PERs : All issues questions...2003-2019

[MJP]

Piper dude I think your inexperience is colouring your comments.  Troops sitting around in a combat arms type unit is fairly common at certain times.  You have to remember we are talking about a larger number of troops in each sub-unit then what you deal with at a Svc Bn.  Not everyone has a job to do all the time.  Sometimes troops have to sit while their leaderships sorts out stuff.  Second don't think for one second that no one sits around at your unit.  I just asked one of the NCOs in your unit if they find that troops sometimes sit around without much to do and the reply was yes.  Granted this was one company out of four and the caveat to it was that for the most part it is people without specific jobs (Pte-Cpl level) but don't make it sound like your all going balls to wall all the time.

The last thing I'll add is I know your unit very very well and if think that the only thing driving people out is Op tempo, your people are not telling you the whole truth.  Ask them about the constant talk of "out in fantrying the infantry" in reference to their training.  Not to mention horrible administrative procedures that hinder timely processing of basic memo requests etc etc.  I just watched a member have their posting message delayed for a good three weeks(combined with it being issued very late for the APS as well) because of the way admin works in your unit and the utter lack of care of subordinates by several levels of command. 

 

 

[GDawg]

Well said Dog.

Now that we're back on the original track, I feel from my personal experience that retention is so far off the radar screen it isn't even funny.

I recently CT/OT'ed from reserve to reg force and its been nothing but heart ache and hassle, and I am getting sick of hearing the old "nature of the beast" line. I was given 8 days notice to get to Kingston and was informed during the drive that the course I was loaded on was canceled. I'm told it will take 2-12 months to go from the reserve to regular force pay system. I've been in better part of 9 years, and I'm going on my 3rd trade and I'm getting an enormous amount of grief (only from the orderly room) over a request to vacate single quarters even though the school standing orders strongly support my case, as does my actual chain of command. While a college educated PLQ qualified combat veteran with 9 years service in multiple trades has to hang around ancient communal shacks for up to 2 years to "acclimatize to military life", anybody straight out of basic can shack up common law and get their own place straight away without demonstrating any responsibility.

The base is swarmed with recruits, as a PAT I have it better than most, I'm busy as hell teaching reservists for the summer. Again, its funny that I can be trusted to train soldiers, but I'm can't bloody well be trusted to get my own grown up house and sleep in my own big boy room...

The goal should be getting reservists into the reg force, and if someone in the reg force wants a new trade they should be fairly accommodated. How many of the swarm of new recruits will leave the forces out of disgust from being stuck in a PAT Pl for YEARS? How many seasoned Cpls are leaving the forces because of all the reasons mentioned above? How many reservists are sneering at the ludicrous idea of going to the Reg force only to have their military experience and civilian credentials ignored?

Morale is dropping, at least at the lower end of the ladder.

 

[Michael OLeary]

They aren't, and when we no longer have a serious mission to train for, there's going to be an exodus of troops.

Every time someone tries to identify "the big dis-satisfier of the moment", it always ends with the forecast of the mass exodus.  I have yet to see that doom and gloom projection come through in my 30 years in the CF.  (The only mass exodus we've had was forcefully engineered through the Force Reduction Plan.)  I think if you dig a little deeper you'll find that most people are actually in it for more than just the mission pay or the adrenalin rush - and those who are here just for those reasons really aren't committed to a long career or helping to sustain the establishment, and they'll leave anyway.

When you figure out how to fix the tasking requirement, and then how to afford issuing every CO a blank cheque for training - then we can talk about taking you to the range every day just to keep you entertained doing army-stuff.

 

[Michael OLeary]

For Dog and the others who feel the “nature of the beast” is wasting their lives:

What are you personally doing to make use of this abundance of idle time you report?  What courses (university, community college, night classes or correspondence, etc.) are you taking so that you can use free Army time to study?  What papers are you writing for regimental, corps or army journals about the problems you deal with and solutions you can offer from within your lanes?

