It’s been interesting to watch newly-promoted Bosun Ashton Pienaar on Season 7 of Below Deck. Maybe he really deserved the job. Or perhaps Ashton’s advancement had something to do with him nearly dying on camera last season. It remains to be seen how Ashton will fare as bosun, but he has already made some questionable management decisions, such as trying to hook up with deckhand Abbi Murphy.
Then there are the more subtle things. Ashton seems to be straddling the fence between boss and friend. It’s certainly a harder situation when you live in close quarters with your co-workers.
In lieu of a potential breakdown of law and order in the deck crew, Captain Lee Rosbach spent a good part of his most recent blog post giving Ashton management advice.
Captain Lee summed up the issues by saying, “Ashton, being in management is a bit overrated isn’t it? You are learning that it’s really difficult to be a friend to your crew and a boss at the same time. I don’t think they mean to take advantage of you, but it always seems to happen.”
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Brian de Saint Pern gave Ashton a bit of trouble last week by breaking something quite expensive then bypassing his bosun to tell Captain Lee instead. He said of the incident, “Brian, is a good example of that. He was upset because he got caught doing it and called out for it. You can be a friendly boss, but rarely does the situation occur that you can be friends and a good boss as well. Friends would put their job first, in order to make sure that you as their boss don’t look bad and to make sure you didn’t get called out. But you seem to be doing that for them.”
Abbi may have gotten away with more than the others. She was not able to get to work on time and Ashton made the mistake of letting her sleep undisturbed. Captain Lee explained, “After a night out, and you didn’t roust Abbi’s butt out of the rack, because she drank too much and I think that was a mistake on your part. Everyone else answered the bell but her. I wouldn’t have waited for her to get up, I’d have woke her up and told her, time to pay your dues.”
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Captain Lee continued, “Remember this is a self-inflicted illness brought on herself so she could have what she thought was a good time. Those decisions come with a price, that you didn’t make her pay. Would you have left Brian slide the same way? And I can see that you are trying very hard and are picking up the slack for a couple of people, one deserving, and the other not so much.”
So what can Ashton do to turn this bosun thing around? Captain Lee had some suggestions, “Remember they look for you to lead them, and when you do that correctly, they will in turn get results, but as a boss, results are what you will be judged by, not by how much your team wants to go to the bar and drink with you. I thought you telling the rest of the crew about your conversation with Brian was proper and I just hope they listen up and do the right thing by you.”
RELATED: Below Deck Star Captain Lee Rosbach On Abbi Murphy: “You Were Embarrassing Yourself And The Boat”
Hopefully, Ashton can get his team under control.
TELL US- SHOULD ASHTON BE MANAGING HIS TEAM DIFFERENTLY? DID HE FAVOR ABBI BY LETTING HER SLEEP IN?
[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo]
