catering assistant

flight attendant

technician

deckhand

superintendent

Red-Funnel-Group

I'll start with the positives

- Decent living wage with plenty of overtime opportunities since theres alot of sickness.
- Free lunch/dinner/beverages whilst working.
- Practically over half the year off working on a set timetable so its easy to plan your life around.
- Takes ALOT for you to lose your job.
- Promotions handed out like candy, you can literally leave the company to go travelling during the companies busiest period and then return and be handed a promotion or just ask for one in some cases.

Yes even the positives are negatives,

And to the negatives

- 12 hour shifts can be very exhausting, on your feet all day, adverse weather can effect these shifts causing you to have to stay on longer.
- Much younger work force, if you cant fit in you're often left out of alot of conversations and not invited out to social events. Younger workforce often allowed to get away with doing as little work as possible.
- Many younger crew members play the "depression" card and will use mental health to get out of doing work or take time off. Upper management are even taking it turns currently to take time off but happily posting on their social media how happy they are, literally laughing all the way.
- Lazy workers are never punished and team leaders (supervisors) and obsos (boat managers) often stay silent when the same few hard workers end up doing the lions share of the work.
- The current upper management team are unfortunately the biggest problem within the F&B Department. They are literally invisible and all you will ever hear from them is negative emails complaining. I have not seen the head of the department come onboard in roughly two years I've worked and have seen her assistant come onboard twice within the same two years, its shameful.
- There is definite favoritism that goes on within management, some crew members will get whats seen as "the good shifts" if they brown nose the right people.
- You are seen as just a number to them, they don't care your worth or hard you work all that's required is that you turn up so the boat can make 'banding' which is the legal number of crew needed onboard for the boat to be able to sail. Don't expect to be rewarded or treated well for working hard, you are there to get the boat to sail and thats all they care about.
- Absolutely no communication about things that are changing within the department, we are always the last to know of anything happening and our opinions mean absolutely zero to upper management even though we are the first line working onboard, you'd think we'd get a bit of respect being probably the hardest workers within the company.
- Female obsos do the lions share of the obsos workload while the majority of the male ones are lazy and misogynistic. 
- Incredibly negative atmosphere that is not being dealt with at all by any of the management team and is just ignored, upper management consistently play off that everything is fantastic in the department without taking any steps to improve it but this will catch up with them eventually.
- Very thankless job, no appreciation received whatsover unless a few particular obsos are onboard when you finish your shift. 

Again I will say the upper management is the real problem that needs to be dealt with as the department is falling apart. If you can overlook these issues and not get personally involved within a workforce where you have to work closely with one another then this might be a good job for you.

Red Funnel used to be a very well run company, it took care of its staff and customer service was excellent. There used to be vision and a goal and everyone was onboard to deliver on those goals.

The company now lacks everything that it was once exceptionally good at from customer service, company vision and openness, safety culture, to pride in the job and in the fleet.

Customer service really is non existent, previous directors used to work the shop floor listening and engaging with customers. This really did assist with front line staff as issues where actioned. You never see a director or a head of department out in the business any more. We currently have one ship that has had a lift out of action for 2 years! Under the last managment we weren't aloud to have the lifts out for more than two days for repairs, as it was unacceptable and did not meet the customer service standards red funnel once so highly held. 

Openness-  staff are kept in the dark and are to know as little as possible. Emails are restricted to prevent emails being sent to all users.  

If your a crew member,you will find out about cancellations to service via media outlets or arriving at a terminal to no boat. Again they do not feel you should be allowed to have this information. This has led to further cancellations due to critical ships crew not being able to get of the island.

Company Vision- there isn't  one unfortunately. There's no plans to build new ships or terminals or even improve any of the infrastructure that is currently there. Everything is band aided to just get through. 
 

The Safety culture is extremely poor, safety meetings are only held once a year maybe two if your lucky as they are held every two months but alternated through the crews.
This department can't seem to retain staff which adds to the poor culture created by the Ops director. 

Overall what was once a great company has been destroyed by people that are out of their depth.  A lot of things from poor service and high staff turn over has been blamed on COVID. As we come out of this pandemic COVID can no longer be blamed for their incompetence and the board will finally see the truth. The sooner the better so all the damage inflicted on what was once a great company can be repaired before it's too late. 

The company is loosing long serving once loyal employees left right and Center. Any other company you would be asking questions right? Maybe even an exit interview? Not here....... 

If the poor running of this company  is allowed to continue I fear for the future of Red Funnel and my  previous colleagues job security.

They are currently offering £300 to encourage staff to get  family or friends to join the company. That is a red flag right there, a good company does not need to bribe their staff to get people through the door. 