What are you doing for personal professional development?

Or are you just using the time to sit around and bitch?

 

[Towards_the_gap]

What a can of worms this thread is......


The course I am on at the moment is a VERY good example of what we are saying is wrong with the system.

It is 4 1/2 months long, sometimes longer when you add Christmas/Summer leave in. Now when you are first told that, you think, wow, that sucks, but hey, I'm learning to be a section commander in a technical combat arms trade. Fair one.

Until you start the course, and realise that the majority of it is paperwork. How, I ask, does the PO 'LEAD INFANTRY OPERATIONS' translate into me doing a site sketch for the PC? As a sect commander, I would expect them to at least organise a troop level attack, with us occupying various command positions. I realise resources are short across the army, but what's a few hundred rounds of 5.56 blank?? Instead we draw a little picture, where the majority of your marks come from the actual format of your sketch (north arrow, legend, centre grid), not the tactical set up itself. And I can pretty much guess what an infantry WO would say if I, tasked to site my sections trenches, ran back up to him with a pretty little picture, and no trenches dug. Basically, the course itself is more about staffing then actual leadership, and the majority of canidates actually wonder 'what the * does this have to do with leading a section in battle???? and why I am here for so long?' We accept that  engr recce does require alot of paperwork and repetition, however, leading an engr section is not all about recce, or how well you write a proforma, or how well you can line up all your little paragraphs in a handwritten report.

Reference Mr. O'leary's comment, the problem with the 'nature of the beast' is not so much that my life is being wasted (far from it), but more so that some higher-ups in the CofC think it is acceptable to screw the troops around, for no reason, and think that excuse will cut it. In spite of the recession, we are still going to compete with the civilian labour market, both in terms of recruiting AND retention, and gone are the days when all us little soldiers think the army sure does beat digging ditches, and we are happy for what we have. I could walk out of the army today into a well paid surveying job, but the fact, as mentioned earlier, is that I do enjoy pure soldiering, working hard in the field on operations, and if I'm not going to be doing that every day, well fine, but give me a good reason why I am sat around in a cage until 4 for no apparent reason, other than 'something might come up'.

Yes, dog, myself and others, may be b*tching. But this is the internet, it is a forum for discussion, and we are suggesting some solutions, and trying to help identify problems. But as with anything, we do not have all the answers. Whilst I agree with Mr O'leary that there may not be the big exodus of troops , if things remain unchanged, that trickle will keep going, and probably get slightly bigger, and you will lose the good guys who won't put up with the crap, and be left with more boneheads than switched on troops. DISCLAIMER: That does not mean everyone with +10 years in the forces is a bonehead. It's just we've all seen the 'promoted through attrition' cases.

Oh and I'm getting my high school via correspondence in all this spare time I get. Without going through the PSO's office, filling out paperwork again. *shock/horror*. 

 

[Michael OLeary]

It is 4 1/2 months long, sometimes longer when you add Christmas/Summer leave in. Now when you are first told that, you think, wow, that sucks, but hey, I'm learning to be a section commander in a technical combat arms trade. Fair one.

Until you start the course, and realise that the majority of it is paperwork. How, I ask, does the PO 'LEAD INFANTRY OPERATIONS' translate into me doing a site sketch for the PC? As a sect commander, I would expect them to at least organise a troop level attack, with us occupying various command positions. I realise resources are short across the army, but what's a few hundred rounds of 5.56 blank?? Instead we draw a little picture, where the majority of your marks come from the actual format of your sketch (north arrow, legend, centre grid), not the tactical set up itself. And I can pretty much guess what an infantry WO would say if I, tasked to site my sections trenches, ran back up to him with a pretty little picture, and no trenches dug. Basically, the course itself is more about staffing then actual leadership, and the majority of canidates actually wonder 'what the * does this have to do with leading a section in battle???? and why I am here for so long?' We accept that  engr recce does require alot of paperwork and repetition, however, leading an engr section is not all about recce, or how well you write a proforma, or how well you can line up all your little paragraphs in a handwritten report.

