I am not an authority

 God help the poor soul, I have a trainee this week. 

    I am working over, working in my off time, and holy-o-dogshit, did I take it in the seat a bit this week. I accepted an easy gig, overseeing floating storage for fuel at a powerplant... but that got taken away and I ended up bunkering, which was disappointing but OK. 

 I'm an old cus for a guy who isn't quite middle-aged, I get that. Among other reasons, one of the things that keeps me in my position at work is that I have a LOT of time to myself, something I value immensely. 

 I really, truly enjoy being alone at work. It was the same when I was lobstering. Fishing singlehanded is a lot of work, and I could be twice as productive and not get my ass kicked by having a sternman, a deckhand, and I did, but in fair weather, I also didn't bitch too loud when the guys failed to show up on account of being drunk or generally unreliable. A 12 hour day of working hard and not having anyone bother me was a good day, even when it was a bad day, if you get my meaning. 

 So it made me pretty soggy and hard to light when I showed up to a bunker barge on Wednesday and there was a trainee on board. 

    Alone time is of at least equal value to my salary. That is, if my salary was doubled, I could accept having a trainee. I mean, I accept it, I wasn't ready to quit over it this week, but for me to willingly accept a trainee without being a dick about it, It'd  cost my company a daily rate increase at least equal to my current pay.  Anything less and I would just as soon forego the raise in pay in exchange for not having a trainee. 

The last time my supervisor offered to bribe me to take a trainee, I offered to bribe him for me not to take a trainee.

 I say this not to bitch, but to lament that I was foolish enough not to ask if there was a trainee aboard, because I would have just asked for another job. Picking peanuts out of elephant poop, maybe, provided I could do so solo. 

 So, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, but I won't make that mistake again. 

 Anyways, I'm not so much of a dong that I won't do my best to teach the trainee what I can in the time I have. It's not punishment that got me a trainee, and I can't take out my misanthropy on the poor guy, But my company didn't do him any favors for sure by saddling him with me. How can I give my best if I hate being there? I can't. I can only give my best despite being there. Hopefully that will be sufficient to help. The last time I got a trainee foisted on me, he ended up doing well, and as far as I know he's still a tankerman for my company, positioned a couple hundred miles to my south. 

      I'm frequently guilty of false bravado, of engaging mouth before brain is fully in gear, but I worry about second- and third-order effects of having a trainee- to wit, it might happen more in the future if I do a good job. My precious alone time is an incentive, not a shackle... but it might be, at that.