Even if Jellico was right about it being a superior system, he was still being a shit leader.
You don't come into a management position and instantly change everything up. You start by learning how things have been going with your staff and setting up a series of changes, with adequate forewarning, for them to adjust to reasonably.
You sure as hell don't come into a situation that's tense with time pressures, emotional pressures, legitimate causes to fear for their lives, etc, and then force a wide array of changes onto your staff.
Even if the 4-shift thing is unquestionably superior (and let's assume it is, ignoring the Bajor comments people are making) - it's still a stupid as fuck thing to do, under the circumstances.
Especially considering all the other changes and pressures he was adding on, all at the last minute, before a major battle.
Engine overhaul, protocol changes, shift changes, multi-day extreme overtime, on a staff that's emotionally distressed right before their lives will be put at severe risk?
He's an absolutely terrible captain and a disgrace to Starfleet. His bullshit would have endangered everyone's lives for no good reason, had he not been damned lucky that the battle never came.
He didn’t have time for a honeymoon with the crew.
Yeah, that’s not how the military works at all. Maybe in business management, but not military. People seem to forget Starfleet is just that. The commander has a philosophy (that they will often draft a letter about when they assume command) and the unit adapts to it. People used to that are a little more understanding of Jellico and recognize that dread the enterprise crew had when they realized how good they had it under Picard.
not military. People seem to forget Starfleet is just that.
The Enterprise is a "ship of exploration", as they remind us every other episode. It has a ton of biological and astronomical labs on board. Their mission is:
to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man / one has gone before
That's the mission of a diplomatic vessel. They just also have weapons. It's 100% not a military ship. Starfleet itself is repeatedly described as not a military organization.
The only "military" version of the Enterprise D is in the TNG episode where they encounter the Enterprise C that returns from the past. It's completely different from the regular version, and the difference between the timelines is stark.
Remember that DS9 (and the Defiant) operate on a 26-hour day because Bajor has a 26- hour day. That means a three-shift rotation would have people working an extra 40 minutes each day compared to an Earth-normalized ship (almost nine hours a day).
A four-shift rotation requires everyone to work six and a half hours a day.
Hell, the idea for a three-shift rotation was probably Starfleet's idea. And the Bajorans probably went along with it just because they recently got away from pulling 18-hour days!
People call Jellico a hardass and yet Riker was pissed at him because he was giving people more time off.
Jellico was Starfleet's best captain. I will die on that hill.
The biggest reason Riker hated Jellico is because he isn't Picard.
And the longer Jellico sat in the Captain's chair, the less likely Picard was coming back.
I got the feeling like Riker was upset he wasn't given command of the Enterprise during Picard's absence.
Jellico was prepping for war.
And then he stared down the whole Cardassian military by himself and won.
I call foul: the Bajoran day (and DS9’s schedule) is based on a 26-hour day, so a 3-to-4-shift rotation would be an easier switch.
Edit: It makes more sense, anyway. 4 6-hour shifts, with a 30 min meal break each rather than 3 8-hour shifts with a ~50 minute break.
But help me out with the size of the roster. Say you have 25 people needed to operate 25 stations. 3 shifts so you have 75 people on your ship.
Then you go to 4 shifts without stopping at a start base to pick up extra 25 people. And you have to put 1/3 of your crew in double shifts, or you spread it out so everyone picks up an extra shift 1/3 of the time. And in average everyone works as much as before.
Redundancy is efficiency. No ship would operate with exactly 75 people to cover 25 stations in three shift. Either some of those stations are redundant, or you have more than 75 people. Otherwise, one illness or injury would bring down the whole system.
A switch to shorter shifts would reduce redundancy on each shift, but each worker would get more rest and be less likely to burnout or get sick, even if they have to pick up occasional double shifts until they can take on more crew.
You want some overlap, that way if theres something going on, you can swap easier. And its not a big deal if someone is five minutes late.
Fewer?
I just copied the dialogue as is. Far be it for Kira's character to speak incorrectly.
It was basically the preference of one prominent guy in 1770, and is not inherently correct in a historical sense.
I will always defer to the great scholar Weird Al, who once sagely said:
You should know when
It's "less" or it's "fewer"
Like people who were
Never raised in a sewer
This is from his epic lyrical work, "Word Crimes."