The content and resource bill for the course you are on was developed by your own trade.  NCOs and officers who had experience with the course, and/or will be employing its graduates had to make the hard decisions of what would be included and where the emphasis would be placed. 

For the example you note, imagine if the PC standard was "lead an infantry section during a defensive infantry platoon exercise, to include siting of trenches and occupation".  How many times would you have to go through it with a platoon sized course, so that each student was assessed on and passed the PC by that description?  Would it be worth lengthening the course by another week for that one PC?  How many other PCs are similarly abbreviated such that a live exercise test would require significant time and resource allocations?

Reference Mr. O'leary's comment, the problem with the 'nature of the beast' is not so much that my life is being wasted (far from it), but more so that some higher-ups in the CofC think it is acceptable to screw the troops around, for no reason, and think that excuse will cut it. In spite of the recession, we are still going to compete with the civilian labour market, both in terms of recruiting AND retention, and gone are the days when all us little soldiers think the army sure does beat digging ditches, and we are happy for what we have. I could walk out of the army today into a well paid surveying job, but the fact, as mentioned earlier, is that I do enjoy pure soldiering, working hard in the field on operations, and if I'm not going to be doing that every day, well fine, but give me a good reason why I am sat around in a cage until 4 for no apparent reason, other than 'something might come up'.

Have you any specific proof that someone in the chain of command actually decided that "today, lets make the troops do nothing, just to fuck them over."?

 

[Towards_the_gap]

I agree with you ref: the course content, but you have to admit, at first glance it seems ludicrous. From my experience, having had friends take the British Army engr section commander course, it is both shorter by 6 weeks, and also focused more on section level tasks, and the planning and execution of such tasks. Which is all validated by a week long exercise at the very end. If it can be done there, why not here? And what was most illuminating is when we asked one of our staff how our course critiques could influence the next course, we quickly lost all hope when told of all the bureaucratic hoops the army goes through to change a course. If a school is a CofE in something, let it be the CofE, and let it create the courses the field army needs, and let it modify said courses to the needs of the field army. Not overbearing oversight by various staff officers. I will freely admit that I could be way off the mark here but that's how it looks from down here at the coal face.

As for the second point, I didn't phrase that well, and agree that the CofC do not actively pursue our being dicked around. Having said that, what is so intensely wrong about dismissing the troops to go to the gym, as suggested earlier. Put GYM-1400hrs onward into the regt'l time table, unless there is something else going on, and worst case, keep a few volunteers behind, should something come up. Basically, think outside the box, rather than just say 'it's the nature of the beast, suck it up or get out'.

We don't do No 2 field punishment (Clicky) these days because someone said, 'hey, I don't think this is working very well, let's try something different'. Leadership is about getting the best out of your troops, and we will not do so if we simply shrug our shoulders whenever something is wrong, or not working well.

 

[Michael OLeary]

The problem with course evolution is that everyone has a different idea of what needs to be changed, added, taken away, get more emphasis, get less emphasis, whether it should be longer, shorter, modular, trained at CoE or at unit etc., etc., etc.  And no "solution" developed by any CTP writing board has been satisfactory because there are always critics.  What you end up with is the best compromise at the time, and that's all it can ever be.

And if your unit decides that releasing the troops at 1400 will be the norm, will you expect that every section commander and above will stay in the office to work on necessary admin so the troops memos can be answered?  If it becomes the norm, what happens when the order gets changed to "everyone wait, we've been told something might happen" and it doesn't?  Like I said, there are no simple solutions, what you think will work for you personally may end up creating serious grief for someone else - but I guess that doesn't matter if it's just some asshole up the chain, right?

Go ask to work in your unit Ops cell for a few weeks to see how many of these events are outside the unit's control.

