‘Uncertainty takes a terrible toll’: Seafarers Happiness Index founder

‘Uncertainty takes a terrible toll’: Seafarers Happiness Index founder
May 7th, 2020 https://splash247.com/uncertainty-takes-a-terrible-toll-seafarers-happin...

Steven Jones, the founder of the Seafarers Happiness Index, discusses the mood of crews around the world in the latest episode in the Maritime CEO Leader Series powered by Ocean Technologies Group.

The Q1 report from the index, published earlier this week, had a strong Covid-19 theme to it.

Jones discusses the fears and concerns of crews at sea during the coronavirus crisis, extending a discussion he started on this site in March in a widely read article he had penned entitled ‘Five stages of crew relief grief’.

“One of the things that was really coming across probably most loudly in [the report] was the fact the uncertainty takes a terrible toll,” Jones said in the video interview. “The fact that many of the seafarers are not sure when they will be able to get home.”

Interactions onboard are starting to become a bit “frayed around the edges”, Jones warned in the interview, adding: “The stresses are starting to tell.”

Since the Q1 report was published new surveys carried over the past five weeks suggest seafarers’ mood has darkened further, something that will only alleviate, Jones said, once international consensus is reached on how to fix the crew repatriation issue.

The Maritime CEO Leader Series will return next week.