The Place of The Quartermaster

[Azande]

8 hours ago, Bear said:

So riddle me this. The QM is responsible for the cargo dept and mining running efficiently and doing their job... except they can't actually do anything if they don't. Sure they can go whine to an HoP or Captain... assuming they're lucky enough to have one? What so they do when they do not?

They are tasked with a department and given responsibility to run it with no authority. Make it a command roll. Easy fix. HoP already has enough to deal with imho.

https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/lsat/lsat-lessons/lsat-reading-comprehension/a/reading-comprehension--article--getting-started

QM has full authority over Cargo, they are a supervisor. They supervise, they manage. The only people they cannot deny cargo orders from are Heads of Staff. Cargo Techs have to listen to them.

[Zaeperry99]

While (even as a command main) I don't have any particularly strong feelings about this, I saw a couple of things that I was either genuinely curious on or wanted to point out.

On 10/09/2019 at 13:22, Skull132 said:

Someone said on this thread that removal of this policy will see the Acting Captain role assumed more often. Good, because it should be. (And it was, regularly.) The assuming of the Acting Captain position is necessary to maintain the chain of accountability, and to keep the chain of command clearly defined.

I'm confused by the way the way you say this as though this policy change will fix this, and then go on directly to quote Directive 2 (underlining all but the part that states) "Should, during standard operation, the Command Staff be missing a Captain, then it is preferred that all members of the Command Staff present stay on equal terms and act as a singular commanding entity." Are there any plans to change this so that an acting captain is not flat out discouraged?

Another thing, though this is less curiosity and more something that bugged me. 

On 10/09/2019 at 13:22, Skull132 said:

The situation, as presented in this wiki page, would allow for all sorts of weird shit. Like a Head of Staff other than the HoP or Captain authorizing the transfer of materiel without legitimate signatures being present; or the Chief Medical Officer signing a search warrant of the engineering department on grounds of suspicious conduct

I'm not saying you need to come up with a different example because I think the gist is there, but this one is just blatantly untrue and I feel like it's an attempt to blow up potential issues that there are already failsafes and regulations for. "Any search of departments or individuals on green alert require a search warrant stamped by the Head of Security. If there is no HoS then the Warden's signature is also valid. If there is no Warden or Head of Security then IAA may stamp off. If none of these roles are occupied then just do your best." There are easily a dozen other examples on the wiki (some on pages that can't be quoted ICly, I'll admit) that specify that only X or Y or Z (in that order of preference) heads can do a thing.

[BRAINOS]

even as a QM main, i'm very, very iffy on making it a command role.

would everyone who's been playing QM for four years suddenly need to apply for a command whitelist? while this would fix a huge issue with QM's that spawn in just to loot the warehouse and then cryo, a better fix would simply be to message the HoP.

the real shitty part of QM is having 3 bad techs who run off to raid maint for the full shift after looting the warehouse and only coming back to Cargonia Rise Up at the first whiff of antaggery. on any normal shift, it falls to me, as QM, to try fulfilling every single order, and i can't bitch to the HoP about it because they're busy being a hostage somewhere.

making QM a command role wouldn't make these powergamers any more likely to listen. i already have the authority i need, my word is just about all the HoP needs to fire someone. it just never happens because everything has to be just right: there must be a shitty tech that is really round-ruining, there must be an HoP present, the HoP must be available, and there can't be an ongoing crisis anywhere on the station that the HoP must be attending to instead. nobody cares enough about bad cargo techs to drop their entire round arguing with one, trying to get their ID to demote them.

giving QM's authority to fire someone won't fix it, because then I'll get fired for calling one out when i join 40 minutes in and the warehouse still isn't sorted.

most of my issues however, with unruly techs, come down to me being unwilling to pull rank IC, except in the worst of cases.

saying the QM role is non-essential is also bonkers. QM's are vital to teaching cargo to people and peeling miner's guts off then asteroid when it takes medical an hour just to suit up because "oh god, not eva, goddamnit"

the QM is the person most people PDA for requests because you know none of the techs are linking their PDA to the requests console.

i'm not saying the QM is needed to function every single day, but it is a role i'd miss, and it is a role that if you were to take away, you'd turn Supply into a free-for-all of "sort the fucking warehouse," "you're not my boss," etc.

ultimately, the shitty part of cargo is not an IC policy issue. it's because a cargo tech is basically assistant with maint access, and is used as such 4 times out of 5.

[Azande]

I feel like this has been handled by Head Staff well enough to be closed or something by now?