Unfortunately those last minute tasks when you do need to nail down some troops for that day or the next do happen.  Often they happen because a unit "no filled" tasks to reduce the tasking load on the unit, and, at the last minute, it came back as an ordered requirement.  Try being the receiving unit of one of those tasks for a variety of specific trade/rank requirements having to call units directly two days before the start date because Area after Area "no filled" the tasks within hours of them being assigned. 

 

[Nfld Sapper]

What a can of worms this thread is......


The course I am on at the moment is a VERY good example of what we are saying is wrong with the system.

It is 4 1/2 months long, sometimes longer when you add Christmas/Summer leave in. Now when you are first told that, you think, wow, that sucks, but hey, I'm learning to be a section commander in a technical combat arms trade. Fair one.

Until you start the course, and realise that the majority of it is paperwork. How, I ask, does the PO 'LEAD INFANTRY OPERATIONS' translate into me doing a site sketch for the PC? As a sect commander, I would expect them to at least organise a troop level attack, with us occupying various command positions. I realise resources are short across the army, but what's a few hundred rounds of 5.56 blank?? Instead we draw a little picture, where the majority of your marks come from the actual format of your sketch (north arrow, legend, centre grid), not the tactical set up itself. And I can pretty much guess what an infantry WO would say if I, tasked to site my sections trenches, ran back up to him with a pretty little picture, and no trenches dug. Basically, the course itself is more about staffing then actual leadership, and the majority of canidates actually wonder 'what the * does this have to do with leading a section in battle???? and why I am here for so long?' We accept that  engr recce does require alot of paperwork and repetition, however, leading an engr section is not all about recce, or how well you write a proforma, or how well you can line up all your little paragraphs in a handwritten report.

Reference Mr. O'leary's comment, the problem with the 'nature of the beast' is not so much that my life is being wasted (far from it), but more so that some higher-ups in the CofC think it is acceptable to screw the troops around, for no reason, and think that excuse will cut it. In spite of the recession, we are still going to compete with the civilian labour market, both in terms of recruiting AND retention, and gone are the days when all us little soldiers think the army sure does beat digging ditches, and we are happy for what we have. I could walk out of the army today into a well paid surveying job, but the fact, as mentioned earlier, is that I do enjoy pure soldiering, working hard in the field on operations, and if I'm not going to be doing that every day, well fine, but give me a good reason why I am sat around in a cage until 4 for no apparent reason, other than 'something might come up'.

Yes, dog, myself and others, may be b*tching. But this is the internet, it is a forum for discussion, and we are suggesting some solutions, and trying to help identify problems. But as with anything, we do not have all the answers. Whilst I agree with Mr O'leary that there may not be the big exodus of troops , if things remain unchanged, that trickle will keep going, and probably get slightly bigger, and you will lose the good guys who won't put up with the crap, and be left with more boneheads than switched on troops. DISCLAIMER: That does not mean everyone with +10 years in the forces is a bonehead. It's just we've all seen the 'promoted through attrition' cases.

Oh and I'm getting my high school via correspondence in all this spare time I get. Without going through the PSO's office, filling out paperwork again. *shock/horror*.

TTG all I can say is welcome to the Center of Excellence for Military Engineering  ;D You think yours is bad, I'm on the Reserve Course and things are even more fu*ked up, and my course is 2 months long.

 

[armyvern]

Whose talking about the paycheque? I'm not debating that, but you're saying being a combat engineer is the same as being a supply tech is ignorant.

This isn't a question of wanting work, so much as it's wanting to do something, anything related to my trade. This goes for everyone in every trade.
I didn't sign up to be a supply tech, so no, I'm not going to go count triwalls of stuff at the local Clothing Stores. Just like I don't ask supply techs to come dig the footings of an NSB in the pouring rain. It's not what you signed up to do, so I wouldn't expect you to want/know/care/be qualified to do it.

