TeeS
Your quote below perhaps shows you have never done this type of roster, or are management!!
"Balancing this, is the fact that a two weeks on/two weeks off roster with two weeks leave is in fact a damned good deal when you look at it and compare with other rosters."
It is in fact a very poor deal compared with the onshore rosters I have worked in the N Sea. On average you are away from home 75% more than an on shore based N Sea Pilot. Your social life is very restricted as your life is totally controlled by the cyclical nature of the roster. No asking for specific days off for family reasons - if you are offshore then tough. Either Xmas or New Year offshore. You have to keep your family relationship going over the phone.
Any regular weekly activity is impossible due to you being away for 15 days at a time. You can not plan holidays starting within 2 days of your due date on shore because often you can not return onshore on time due to the weather being out of limits.
The accommodation is usually poor with the sharing of toilets etc common. Rig life is controlled by legions of rules which include no sunbathing on the helideck!! Although it has been tried but you don’t get much of a tan when wearing overalls, hard hat, safety specs and gloves.
If this roster is so good why are there very few volunteers to do it within my company? Most who do it have very personnel reasons for doing it which out way the very large downside, though even that is not a strong enough reason for some who have left recently for the benefits of an on shore roster.
I think those who have signed up for Jigsaw may be in for a shock. Working regularly on the same rig allows you some stability but constantly changing locations between rig/Scatsta/Aberdeen will not.
The way some companies interpret the CAA Flight Duty scheme may also mean that after you stint at Aberdeen you may only have 3 days off before going away for 15 days.
My wife has suffered me being based both on and offshore and she certainly prefers me being based onshore but is willing to sacrifice a large part of family life for our own specific reasons. I will be interested to see how many original Jigsaw crews are still in post after a couple of years.
Good luck to those on Jigsaw
HF
(who wasn’t headhunted
)