Weekends in Starfleet

[tafkats]

Do you think Starfleet ships (or stations, for that matter) observe weekends?

Days of the week rarely merit mention at all, except for the NX-01 having movie night on Tuesdays. "Chain of Command" (TNG) shows the 1701-D having only three shifts (though I don't think it's ever explicitly stated that they're only eight hours, so the shifts could be arranged in some way that allows days off).

It's hard to imagine the crew working every single day without burnout. Though maybe various modern conveniences (the replicator, etc.) remove enough of the other responsibilities that most people today have in their lives that they can fit plenty of relaxation into their daily off-hours?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It's hard to imagine the crew working every single day without burnout.

Crewmembers don't work every HOUR of the day, though. They have a set duty shift, and then they have the rest of the day off. We don't know if they have any entire days off per week, although they do have shore leave.

 

[Melakon]

I can't imagine our contemporary warships giving crew full weekends off while out of port. But I've never been military, maybe it happens.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I doubt the ship shuts down for 48 hours.

 

[Finn]

Also, remember all those times the ship is warping toward a designation few days away…then the picture changes to the ship entering orbit.What were they doing in the mid-time?

 

[FormerLurker]

I can't imagine our contemporary warships giving crew full weekends off while out of port. But I've never been military, maybe it happens.

It doesn't. Ships out of port are on call seven days a week, meaning no days off per week unless scheduled for leave, or given light duty for one reason or another, say illness. I can't imagine a paramilitary organization like Starfleet not using the same protocol, what with the history behind it. Indeed, depending on the cultural needs of other planets, some crewmembers may require this as a term of service.

 

[MacLeod]

Is there really such a thing as a weekend for many of these days? Sure some of us work M-F, but do you go shopping on a Saturday or Sunday, do you eat out those days? If you do who serves you, what about Police Officers, Doctor's, Nurses, Service personal etc.. , for them the weekend doesn't really exist it's just another working day.

 

[Melakon]

Every day's a weekend when you can't work.

 

[Sam_I_Am]

Maybe they schedule a weekend for every crew member, be it Monday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, or whatever.

 

[urbandefault]

Why not work 7 days a week? It's not like you're going anywhere. Might as well make yourself useful.

 

[The Wormhole]

Is there really such a thing as a weekend for many of these days? Sure some of us work M-F, but do you go shopping on a Saturday or Sunday, do you eat out those days? If you do who serves you, what about Police Officers, Doctor's, Nurses, Service personal etc.. , for them the weekend doesn't really exist it's just another working day.

Ain't that the truth. After a decade working in retail, I've been conditioned not to notice weekends. "What's a weekend? Oh, you mean those two days every week where we're busier than the other five."

It actually surprises me there are people with seniority over me who still bitch and moan about never having a weekend off. Sure, it happens, sometimes even without request, but it's rare.

I'm one of the lucky few who consistently gets two other days in a row off during the week, but even that goes against the odds, and many don't even get that.

So, no, I don't imagine Starfleet officers get weekends, at least not on starships out on duty. Maybe Starbases might, depending on their location and what the duties there were. But out of all the Trek shows, the only one where the characters might have gotten weekends or regular days off every week would have been DS9, and even then, most likely whether they observed weekends would depend it weekends were observed on Bajor.

 

[Captain Robau]

I'm sure they realize that it's a Saturday or Sunday but to them those are just days. I have a little experience with the US Navy when out to sea and people work shift work 24/7 (8 or 12 hour shifts). People are usually scheduled to work 5 to 6 days a week having a day off in-between. That day(s) off can vary week to week depending on the schedule. There would be no "weekends off" but people would not work everyday.

 

[Melakon]

When I did phone work for 5 years, it was required to work either Saturday or Sunday. And no vacation time, no benefits, since it was a 32-hour scheduled work week, meaning part-time. No overtime either.

 

[T'Girl]

I can't imagine our contemporary warships giving crew full weekends off while out of port.

But a contemporary warship doesn't deploy for multiple years. While not everyone would get Saturday and Sunday as their particular "weekend," I could see a starship crewperson working five days, followed by two rest days, rinse and repeat. You would be subject to recalls and alerts.

At any one time about 24% of the crew aboard would be on duty.

While we don't see it, I would imagine that weeks can go by even on the hero ship where basically nothing happens.

 

[at Quark's]

Perhaps it also depends on the starship, the mission, and the century.

I mean, I could imagine the situation on the ENT-NX to be very different from the situation on the Ent-D. On the ent-D, it wouldn't strike me as odd if crew members had days off to enjoy with their families. (but even then probably still had to report in case of an emergency).

 

[JoeZhang]

It would seem weird to me to have families and schools on board and then expect the parents to work 24/7... especially on multi-year missions.

 

[JD5000]

I would guess no days off unless on shore leave. Even then, it's not like you can just not answer the phone if work calls you. Starfleet is a military organization despite having objectives other than warfare. As far as I know when on active duty, modern members of the military do not get 'days off' as civilians recognize them and Starfleet holds true to many 'ancient' earth military traditions.

These traditions seem largely American/European based, but so is the target audience so that makes sense.

 

[plynch]

Weekends come from a Sabbath day plus an extra day bargained by labor unions, right? In the Roman empire (pre-Christian) they just worked a bunch of days straight, but often had a feast day or extended festival to break things up. So in a very different culture hundreds of years from now I wouldn't expect a weekend.

BUT - if you're doing what you like doing . . . and that's kind of the premise in the Federation, we work to actualize ourselves now . . . do you need a whole day without that chunk of time doing what you like? I go in to work a lot on nights and weekends because I like the duties I can perform then (when the students are away). So maybe the enlightened souls of the 23/24th centuries don't want weekends.

 

[The Wormhole]

I would guess no days off unless on shore leave. Even then, it's not like you can just not answer the phone if work calls you. Starfleet is a military organization despite having objectives other than warfare. As far as I know when on active duty, modern members of the military do not get 'days off' as civilians recognize them and Starfleet holds true to many 'ancient' earth military traditions.

These traditions seem largely American/European based, but so is the target audience so that makes sense.

Although I have never served in the military nor do I even know anyone who has, from what I have observed it basically goes like this:

If you're deployed, you're pretty much expected to work every day, any time off is mostly at the discretion of the CO and depends on circumstances. However, at homeland bases or Navy ships docked in port personnel do get weekends and holidays with some exceptions.

Meanwhile, when my dad was in the Canadian Coast Guard, the ship's crews were on monthly rotations, that is they work a whole month without a day off, then they get a whole month off. It is worth noting the Canadian Coast Guard is not military, it is in fact a civilian agency which falls under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, so maybe it is a poor example for this discussion.

 

[tafkats]

Unless the human brain changes a lot in the next 300-odd years, I think there will still be a need for something weekend-like. I'm fortunate enough to have a job I love, and going in on a weekend is never something I object to, but I still find that if I focus on it for the majority of the day too many days running, I'm not as "on" as I normally would be.

On the other hand, maybe 24th-century conveniences like replicators -- not to mention not needing to worry about things like money -- reduce the stress level in people's personal lives so much that their leisure time is much higher-quality than ours is today, and thus more relaxing. If none of your off-hours go into paying bills, shopping for groceries, doing laundry, fixing things around the house, etc., that might make recharing your batteries a lot easier.