As for being sick of hearing "it's the nature of the beast" I hear it everyday... as I'm sitting around doing nothing on days when I could be going home early, if they aren't going to train me. I'll be earning that time back when I'm rolling around in afghanistan waiting to be blown up.

If it's truly "the nature of the beast" then, getting back to the original point of the thread, the nature of the beast needs to be changed somehow... because the facts are that retention is a serious problem. Just because some of you are satisfied with the status quo, doesn't mean things are ok. They aren't, and when we no longer have a serious mission to train for, there's going to be an exodus of troops.

I didn't say being a Sup Tech was the same as being an Engineer. So please do not put words into my mouth. As for "doing our work" - THAT work that's taking so long to get done ... is work that will allow parts to get placed on those vehicles, that will allow stuff to get out to your Units - that when it eventually gets done by us mere overworked Suppies will alow YOU to do trade related tasks and training. I've got 49 subordinates - 49. Of which 13 were tasked running ranges two weeks ago, 2 are deployed, and 3 are working up to deploy, and two are still on post-deployment leave. Why don't YOU run the ranges tasking (apples - Army "common tasks") so that my 13 suppies can be at work getting that stuff out to you quicker (oranges - Army "trades tasks")? Get it now?

I've got plenty of non-Supply work you could do to assist us getting your shit out to your Unit, so that YOU can carry on.  It's not ALL apples & oranges. You see, you help us get the apples looked after and we'll look after our own oranges. I've got work you could do, apparently - you've got the same old tired arguement as for why you don't want it. If you think this is something new to this generation of soldiers - guess again. The CF grows in times of war. When troops are in Canada ... they are not in that war - thus the extras that were recruited in for that purpose have much less to do precisely because there's an excess of them. It happened after both Great wars, followed up by mass exodus or force reductions. This generation is not special.

As for me using cop-outs or enjoying the staus quo. You obviously don't know me very well at all.

My first kick at "the status quo" of which you speak occured in Field Supply, Petawawa, circa 1990. I was a young (and back then HOT - I'd like to point out  >) one-hooked Pte. Friday afternoon - as usual - all the Cpls and above fucked off leaving all of us Ptes to 'man the fort' until quitting time. Those were also days when we had shitloads of Ptes hanging around with nothing to do (you know, before those mid-90s rounds of force reductions that WILL come again after 2011 [they only need to keep troops around for TFA & Podium now]). Vern decides that this is el toro poo poo; she tells all the other Ptes to fuck off and go home too - that she will stay and 'man the fort'. The Pl WO J.J. happens in (after leaving the Mess) to pick something up that he left at work.

He finds me. "Where the &^% is everyone?" he screams. He knew the Cpls and above were gone .... they left at the same time he did. "I sent them home she says". "You can't do that" he says. "Well, I did do that" says I.

Monday morning, after PT, into his office goes Vern and the MCpl so that Vern can bear the wrath of both. After the usual yeling and screaming I say, "Well, if you all don't need to be here any Friday afternoon, neither does every one of the Ptes, taking turns is much fairer." "You have no authority to do that!!" "Well, I says, where were you guys? On military related work somewhere else?" "Don't you question us as to our whereabouts - they are none of your business". It cost me 3 extras.

Next Friday afternoon comes around and guess what? Same thing occurs (that was the staus quo). Again, I send all the Ptes home again except me (hell, I was pulling the extras anyway!). That cost me 5 more extras (if I were them, I'd have charged me). The next week - another of the Ptes said, "I'll stay this week - you all go".

After that, they got the picture that I just didn't care - that if they wanted morale to be good they had better fix the situation because we'd just keep doing what we did with me remarking "you'll have a fun time charging us for going home early when you were all already at home early - that'll look real good." The rules changed ... and we took turns staying - even the Cpls and MCpls.

I've been kicking "the status quo"in the teeth ever since.

I may have some of my quotes wrong, but you get the picture. I had spit on me they were yelling so badly. BinRat55 may be able to add more - he was one of those Ptes that I kept sending home and who gathered outside the office that first Monday to overhear the yelling that was occuring between me/MCpl/WO.