  



I had worked at Red Funnel for a number of years, but over that time the good things about the culture, teamwork and ethos were chipped away at by the executive directors and shareholders in favour of profits only. Red Funnel used to care about staff, now employees are at the bottom of the list. 
A lot of the problems are due to a lack of strategic direction, and elitist attitudes. Even if there was a strategy, as an employee you were not privy to it. They waste money like water, on the wrong things. All people related decisions are insane, like their recent redundancy where some company came in and masked an obvious restructure as a redundancy due to covid. Us employees were completely abandoned by senior leaders since covid began, we haven't seen them in a year. They just email out saying thanks every now and again and think that's enough? Heartbroken to see the culture destroyed. Needs a serious restructure at senior level. Don't go here or you will be neglected, frustrated and let down.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Unlimited free travel and decent discount on food onboard

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They make you work such stupid shifts that are not required due to lack of traffic over night and leave you short staffed when it's busy. Eg I used to have shifts starting at 03:45 on a Sunday and there is no boat until 06:30. Managers don't have a clue and refuse to listen to the staff actually doing the work

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Horrible. Unless you are a yes man and have no ability to think for yourself there is no place for you.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Turn up lone working for at least three hours, waiting for a phone call to tell you what boats are broken today then having to deal with angry customers with no support from management as they hide in there office, do this for a full twelve hour shift, rinse and repeat for four days then have four days off. Rinse and repeat

I worked for Red Funnel for a number of years. It went from a great company with clear direction and leadership to a poor culture with unhappy employees who do not feel valued. They furloughed large numbers of staff and didn't contact them. They then made a large number of staff redundant at the end of last year blaming covid for what was clearly a planned restructure and started recruiting for the same posts shortly after. They laud the fact that they have female board members but they made a large number of BAME staff redundant and outside the board gender diversity in management is almost non-existent. They sweep any concerns raised by employees under the rug and ignore anyone who tries to suggest change. 
If your face fits, you are happy to put work before all else and get nothing in return then maybe this is the place for you but you will be treated as a number with no flexible working and awful work life balance.  

Management need to do a course on staff and listen to them . They don't listen and if they did they never do anything about it. Why can a person who is a manager onboard ask to get off and nothing more is said, but if a member of staff asked they are told no and then get a disciplined for it. They really are not bothered about the staff because we are replaceable. 
Otherwise the staff are good to work with the team's are close because you have to be with them for a 12hour shift plus. The benefits you get with the job are excellent. You learn alot.
One thing I learnt there was never cross management because no matter how well you do and the compliments you get your cards are marked. My last 12months at red funnel were made up of being bullied and disciplined all because of one person. I loved working there and I made alot of friends and yes I was sad to leave but I didn't want anymore confrontations of being watched and bullied.

Over all red funnel was my best job the people you work with are very helpfull and become like familly you allways work same crew so u spend more time them then familly managment put the pandemic to blame for a lot of things how ever this was not allways the case there is alot of bitchyness between people obsos and team leaders are very fair if ur at uni or wat a summer job great place to work 12 hour shifts take ot out of you free staff allowance for food on shift can grab 10 mins fresh air everytime ur in dock if have right obsos team leader on shift operations manager is very clued on with mental health and will support you from video calls to face to face if possible ceo fran cares more about revenue and red j

I worked at Red funnel back in 2022 at 18 and I screwed it up with my attendance.. but now reapplying in hopes to join the team again. Its a fun place to work and your always meeting new amazing people everyday on the water is never truly the same. Yes of course there have been hiccups in management/staff bit I have not worked for a company that did not have some kind of bumps in the road. You need to be prepared for the unexpected because like people say there will never be 2 days the exact same. I have high respect for Red funnel. Just because I may not 100% agree with 1 or 2 things that I've seen or heard along the way but your getting the best you can get and I hope that I can prove to be at the top of my game if I do return now at 21 years old 😊😅😊.

A universally despised director united lots of my colleagues. I didn't stay long, but I met some great colleagues on the ships but the anger within the crews was obvious. People are furious at the way one of the directors seems to act with disdain and malice - refusing to negotiate and talking down to people who didn't agree with her. Terms are just being eroded, and there's already not much left. So long folks, this place could have been great, 
~Normal shift pattern was great, 4 on 4 off. Night shifts were savage.
- Colleagues onboard were good, hardworking and knowledgable. Training was good but definitely felt like "bums on seats" was the only ijmportant thing.

I worked for Red Funnel for the most part of two years, and found certain areas of my role to be very fulfilling and rewarding, however other areas which were crucial in a supportive environment to a young colleague were not always prevalent. My team were down to earth, intelligent colleagues whom I considered my friends, and they taught me how to take pride in my work and accomplishments. The demand of the role in ratio to the lack of managerial support however, made for a strenuous environment from time to time. Overall, I would say that the people make Red Funnel the enjoyable experience it was; it gave me a chance to do my best, even when I was learning the ropes. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Catering assistant 5 salaries reported	£21,614 per year
Flight attendant 4 salaries reported	£21,654 per year
Technician 1 salary reported	£18.36 per hour
Deckhand 1 salary reported	£15.47 per hour
Superintendent 2 salaries reported	£68,578 per year

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