Pros
It's a 28/28, 21/21, or 14/14 work schedule. Your pay is split so you don't go without a paycheck on your off time. The training and safety standards are good as long as you practice them. They usually keep people working during the slow months. You won't go without a paycheck. 2019 Payscale for Deck Crew -(these have gone up but not by much) Trainee - 135/day (7 day onboard training) Inexperienced Deckhand - 173/day Experienced Deckhand - 215/day Senior Deckhand - 249/day Leadman - 264/day Senior Leadman - 271/day Mate - 307/day Senior Mate - 326/day Some positions get rental cars to and from the boat but that also depends on your relief. Disaster relief. If you and your family are affected by a disaster, historically, they've been good about relief efforts. They'll try and take care of you.
Cons
The biggest thing is the pay is too little for the work. That is with all these companies. They are adding more and more to the deck crew responsibilities with paperwork, duties tankermen should be doing, etc. Like all these companies they cater to the wheelmen. There used to be quarterly safety bonuses, yearly raises and the benefits were decent. Now, raises and bonuses are small if any at all. They had an additional retirement fund along with a 401k but they froze the retirement fund. So what's keeping anyone here? You can roll that 401k over anywhere. Health insurance has gone up and covers less. There are three plans but only one worth paying for (but is it really?). Boats are testing positive for COVID all the time and they do not have a quarantine standard in place. They do something different for every case. One boat might be running under quarantine, another is in a hotel. They are crewing up too soon after COVID exposures. Some people are reporting they are sent moldy food when quarantined. I'll stop there.