Don't be fooled by the lure of fun and excitement of working and living on a cru ise ship.

Steiners is a spa company that has monopolized spas on cruise ships an d they are aggressively hiring Acupuncturist to complement there business. On th e surface it may seem glamorous and adventurous visiting international ports on cruise ships with potential of making $1000/wk but the reality is not so excitin g at all. The image about the job will quickly change as you begin your life on board with a rude awakening of hectic schedules, bombarded with stiff rules and regulations as a staff worker for concessionaires such as spa, casino, art galle ry and photo shops. When steiner advertise that you can potentially make $1000/wk. that's only possi ble on handful of flagships with great iteneraries. Additionally you will have t o be completely booked daily in order make that much money and about half of tha t money is tips so your actual paid only around 500 on a fully booked cruises. I t is almost criminal to see how little workers are paid. Also Steiners will push you and hassle you constantly to sell their products to the clients and they ar e infamously known among returning passengers for pushing products with false pr etenses. Workers at the spa are constantly burdened psychologically to generate sales income or else be harassed for poor performance and reprimanded severely f or making small errors on the job. Acupuncturist are required to work about 5o to 55 hrs but expect to work 60 to 7 0 hrs/wk. when you break it down you are only earning $15/hr if you are a top ea rner. At the end of the week you will be dead tired but you have to get right ba ck to welcome new group of passengers. The job is very labor intensive and you a re responsible of every from cleaning and prepare the room for service for every clients and required to do major cleaning every week from moping the floors and waxing the cabinets and making the beds to marketing yourself for a booking and not to mention the treatments you are doing. The Acupuncturist is basically run ning the entire business alone. steiners supply equipment, space and managing pe rson to push you around and demoralize you. If you don't meet there expectations . Since clients don't normally come to spa for an acupuncture session you have to promote yourself rigrously. When you have uncooperative manager it makes your jo b that much more difficult. I have never worked so hard in my life for the littl e money i made not to mention the physical wears and emotional stress for doing this job the best way I know how. If you have any plans to settle down some wher e to open up your private practice don't waste your time with this company begin building your practice. If I knew what I know now, I would of never signed up. In my opinion steiner is taking advantage of Acupuncture field lacking in job op portunities. I would sure like to see someone strong and brave enough to unioniz e the Acupuncturist currently working on Cruise ships. This statement is strictl y my personal opinion based on my experience working on a cruise ship. Thank you for reading, ultimately it's your choice, you have to decide for yourself my in tentions for submitting this collumn is to shed some light to what I experience as an Acupuncturist on a Cruise Ships. .. Response to 2nd commentator Response to 2nd commentator who wrote "Wow that has not been my experience..."

First of all you are absolutely correct that Steiner can not control to make all ships potentially profitable for all Acupucnturists to earn $1000/week. I think that is exactly the point the original author was trying to make. Secondly, there is a quota for how much product steiner demands to be sold for e ach worker including the Acupuncturist. This is a enormous pressure and if you f

