Pros
I always work on underway replenishment CLF ships. The actual day-to-day job is great, rewarding and at times challenging. Colleagues are mostly good. Before Covid the travel was great. I got to see lots of new and interesting countries and places. The money has been so far so good for the jobs I've done. One of the only good things.
Cons
Shoreside support does absolutely nothing. Ship's personnel are left to do it all; whether it's travel, getting supplies just to keep the ship barely running, arranging reliefs, organizing documents or training; you name it, the office shoreside has a department that is supposed to do it but does nothing. As a matter of fact, doing nothing would be an improvement. Many, many times ship crew organize and get what they need, and shoreside throws a monkey wrench into it and actively stops it. In fact we wouldn't even have monkey wrenches if it were up to the office. Complete bureaucracy in all the worst ways. And there are more shoreside personnel than mariners; WHAT are they all doing every day?? They claim "take charge of your career!" when in fact the opposite is true. I've been stopped from getting promotions when the ship is begging to promote me. I've been denied needed training and time off to take classes to better myself and upgrade my license. Shoreside management is so short sighted, they want you OUT OUT to sea instead of giving you even a few more weeks to take that class or take an upgrade test. This later comes back to bite them when they don't have enough of what you were trying to upgrade into. In fact you will not get much time at home at all. It doesn't matter if you just did 13 months at sea and were four months overdue for a relief. After 30 days at home, someone will be calling you demanding you come back to work, and threatening you with a resignation letter. I even know someone who lost two and a half fingers in Italy while working. Instead of letting him recover, MSC marked him AWOL and wouldn't pay him until he went back to go get on a ship.