A girl or supervisor of the status quo I certainly am not, nor have I ever been.

Your remark that "I'm not doing your job" is actually the "status quo". The us vs them attitude that is prevelant. There are plenty of things that you could do to help us that are not supply (ie you don't have to be a Suptech to do them), things that would get your stuff to your Unit faster so that your Unit can carry on with it's trg. What would actually be "NOT stauts quo", would be you actually helping us get them to you faster. And, it seems to me - that that would solve both problems ... you'd not be sitting around bored until 1600hrs (and drawing a huge paycheck for doing that) and my troops might get home on time. And THAT folks is a suggested solution to the problem.

Who'd have thunk it? Actual teamwork in this huge outfit that's supposed to be about teamwork actually solving problems. Wow.

As for your Afghanistan comment. Hmmmm, why do you think us purple trades in Pri 6 Units are at 70% manning levels continually? Precisely because we've got Suppies on every roto to TFA (and on every other tour that the CF is currently involved in too --- there's LOTS of them too --- just look it up, vice just when our Unit deploys. Only the Army (or the CF) hasn't recruited any increased numbers for us like it has your zero trades - that means we do without at home. That maes us busy trying to do Afghanistan, all those other Ops, and our domestic jobs with the same manning levels from the year 2000. We haven't grown a single Sup tech since then and we've got a war to support too. In actuality - all us purple trades are red and understrength of even those pre-war Y2K levels. We've still got the same amount of work (and a whole bunch more) work to do though.

Guess what!!?? Retention is a serious problem for us too!! Surprise!! Being OVERWORKED and underappreciated is the main reason that I hear around here for those of us purple folks pulling the pin. And that will just serve to make the situation even worse.

Status quo my ass.

 

[X-mo-1979]

Being OVERWORKED and underappreciated is the main reason that I hear around here for those of us purple folks pulling the pin. And that will just serve to make the situation even worse.
Status quo my ***.

I like my rain jacket.

 

[armyvern]

I like my rain jacket.

I had nothing to do with it. 

 

[Jammer]

...not even the MOBs???

 

[armyvern]

...not even the MOBs???

Certainly NOT the MOBs!! They SUCK.  >

 

[Towards_the_gap]

The problem with course evolution is that everyone has a different idea of what needs to be changed, added, taken away, get more emphasis, get less emphasis, whether it should be longer, shorter, modular, trained at CoE or at unit etc., etc., etc.  And no "solution" developed by any CTP writing board has been satisfactory because there are always critics.  What you end up with is the best compromise at the time, and that's all it can ever be.

I must, disappointingly, agree. Disappointing in that I cannot see the perfect solution (if in fact there is one). That is one thing one of the instructors said in fact, that if we see so many problems with the CTP, ask to partake in the CTP writing board. I think I will bang the memo in on that one. To what end, who knows.

And if your unit decides that releasing the troops at 1400 will be the norm, will you expect that every section commander and above will stay in the office to work on necessary admin so the troops memos can be answered?  If it becomes the norm, what happens when the order gets changed to "everyone wait, we've been told something might happen" and it doesn't?  Like I said, there are no simple solutions, what you think will work for you personally may end up creating serious grief for someone else - but I guess that doesn't matter if it's just some asshole up the chain, right?

I will not presume to speak for everyone, but if I, as section commander, have work to do that does not involve the troops, then yes, I will let them go, and stay to do the admin. RMA Sandhurst has a great motto 'Serve to lead'.

Go ask to work in your unit Ops cell for a few weeks to see how many of these events are outside the unit's control.

Unfortunately those last minute tasks when you do need to nail down some troops for that day or the next do happen.  Often they happen because a unit "no filled" tasks to reduce the tasking load on the unit, and, at the last minute, it came back as an ordered requirement.  Try being the receiving unit of one of those tasks for a variety of specific trade/rank requirements having to call units directly two days before the start date because Area after Area "no filled" the tasks within hours of them being assigned.