ail to make quota continuously then ultimately the worker will be reprimanded wi th more useless training that make the worker even more over worked. Thirdly, you can not be prepared enough for this job no matter who you are. It's a twelve hour shift with only 1.5 days off per week. Plus on the last night of the cuise week all workers including Acupuncturist must participate in port clea ning (cleaning treatment rooms) and mandatory meeting which make it become 14 to 15 hour shift on that day. Additionally there are other miscelaneous mandatory chores for staff member of t he ship to participate in drills and safety classes. Not to mention strict regul ations that limits your freedom on the ship. Also, the so called training Steiner provide is heavily focussed on selling ther e product line that has nothing to do with Acupuncture. Not to mention the outra geous prices they expect workers to sell it for. Like someone said this is a bus iness and it is definitely geared toward making money at all cost to workers who was willing to have come so far to work for them (Steiner.) The ship's life is nothing like you have ever experienced. It's operation is con ducted in heirachecal manner ordered by officers and rest of the crew is treated as second or third class mates (citizens.) Ship's inside culture below the pass engers deck is a domain where lines are clearly drawn between the have and have nots (of stripes.) Finally the original commentators intention was to shed some light on matters th at are not shared by Steiners recruitment to prevent negative image. If there is any negativity in the truth than it's certainly not the original commentators f ault or intention. It's just the way truth is sometimes. It's very suspicious to have someone seemingly so defensive and protective on St einers behalf. If you really are currently working on the ship you should know h ow physically and emotionally draining it is to work at Steiners Spa. Employees are over worked and under paid and the major topic of many conversation among wo rkers are feelings of animosity toward management and yearnings to return home. Most workers at the Spa comes from econimically strained society and sure they a re considered previliged compared to others back home but they are enormously st rained by unrelenting demands to make more money for the Spa and being burned ou t is just matter of time and if you say you are immune to this condition then yo u must of been working for another company other than Steiner. I think this issue can only seem negative to those who have a stake in protectin g Steiners policy and position. I personally haven't met any Acupuncturist who h aven't negative complaints toward Steiner. Steiner provides a rare opportunity for work to some what jobless market for Acu puncturists but at the same time it's far from being a great career opportunity either. For the amount of same effort and time it can be more beneficial for the future cause to focuss on building you own practice on land where home belongs. For those of you who are fresh out of school and adventurous with endless source of energy this opportunity might interest you,but it is definitely not for eve ryone and in order to determine that you need to know the negative as well as th e positive. I don't see any wrong in shedding a light on negative issues. What i s purpose of covering up the truth in first place. This world is not perfect and we are mature enough to know the raw truth if we are going to commit to a six m onth contract with Steiner. Ofcourse during the course of your stay onboard there are wonderful opportunity

to travel and meet people from all over the world and it's very fun and exciting at times spend time with new friends you'll make but at the end it has to be wo rth it to stay away so long from home and enduring a long contract that will eve ntually wear you out. Let's not sweep the truth under the rug instead we should confront it face to fa ce and make an informed decision about your own career path. .. I could see why you may have I could see why you may have had a positive experience for a few reasons: 1. small ship 2. easy going manager or not top producing manager at Steiner 3. Massage therapists and others in the Spa who are not jealous of you for your double sized bed, single room! 4. Not expected to work till 7, 8, or 10 and then leave, only to have to come ba ck for a midnight meeting or 2 am meeting. 5. Not have to stand on your feet for 4 hours to demo acupuncture while repeatin g yourself 1000 times while everyone else is making money by booking new ship gu ests as they walk in 6. have management who sees Acupuncture as making money rather than holidng them back since they think massage therapists and facialists make more 7. Not have jerk and pissy attitude spa managers who use britsih diplomacy and get back at you if you disobey or piss them off by accident when you forget one of the million things that have changed since the last meeting or don't have fin gerprints cleaned from your walls when they use UV rays to check it out during i nspection 8. Not have asshole colleauges who get jealous of you when you make some money t he two days you have clients, while they have bookings nonstop, or the fact that you are not them and are treated better with supposedly better hours etc. etc.. .. Well, it's nice to see Well, it's nice to see someone has the guts to shed some light to the factual in formation that is never shared by recruiters from steiners. Obviously this artic les description is lacking in enlightening us with positive side of the whole ex perience but I have to say I agree with many things mentioned on this post. Befo re I begin discussing about my views I want to mention that those people who hav e left comments criticizing the author of this article sounds very artificial an d smells awfully fishy to be so happy and content about being confined and restr icted for 5 to 6 months and being away from home for so long... unless they are linked with steiners in some way...??? Anyways, the first matter I want to discuss is about the potential earning capab ilities. There is lots of opinions about making $1000/week potentially, but let me tell you this is not easily done on every ship. I agree that you can make thi s much only on handful of ships because I sure never made near that amount, when i was on the job. Contrary to what steiners ( and others?) claim, an acupuncturist will have to ge nerate approximately $3500 to $4000 in total sales to earn about $500 to $600 in commission plus about $400 in tips to make $1K per wk however this is not possi

