Question on Bonding

Today Hanna asked:

So being confined with a bunch of people for a few weeks can be seen as a bonding experience in some situations. Is that the case for working on an oil rig? - do you make friends and hang out and feel close to the people you're with? Or do you just interact purely on a professional level, then hide away in your room on your own at nights to relax, and then after a few weeks you go off to the next rig and forget about the people at the previous one?

By nature I'm rather aloof when in a professional setting, so I tend towards the latter. My usual routine involves waking up, heading to the gym for 30 minutes or so (depending on how late I sleep), attending the evening meeting at 5:30 , eating dinner, starting my shift at 6pm, working till 6am, giving notes to my day hand and chatting about stuff until 6:30, then eating breakfast and going to bed right away. Unless they're doing noisy construction in the living quarters, it's shockingly easy to sleep for 10 hours or more a day.

I eat alone more often than not, but when I do eat with other people our conversation tends towards the job. I'm friendly around the rig, and I'm always quick with a "Hi!" or "Good morning!" (it works both when I wake up and go to bed!), but I rarely get into a personal conversation with a rig hand that goes deeper than "where I'm from" and "what the heck I'm doing in Louisiana".

All exceptions to this generality are with my fellow MWD/LWD Engineers. We're all crammed together in our little steel box which predicates just such an idea, although with me it's still rare. I've hammered out a couple of pretty solid friendships over the stresses of a job, but in most cases I'll merely develop a slightly deeper understanding of my coworker, thus making it easier to converse with them at office parties, but not compelling me to invite them over to my house for a beer. We'll get a small sort of "comrade in arms" bond, but nothing particularly strong.

There is of course the other extreme, which hasn't happened to me (yet) since I try to keep the peace. But I have known countless occasions when a pair of engineers, after spending one or two volatile weeks on the same rig, will never want to see each other again -- it's a hazard of the close quarters.

There was one occasion when I thought a job might actually ruin a good friendship between myself and a girl named Margarita. Margarita is a really friendly, upbeat person, and we got along well whenever I saw her in social situations from the start. She chose me to be a part of her cell back in April, and we worked on the same rig off-and-on for a period of about 6 weeks.

While working together, I was dismayed when it seemed that she was extra-critical of my work and would blow up at the smallest misstep I made. I was inwardly seething at this treatment, and was having a difficult time maintaining my civility with her. Then one day I couldn't take it any more, and when I brought up my concerns we both burst into a very teary reconciliation, embraced each other strongly, and sniffled our way back into perfect friendship. All in front of the very male, and very uncomfortable, directional drillers.

I hope that answers your question! So who's next?