Agreed, I have been on the receiving end of one of those tasks. The problem was, I turned up on that task and spent a week and a half doing nothing, apart from taking the course for PT, because there simply wasn't anything for me to do. The problem perhaps doesn't lie with the unit ops cell so much, as the CFTPO system itself, or rather those who generate the CFTPO requests. Luckily the 6A's came up, relieving me of a few months trying to find things to do. That being said, I do not know enough about the CFTPO system to comment authoritatively, and so will gladly listen to those who know it better than I.

In regards to Armyvern's comments, whilst we all like to b*tch about sup techs and the 'stores are for storing, not issuing!!!' mentality, I'm sure we all know sup techs who DO go above and beyond, and sort out the troops. If for example, vern's suggestion to come work in the warehouse helping them out came to myself back in pet, I am reasonably confident that if I explained to the troops why we are helping them out (ie to get parts/stores down to us in the field units), they would gladly help out, rather than sit around the cage, watching paint fade. I am saying this from the comfort of my 6a's course, perhaps Dog could refute or back up that statement? However, give them the option of stacking pallets/sorting kit or a breaching range, well we can all guess the answer to that one.

I guess we are all feeling the crunch of both post-FRP manning, and that wonderful 'transformation' idea, transformation we have yet to see at the coal face. The best we can hope for is that priorities are realigned to reflect the realities both of the operations we will undertake, and soldiers, sailors and airmen who will undertake those operations, and that the culture of the army transforms along with all the nice new shiny equipment and nice new shiny sprogs coming through the system.

 

[c_canuk]

being overworked is just as bad as doing menial make work projects.

A lot of it is caused by red tape overhead... as Vern pointed out, the Supply system is almost broke... I don't know about other places but Sigs here is almost as bad... to illustrate, when I started working in PC Maint in 06 there was a shop with 19 positions all filled, when I was posted for my CT I there were 7 left including myself.

Monitor Mass is supposed to help remove a lot of the Red tape by being a one stop shop for all pers data, and automating all the fiddle farting parade states and tasking management, but if your unit won't use it or doesn't trust it enough to let go of the old paper systems, it's just duplication of work.

if you don't have enough to do, and/or you keep getting your time filled with busy work, it's most likely that your superiors are too busy dealing with all the red tape. Try taking the initiative and when you meet your Supervisor in the morning perhaps suggest another task and volunteer to do the coord... ie ask if you can book the soccer field etc

look for things that need doing, ie you know of a store room that needs reorg, if the vehicles haven't moved in a week, propose a road move exercise to the timmy’s parking lot the next town over and back. Have you done a comms check with all the kit lately?

Have the weapons been cleaned lately, nothing better than having the guys sitting around some tables shooting the S**t while cleaning C7s, possibly with some Pizza and pop off to the side. Maybe run through IAs and stoppages on the LMG/GPMG... or have who can disassemble reassemble the fastest blindfolded contests.

Speaking from my limited experience... when I'm overloaded from red tape from above, I'm relieved when my people take the initiative and find things to occupy themselves with and booking the resources themselves... it shows leadership growth, and it takes load off me so I can spend more time on other issues.

If I don't have anything pressing, as long as they tell me where they are going to be, and how I can reach them, I don't care what they are doing as long as there is trg value or it's something that needs doing, and is legal and low profile.

 

[dimsum]

...I have to remember this thread when people start getting posted to the proposed new UAV squadron, wherever it may be.  :

 

[George Wallace]

...I have to remember this thread when people start getting posted to the proposed new UAV squadron, wherever it may be.  :

Tooo late.  They started posting people there in 2007.    ;D

 

[dimsum]

???  Crystal Palace?

 

[aesop081]

???  Crystal Palace?

George was making, i beleive, a remark that is funny and that refers to the CHUD in Kandahar.