Luc Smulders, Secretary General, Paris MOU, tries to maintain a boundary between his personal and professional life, striving for a work-life balance. While remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has improved this balance, challenges still remain. He enjoys spending time with his two dogs and getting up-to-date with the geopolitical developments.
When it comes to the shipping industry, Luc Smulders acknowledges that several companies place value on employee satisfaction, leading to enhanced loyalty, productivity, and work quality. However, he would also like to see others follow suit and go the extra mile to ensure seafarers’ well-being without relying on Port State Control authorities to intervene.
SAFETY4SEA: What does ‘wellness’ mean to you? What do you do in your everyday life to embrace wellness?
Luc Smulders: For me, wellness or rather well-being means feeling happy in both my personal and my working environment. For both environments, this also means that ideally the people around me feel good and do the things that make them happy. This gives the opportunity to enjoy what you do and what you achieve.
S4S: What are the two things to do that can make you feel happy after a challenging day?
L.Sm.: We have two Boerboels (South African Mastiffs) that I enjoy walking with. Not only because it is nice to relax physically every day, but it also distracts your mind from things. In addition, it is an excellent setting for more philosophical reflections; alone or together with my wife.
S4S: What is the most worthwhile wellbeing investment (in energy, time, money) you’ve ever made?
L.Sm.: The most important investment is not so much in energy, time or money, but rather in consciously choosing the way forward instead of consolidating. That investment also includes the acceptance that not everything will (immediately) work out the way you had in mind.
S4S: What do you do to keep balance between your personal and business life?
L.Sm.: I prefer to keep my personal life at a certain distance from my business life while at the same time trying to find a balance between the time I spend at work and the time I spend at home. That balance is a little easier to find thanks to the positive experiences I’ve had working from home during the COVID pandemic (fortunately possible given the nature of my work). At the same time, it makes it a bit more difficult to keep my private life separate from my business life. But you also get used to this by being able to quickly switch between work and living environment.
S4S: In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your personal life?
L.Sm.: In terms of a business environment, this was encouraging co-workers to take initiative and assigning (partial) responsibilities to them. This also reflects positively on the possibilities for relaxation in your personal life. An important lesson I have also learned is that rest in itself is not enough to relax; I need to do something to really relax. For example, by going on holiday to a region that is worth seeing in terms of culture and nature.
S4S: What would you like to change in the current maritime landscape with regards to wellbeing?
L.Sm.: The realization within the shipping industry that employee satisfaction results in their loyalty, productivity and quality of the work delivered, with all the positive effects this entails for the maritime sector. Although many companies are indeed aware of this and act accordingly, the well-being of seafarers at other companies is often still too dependent on the limited possibilities of port State control to intervene.
S4S: What wellness-promoting initiatives would you like to see in the workplace?
L.Sm.: I agree with one of my predecessors (Laurent Emmanuel Migeon) that sport at work could have a significant positive contribution to the physical and mental well-being of employees.
S4S: What is the one thing that you are feeling grateful at the moment?
L.Sm.: As far as my work is concerned, it still offers me enough challenge to remain attractive. The advantage of this is that job satisfaction translates into the opportunity to enjoy your private life and to be a nice person (I hope).
S4S: What are your hobbies/ favorite activities?
L.Sm.: I mentioned the most important hobby earlier and it concerns our two dogs that we spend a lot of time with. I also enjoy reading and keeping myself informed of geopolitical developments.
S4S: What is your personal motto?
L.Sm.: An important adage that I learned at the Royal Netherlands Navy Academy is that knowledge means power, but that character is more important.
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
