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THE CAPTAIN’S OFFICE
Aboard ship one of the most important
work areas for the YN is the captain’s office.
Here working under the ship’s secretary, YNs
control incoming and outgoing mail, maintain
the ship’s officers’ service records, perform
legal and disciplinary actions, and maintain
the ship’s master instructions and notices. The
size of the ship determines the size and
manning of the office. On larger ships, such
as aircraft carriers, responsibility is split
between other offices employing several YNs.
There could be a separate legal/discipline
office and possibly a separate office for
classified material processing.
On smaller
vessels, there may be only one or two YNs in
one office to do it all.
Fortunately, the
workload is smaller, even though the tasks are
the same.
THE SHIP’S OFFICE
Ships generate a great deal of internal
paper work and reports. To deal with this, the
executive officer (XO) maintains the ship’s
office.
The XO keeps track of reports,
personnel functions, special services, and so
on, and filters information to the commanding
officer (CO). Generally, Personnelmen (PNs)
are assigned to the ship’s office, but on larger
ships YNs may be assigned to handle the
administrative workload.
OTHER OFFICES
Overall, though, central administrative
offices are in the minority. Most offices are
at the departmental and divisional level, such
as the engineering logroom, the weapons
office, and the operations office. Here you
would be concentrating on correspondence,
reports (muster reports, custody reports, and
so on), helping with requisitioning, and, of
course, maintaining the files and records of
the division or department. The thing to keep
in mind is, while the area of concern may be
specialized, your administrative skills and
knowledge will be the same.
OFFICE APPEARANCE AND
ARRANGEMENT
The amount of control you will have over
the physical conditions in your office will
vary with the location and the type of duty to
which you are assigned. Aboard ship and
ashore, conditions outside your control may
determine the kind of office and equipment
you will have. Regardless of the conditions,
however, you will be expected to take your
share of the responsibility for the general
appearance and neatness of your office. We
will discuss more about the appearance of
your office in the next paragraph and in the
section pertaining to customer service. We
want to point out your responsibilities for
your office and how you should perform these
duties as a routine part of your job—and not
wait to be asked to perform them, Take the
initiative yourself and carry out these duties.
NEATNESS AND CLEANLINESS
The general appearance of an office can
be greatly affected by a simple practice such
as putting things away from day to day. It
will be one of your responsibilities to see that
articles used during the day are put back
where they belong. In securing your ship’s
admin office for the night, you should
properly secure and store all gear and supplies
to prevent damage to equipment or injuries to
personnel from flying objects if your ship
should encounter heavy weather. If you are
serving ashore, it is no different—you should
still put away articles and clean up your work
area before you secure for the day.
Whether your office is ashore or afloat,
you should go through your correspondence
basket daily to see that work does not pile up.
When you handle classified documents, be
especially careful.
After using classified
documents,
make sure you store them
according to the guidelines set forth in the
Department of the Navy Information and
Personnel Security Program Regulation,
OPNAVINST 5510.1.
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