Enterprise Crew Number

[Talondor]

I was going through the Galaxy class page when I noticed that the crew number said 1014. Looking at the footnote, it said it was from a episode, and I remember Picard saying that he was responsible for 1014 people on his ship (which was probably from that episode). But I always took that to mean that included the families of the crew members. If there are 1014 crew members, shouldn't Picard have said a higher number to reflect the family members he should also be responsible for? Or should the 1014 on the crew number column be lower to pin just the actual crew members.

[Graham Kennedy]

No, 1014 was the total number of people not just the crew.

CRUSHER : "Jean-Luc, if I might ask, how many people are there on board?"
PICARD : "One thousand and fourteen, including your guest, Doctor Quaice."

[Talondor]

So family members are counted as crew?

[Mikey]

So family members are counted as crew?

That's a little nit-picky, c'est non? Yes, you could make the distinction between "crew" and "associated personnel assigned to the E-D," but to to try to discredit Graham's entry on that basis is just... well, unnecessary. If there were an argument against to be made here, I'd say that the number is high by 1, considering that Dr. Quaice isn't assigned to the E-D.

[Graham Kennedy]

*shrug*

I guess I should have called it "complement" rather than "crew". That's a fair thought, though I'm a bit hesitant since the large majority of ships don't have families on them. Better to have a word that's a bit awkward for one ship than a word that's a bit awkward for every other, perhaps?

Also I noticed the Quaice thing when I checked the source. Have just fixed that bit.

[Captain Seafort]

Also I noticed the Quaice thing when I checked the source. Have just fixed that bit.

It probably varies quite a bit around and above the thousand mark, just as the Defiant varies around the fifty mark, and probably more so given that the families will vary a lot more than the actual crew. As another datapoint, Riker gives the complement as 1014 in Rascals.

[Praeothmin]

So family members are counted as crew?

That's a little nit-picky, c'est non? Yes, you could make the distinction between "crew" and "associated personnel assigned to the E-D," but to to try to discredit Graham's entry on that basis is just... well, unnecessary. If there were an argument against to be made here, I'd say that the number is high by 1, considering that Dr. Quaice isn't assigned to the E-D.

Allow me to nitpick slightly as well...
I believe you meant to say:
"That's a little nit-picky, n'est-ce pas?"
(Is it not?)

N'est-ce pas?

[Mikey]

Nope, I don't speak French.

[Bryan Moore]

Perhaps this is a new topic all to itself, and I'm sure over the last 9.75 years on the forum we've talked about it... How does the Enterprise staff itself? How many people are actually working at their functions at any given time? This especially interests me now as a manager of a 24/7 operation.

Let's just say 900 of the 1014 are actual crew and not family. Let's proceed with 900 crew (Yeah that may be quite high) to staff the Enterprise. Things need staffing 24/7 and from Chain of Command we know there are 3 shifts... we'll just assume 8 hour shifts, or perhaps 10 hours with 2 hours overlap in between. For the sake of argument, we'll do the modern US salaried manager "45-50 hours a week" deal and say an overlap of each shift by 30 minutes.

For the sake of idiotic simplicity, let's assume all the shifts are even... that means at a minimum, we'd have 150 people on each shift at any given time. Obviously in an 7 day week we're going to have day overlaps, so lets just say it's spread out even, add another 21 to that number, so now we're talking about 170 people per shift if that was overlapped evenly.

Let's cut "Gamma" shift in half to say 90 people there max, and spread the rest... that's maybe 200-220 people on the other two shifts each day. That doesn't seem like all that many people for what goes on aboard that ship! And that doesn't count the sentient dolphins.

Thoughts? Opinions?

[Graham Kennedy]

I wouldn't have thought the shifts overlap - why would they?

My guess would have been three shifts means everyone works eight hour days, so to use your 900 crew number, an average of 300 per shift. I'm good with the night shift being low staffed, so I'd call it something like 150 on the night shift and then 375 on the other two shifts.

I always did think the E-D was undermanned, though. For a ship their size - 27 times the size of a Connie! - they should have a crew in the 5,000 range, IMO.

Hell, if they staffed it the way we staff Navy ships it would have a crew in the hundreds of thousands...

[Bryan Moore]

I wouldn't have thought the shifts overlap - why would they?

My guess would have been three shifts means everyone works eight hour days, so to use your 900 crew number, an average of 300 per shift. I'm good with the night shift being low staffed, so I'd call it something like 150 on the night shift and then 375 on the other two shifts.

I always did think the E-D was undermanned, though. For a ship their size - 27 times the size of a Connie! - they should have a crew in the 5,000 range, IMO.

Hell, if they staffed it the way we staff Navy ships it would have a crew in the hundreds of thousands...

Automation is the wave of the future!!!

[Bryan Moore]

I wouldn't have thought the shifts overlap - why would they?

From experience in my industry (and I know it TOTALLY isn't anywhere close to Starfleet), there tends to be an overlap (at least in leadership roles) to "hand off" from one to the other. Just a thought.

[Mikey]

A small overlap is useful (my professional experience is in related fields to Bryan's) to avoid interruption in function. Nobody is ever ready to begin when they get to their post, though a professional "able seaman" - much less an officer - shouldn't require the 5-to-10 minutes of warm-up my cashiers used to seem to need. Still, one would want a few minutes' overlap for the exiting personnel to brief the incoming personnel of any events or situations of interest or concern; for the new personnel to update consoles to their preferences, et. al.

[Graham Kennedy]

I wouldn't have thought the shifts overlap - why would they?

From experience in my industry (and I know it TOTALLY isn't anywhere close to Starfleet), there tends to be an overlap (at least in leadership roles) to "hand off" from one to the other. Just a thought.

We've seen shift changes before, in Data's Day. One person comes in, gets a one sentence summary of anything interesting going on, and then the relieved person leaves.

[Praeothmin]

Why would the "night shift" be less staffed?
Since day and night is artificial in space, and they need the ship to be operational at all hours, then why should there be a "night shift" at all?

I would imagine the shifts are 8 hrs, with the replacement crew arriving slightly early, say 5-10 minutes before their shift starts, to get up to speed, but I don't see why the finishing shift would actually need to extend its shift...