I always feel like a spoilt child when I chuck a mental at my husband being at work extra time or doing inductions during his off time. He after all has a month off. We work hard for the month and get a month off but immediately following my tantrum those that do the 28:7 or 21:7 come straight to my mind like a swift kick up the arse.
The 28:7 roster’s are hard and require lots of commitment from all involved and for those that find balance with them and do them long-term I take my hat off to you. So when I read that someone and there are lots who are doing the 28:7 I fall silent I have not right to complain but that’s not to say I don’t know how hard that it is or don’t understand because I (we) have been there done that. Been there and done that defence gig too which trust me is a lot worse when your husband is a defence boy who believes his job is being deployed not being base bound. Did that defence gig for a long time and am so proud to say that at one point I was a a defence wife.
So whilst its been awhile I have been there and done that with the 28:7 or worse and getting to where we are hasn’t been easy but then nothing ever is and this is the story of how we got here for those who think the 28:7 is the only place they can be. The 28:7 is I think and should be a mere foot in the door. Its a roster that is out dated and dangerous but everything has its place and this is not what this about.
So.
When husband made the momentous decision to leave the defence force something he loved in 2002 we started in the mining industry doing the 28:7 in a little camp in central WA somewhere. I was in Perth working for a travel agency it was hard but no harder than the war deployment he had just done but he and I knew it was never where he would stay. He wanted the ultimate offshore roster and money lets not kid ourselves.
And I have to be honest I was not a fan off the 28:7 getting the balance was hard for both of us. He lost two days to travel and so it really was 28:5 but it was a foot in the door and a start in the industry. We stuck with that until we could do it no more I think we lasted eight months.
After leaving the 28:7 job he went to mining camps all over Australia; all the time he was doing courses getting more tickets determined to get better rosters and money. Some times it felt like an endless waste of time.
Then in 2003 he decided it was time to get serious about what he wanted and so did another lot of tickets and calling various companies. All the time he was working in the mining industry and getting more experience. He moved from job to job getting better rosters but it still felt like a why are we doing this again; there where so many knock backs.
Come the end of 2003 and we discovered that despite having done the right tickets it was with the wrong company one that the industry preferred not to use.
Crap was not the word we used but we put our hand in our pocket again and did the ‘right’ one.
It should be mentioned that to pay for these extra tickets and all that went with it we worked extra jobs when he was home mowing lawns. I would work in the city come home and mow other peoples lawns. He would work in a stinking hot mine and come home and mow other peoples lawns.
More time, more phone calls and more money.
It was exhausting but the best part was we didn’t have kids at this stage.
Then at the end of 2003 he decided to physically door knock and so we spent money on air fares. He was gone again whilst I was at home but it was for the greater good or so we told ourselves.
Within a few weeks of meeting a company he got a job but lost it because of something we hadn’t thought of I can’t remember what it was and he is still sleep as I write. Never mind they said stay in touch. So he did probably more than they expected.
Still he worked on an onshore platform in SA doing 21:10 I was pregnant with our first baby working on a hydroponic farm trying to pay off our credit card after a last hurrah to Europe.
I gave birth to our first baby on the 4th of October 2005 and husband scored his first offshore job on the 5th of October and because we had worked so hard maintaining tickets he left for Singapore on the 8th of October the same day our first baby was sent south for some surgery. Minor surgery but still surgery all the same.
He returned 6 weeks later and we have been doing this ever since.
Except the job is no longer about the money now its the roster. We have everything we need thanks to hard work.
Now he has no desire for position just work and do the best by the company that employs him. The offshore industry for many is casual and we literally live contract to contract so its not about job position but maintaining a job so that means doing the best by the company that employs you.
Their bottom line becomes important to you and so you work to that.
But there is the golden dream roster of a 3:3:3:6 and that’s weeks and that’s the one he is after now and I don’t doubt that he will get it.
xx Deb
