You notice in tos which takes place in the 2260s Kirk had someone bring him pads and he signs them. The person then goes away. Aka the yeoman in the navy
We see kirks cabin office is neat and tidy no stacks of pads.
In picards time in tng which takes place in the 2360s/2370s we see Picard and riker buried in stacks of pads they don’t have yeomans anymore?
100 years later and captain is piled on paperwork
What happened to the starfleet yeoman?
What do you think?
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In the old Navy, sometimes YNs would handle paperwork and sometimes COs do. Some people trust their subordinates and others want to be deeply involved.
Kirk, obviously does not give a shit about paperwork – he’s a big picture guy. He also has a GREAT YN. Picard…he’s a details guy.
When comparing this to historical records there are significant parallels!
Budget cuts
Kirk signed everything a yeoman put before him. That’s how he got scammed so often. Picard is more careful.
could be a preference. haven’t watched all of the Next Generation but picard is a very different captain than kirk.
Updated computer technology and data handling most likely made the “Captain’s yeoman” an generally unnecessary position.
Kirk’s yeoman had him signing reports, verifying log entries, and taking care of the odd task. Other duties might include seeing to the captain’s meals or snacks, scheduling necessary medical exams or meetings, and anything else an orderly might be required to do.
As Starfleet’s computer systems became more robust and the interface became more AI a lot of those paperwork tasks would have automated, needing only the captain or XO’s occasional reviews. As for seeing to meals, that was made much easier with the advent of replicators. Possibly Admirals still had such assistants, but we never see evidence of that.
There’s a different approach to delegation.
Picard has a dedicated XO who handles stuff. Riker then had a second officer and department heads who report to him. When there is an issue, Picard asks the relevant officers and comes to a decision. He has less on his plate and can focus more on what’s at hand in a calm, deliberative way.
Kirk’s XO doubles as science officer. Everything runs by Kirk, at least nominally. When there’s a decision, he doesn’t call a conference, he says what needs to be done, and trusts that what ever they do to implement it will be right. But, he sees all the issues at least somewhat.
Picard could probably promote or assign an Ensign to be his personal yeoman, but with advancements in PAD technology and just being tidy, he doesn’t really need it.
Sisko and Janeway didn’t have the context necessary for a yeoman; one was a war general, the other basically sailing the seven seas with hierarchy being something they held to hoping it never broke.
And when Archer did this bit, Starfleet didn’t even exist. He didn’t have that much paper to worry about.
Now why don’t Pike and Georgiou/Lorca use yeomen, since they’re TOS time? Well, at the end of the day, Kirk also had a very unprofessional crush in Yeoman Rand, so maybe he doesn’t necessarily need her help either. Maybe everyone sees through it.
Put simply: Kirk is the kind of guy who would ignore his paperwork duties because he’s too important for that, there’s bold adventure to be had, Romulan ale to chug, 4D chess to play, and alien ladies to bang. Picard is more serious about his position and its responsibilities so he makes sure to do it himself. When he’s done he treats himself to a nice classical literature reenactment on the Holodeck. It’s fun whenever Moriarity doesn’t come to life.
I bet the guy who handles Kirk’s paperwork doesn’t actually have that in his official job description. He’s probably something else, I’d say accountant cause it’d make sense to delegate paperwork to one, but they don’t have money so I don’t know if they even have accountants in the Federation. Maybe he’s just the intern, the nephew of some Starfleet higher-up who couldn’t’ve passed training on his own and got stuck with the guy whose lower crew gets eaten by monsters every week.