I were ever to work on a passy ship, i'd rather not wear any stripes..... The passengers don't NEED to know who I am :P

Team Maersk have the old straight bar too, although I sailed with one guy who had worked the Antartic survey and used to wear crowns on his 2/E's ep's.

I don't like the straight bar myself TBH, http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...helan--007.jpg Don't know who this guy is, but he's an example of Maersk's stripes

[YoungMariner]

I know it isn't an option, but if I were ever to work on a passy ship, i'd rather not wear any stripes..... The passengers don't NEED to know who I am :P

The reality is that wearing the 'costume' and entertaining the 'passy's is all part of the game on passenger ships, it's cargo that walks and talks. Officers that don't entertain guests and don't consider the interests of passengers are really in the wrong job when it comes to passenger ships. Like anything, if you are going to do it, do it properly.