ble on every ship. Most ships are 7 day cruises and ussually ships are schedule to be on port for 3 days. That means there is only 4 sea days to generate the ma jority of the income through out the week. An Acupuncturist will have to be comp letely booked up to make about $3200 to $4000 in sale and being fully booked on every sea day is just not possible on most ships. Sure there are some ships with great opportunities but most clients do not line up at the spa for an acupunct ure treatment. Clients who are willing to pay $100 for someone to poke needles a re doing so for a medical reason so don't expect to be fully booked all the time . You'll probably have to work you tail off promoting yourself to make a decent income. While on the subject of earning I want to mention something on tips. Someone com menting on this article said the tips are $25 to $35 that is straight out lie! Y eah sure you'll get great tips once in a while but this is on very rare occassio ns. The norm is 10% to 15% so expect to be tipped around $10 to $15. This is the real amount you'll be tipped. Not $30 or $40 (not 30-40% tip) unless they are c ompletely wasted on booze from partying too much or just filthy rich. Basically my experience with steiners gave me an opportunity to grow as a practi tioner when there was no job to be found and bonus opportunity to travel and see the world but I would never return again unless I am desperately broke. There i s a reason why people won't continue returning to steiners for more than two con tracts. The price of confinement and restriction of your freedom is just too muc h to deal with for a long periods of time. It can be a fun experience as tempora ry gig especially if you have no other opportunity at the momment. For those who are contemplating about joining steiners, give it a try you'll nev er really know unless you experience it yourself but I assure you, you'll never want to make this job a life long career. The benefits of no-tax, paid meals and boarding is only good for so long. The ship recovers back the money from you by charging you extra on many essentials things. Unless you manage your money we ll, it becomes so easy to loose your money on partying and having too much fun t o counter the stress you will encounter on the job. Lastly, I've been on different ships and most ships are managed by ships officer s and I have to say they are bunch of pompous europeans who are filled with igno rance and arrogance. I now have this fixed image about europeans and I am blami ng it all on those jerks in white uniforms who thinks too highly of themselves. I have more to say but I am going to bed maybe there will be others with similar thoughts continue posting comments about there experiences, Thanks for your att ention and good luck. To steiner cronies, kiss my.... .. Submitted by cruise pt on Sat, 04/11/2009 - 5:39am. hi! it is quite amazing that hi! it is quite amazing that steiner transocean do not cause many more comments from their previous employees at sea. it is not important if one were employed in th eir onboard spa/beauty/fitness centers as cosmetician (beauty th.) or podiatrist or massage th. or even a manager. most of the people were overworked, underappr eiated and mistreated during the length of their contracts at sea. reading this and some other experiences here on this site -- came to understandi ng that some people are meditating of organizing "union defence" or alike form o f resistence to steiners prior signing employment contact with them or after onc

e finding themselves aboard and starting work in their salons and other premises previously mentioned... to kill this idea at first -- i would like to point that there is no such thing as "unionized" approach when dealing with them. these people... steiners are pri vate owned company, their trust of firms is registered offshore, their owner is non-scroupulous, their office staff incapable and uninterested (parasites, whose salaries are payed from income made on the ships directly by seagoing employed staff)... this company steiner is expanding year after year, acquiring other companies in business and eliminating them out of the biz game. they did that firstly with co iffeur transocean (company i started to work with back in the 90s), then in earl y 2000's they bought mandara spa. also greenhouse later on ,etc. thing is -- they know how to do business of exploitation young, inexperienced, p eople with qualifications like massage th., hairdressing, fitness instr., and in newer time even people with college degrees like acupuncturists. they use tricks and gimmicks making networks of international recruitment agents directly and a number of "cruise line employment agencies" indirectly to do thi s. me, myself am physiotherapist with master's degree (msc pt) and have started to work as massage therapist with coiffeur transocean back in 1992. right after gra duating from school. at that time masseurs have been payed a way better then now , and were not overworked like they are now with steiners. i will not speak about percentages here as that is past tense. ships were smalle r, older, pax. load less, we worked from 6-8hours daily and cleaning was out of pleasure and not out of being pushed to do it as it is now. atmosphere: better, 6-12 people in salon/spa teams, i still remember so many nic e details from that time. i am still a friend with some people i met along working on the ships then. team was mostly british, sa, kiwi, australian in origin and i was a rare breed c oming from republic of slovenia, small country in middle/central europe. anyway, when steiners took over, the new system of brain-drain, retail/lash/push was enforced and the most of all i hated -- steiner "managers". people who were educated to perform beauty/hair work, being promoted "from within" toward manag ement positions leading teams without knowledge, style and finesse to do that. most of the time i was the most educated person in the team and managed by beaut ician who get that position thanks to ability to sell a lot of steiner cosmetic products or having sex with decission maker. steiner is really a company that can be explained like in previous sentence. sel ling. services come third or not of significant importance. people suffer and are attracted with false promises and get soon dissapointed. a nd willing to leave. steiner charges for all expences includind "training" on their so-called "mariti me training academy" in harrow weald in london. airfare, accomodation, uniforms are being payed out of employees pocket and one might feel more like buying a fr

