The US Navy doesn't force leave. As a sailor you have to fill out a request "chit" with multiple layers of copies. Your immediate supervisor marks it approved and takes a copy, the Division officer signs next and so on up the chain of command to Department head. When it is all signed off, you get the original back and Leave orders are filled out by the Department Yeoman. If anyone in the chain of command disapproves the chit, the chit stops, you get a copy of the chit back with disapproved, and you don't get leave. Copies of the Department approved Leave orders are sent to Personnel, and back to the person going on leave. Once you have that paper in hand, you can leave the ship. When you return from leave the paper gets handed to the Quarterdeck watch stander. It gets logged in, signed with date and time of return. You then drop the copy off at Personnel indicating you have returned. Anything less than 96 hours off is usually considered Liberty, anything over 96 hours requires you request and get approved Leave. Overseas you get Cinderella Liberty where you have to return to the ship by a certain time in the evening, unless you have Temporary Assigned Duty (TAD) to shore while the ship stay anchored outside the harbor (I stood duty to repair electrical systems at Fleet Landing and worked with Beach Guard personnel and had TAD orders to the beach for all our port calls).
@Kraig Good examples @The Wormhole The leave orders authorize your absence from the command. They include when your leave begins and when and where you are to report at the end of your leave.
Most crew positions can be rotated in order to provide a day or two off as required, but what about the most senior positions, such as Captain/First Officer?
Well, I doubt that they'd intentionally have both the Captain/First Officer/Second away from the ship at the same time, so presumably the First Officer would take over the Captain's duties, the Second Officer would take over for the First Officer, the ranking security officer, engineer, medical officer etc for their respective chiefs... Slightly more problematic on ships like the NX-class (and presumably the Defiant, Sabre et al) that have only one medical officer and limited staffing of senior ranks.
Star Trek is very weird in how they handle this stuff. IRL, I don't think you'd have captain and first officer on the same shift. But in Trek you have things like the "night shift captain" who was Ensign Kim in Voyager or a character who never got a name in ST: Beyond.
If you like your job -- and in the enlightened Federation where there is no scarcity, why would anyone do what he or she doesn't like? -- you like doing it. I have some endeavors that are intended to make money, and I like doing them. I spend time doing them on weekends too. I think 7of9 alluded to this once, while spending all her time in astrometrics. I totally get taking breaks throughout the day. I think there's research for 40 min.? being optimal concentration time on any one task before at least a little break or changing gears.
Sometimes the Captain is off ship at a classified briefing that is too important for zoom (see Picard at the start of "The Neutral Zone". Other times the Captain may have a "day off", just like they have time for sleeping etc. If a crisis develops though they're immediately on duty - for example in "Generations" when the whole senior crew is on the holodeck together.
Cool. I was on Nimitz as well. 1995 - 1999 (Reactor Department / RE Division). She was several months into the Refueling Complex Overhaul (RCOH) when I got out. What Department / Division were you in?
Class 7708-10 NPS Orlando, FL followed By NPTU D1G Ballston Spa, NY. I was aboard AUG78-SEP82. Still had that new ship smell. The "potable" water had a distinct odor of JP5 though. Started out in RT then when the ship was in the shipyard (after its second Med. Cruise) at Portsmouth I was moved to Fire Watch division, back to RT, then RE Division for about a year, and then transferred to Engineering Department. The Chief Engineer was in the process of creating a new Division called Boat Repair (BR) and he wanted me to be the LPO. The two work centers that were combined were EA07 from A Division and EE01 from E2 Division.
Worf took time off to go to the batleth tournament in “Paralells” and I think took over a month off to go on his spiritual retreat to Boreth in “Rightful Heir.”
Awesome! You were there when The Final Countdown was being filmed, no? My cousin's husband was on Nimitz at that time as well. You can actually see him on the bridge in one scene (he was a QM).
I was there for the Final Countdown filming. I got to meet Katharine Ross and Charles Durning when they were filming scenes in Medical. They were on 2nd Deck aft weapons assembly area (near Enlisted aft EDF scullery) between scenes in white bath robes. A lot of my shipmates are extras in the film.
I get the feeling that with Starfleet it's easier to get time off than it is any modern military. Obviously, they go months without the opportunity of shore leave - especially if they're on assignments lasting months or years - but I imagine they probably get off a day a week to unwind and destress from work. Especially if they're swapping duty rosters and going from, for example, a night shift to a day shift.
I don't feel like they'd have weekly days off per say. #1, it's a ship. Even with their social areas & holodecks, there's still limitations on how to spend free time. #2, the ship's crew is for operational or mission purposes, & it has operational & mission needs 24/7, & #3 since everyone aboard is stuck in place, it would be wasteful to staff extra, solely too allow for these days off We, who work a five day week, have other lives separate from our work. We need those days to tend to that just as much as for rest. Starfleet personnel have far fewer alternative concerns & are there because that IS their life. Especially in their progressive era, being there is the main thing they WANT to be doing. Why would they want a schedule of routine days of not doing it? That's counterintuitive to their interests. In fact, most of them seem eager to get as much of that activity as possible, in hopes to advance themselves. I mean, sure they'll occasionally be off on shore leave, or time off requests, vacations, or even leaves of absence, but apart from that, what else would they want to be doing on that ship for an entire 2 days of every single week, with nowhere to go but out an airlock?
@Mojochi Going to have to disagree with you: Rest and recreation are essential to the health and the morale of the ship's crew. It's something that modern militaries know too well because battles often turn on the morale of each of the opposing forces.
I don't care what you do, or how much you love doing it. If you don't get time to do something else (or do nothing at all), you either grow to hate what you're doing, or you go nuts, or both.