anchise doing this, then to get regular employment aboard ! situation with acupuncturists is as i see better then with the rest -- single ca bin allotment, independence in work and a way higher percentage then the others 20% compared with 7,25%. tip is a part that make the most of employees income for those working in servic e providing posts aboard cruise ship -- so the idea of that is something i will not be discussing here. i will continue this writing as soon as i receive any comment from readers that will point me in some particular direction of their interest and i might be able to answer that based on experience and informations i might have. in the meantime -- good luck and may your career decission be right :) ! cruise pt-... Hey AcuDoc, having completed Hey AcuDoc, having completed 4 contracts with Steiner there are both positives a nd negatives working on a ship. A lot has to do with what your goals are and how well you are suited to the transitory lifestyle. I realize you are excited about this, and don't let anyone here on this site aff ect your excitement. That said, it is not all fun and games. The most annoying p art of working in the spa was in fact the management - the spa manager job is no t a very pleasant one and those who are hired for it aren't always the smarted o f the bunch. So be prepared for possible idiocy on their part. Now I was lucky, 3 of my 4 managers were wonderful. A ship with good ports can make for a great experience, you have the benefit of getting most port days off. First thing you need do is take control of your sche dule - don't let any spa manager control your schedule!!! 52 hours is the rule I count ANY required duty within that 52 hours. The Jou herbs are decent quality, but my only complaint is the lack diversity of formulas. A lot of the spa products are crap and over priced. I've got several friends still working on ships, I'd highly recommend you join t he "Acupuncturists at Sea" group on facebook. They can be very helpful in develo ping the unique strategy you need to have for this job. I've finished with Steiner and have moved back to a land based practice which is flourishing. Being able to bill insurance is making me so much money its almost silly. Give it a try, if you can get Europe or Asia do it up!! As for me I'm glad to be stationary and in my own home again. -JM .. Ship LIfe Well, I wish I had read the reviews prior to working on the ships with Steiner. It is great in one way as I was straight out of a 4 years degree and the differ ent conditions were excellent to treat. Being my second career I found myself c onselling the Spa team and treating Carpal Tunnel and Shen disturbance continual ly. When you arrive it is like strict high school with the military demands. You do

learn to adjust after several people yelling at you...once I ate an apple in the I95 and was repremanded servely by security!?!! Unlike the massage therapists who work way too many hours, if we as TCM Dr's did not diagnose our brains would not function like theirs. Most are on too party and have a good time and your Manager can make or break you. Ours was fired for sexual harrassment and was, if I may say, an American Douche Bag! My advice is the bigger the ship and the older the clietale/guests the better is it is for you. I now know the ropes and if I do decide to go again I will have a different game plan. If the contract is only 3 months it would be much bette r as I was contracted for 7. The time on the ship goes fast and it also goes ve ry slow...you need a great itinery to make $$$. The cruise line makes all the d ifference...do your homework. I hope that helps some people who are considering the work......and remember you can always leave. They tell you a fine must be paid, but everyone who left the ship never paid it to Steiner. We had people coming and going all the time in our spa...huge turnover. thanks and good Qi to you.. ..