Here we go again

It's really starting to get out of hand. What's that you ask. Well right now no one even cares if we enlist a grad or not. All anyone cares about is a senior or a reserve contract. Even better how about a senior that joins the reserves. Oh and since some people are not making the senior mission guess what the knee jerk reaction is? You guessed right make us work late. So only after two years the powers that be wants to take back a successful policy and make everyone work 18 hour days again. Awesome just fucking awesome. I am starting to see the toxicity come back too. There is drums beating about working on Saturday again. Really? I was under the impression that we were all making mission hand over fist. So the reaction now is since the war is winding down the Army don't need that many people anymore, hey I know why don't we make our field force work longer and dumber during a time when they don't need to. Yep that's the answer. Take for instance company mass prospecting on a fucking Saturday, yeah that worked in the past lol. I don't remember people tripping like this when we were short of people. Yes I understand the mission never ends. But its also at its lowest point in years, or since I can remember. But in order for us to make it we are going to have to start working on weekends and working later. Well what about the last two Damn years when hardly any weekends were worked and the mission was higher and we still made it. Honestly there is not one bit of justification for it. This is where the next set of problems are going to come from its this bullshit right here. Hey nevermind the video that the General and the Sergeant Major put out telling us hey good job on making last years mission. But to congratulate everyone and as a reward hey you will have to work Saturday to make up shorfalls on a MAP and possibly work late prospecting again. Oh and by the way fill out this slide deck explaining your work ethic because you didn't write a contract. Just goes to show you nothing is going to change out here never has and never will. No matter what we do its never good enough and I am starting to see some leadership again that cares about nothing but the mission.

I don't know why but this shit is really getting under my skin. Why is it that we are being asked about individual recruiter production when there is a USAREC message that basically tells me that its up to the station commander. Thought it was called team concept or some shit like that. I thought it said in there as long as the station makes it as a whole then that's basically great. But to have to sit here and answer for each recruiter is starting to get on my fucking nerves. I mean these people only follow policy whenever it benefits them. I just love it. In other words quit worrying as to why someone in my station has rolled a two month zero. Maybe I had them contribute in other ways, bit don't try telling that to the one above you. They don't want to hear that shit. That is for me to worry about. Don't like the answer then change the policy. Till then follow it. At least that's what I am told all the time. But whenever it comes time for the people in charge of me to follow the policy they try to find loopholes. They have to get clarification. Always the case though when a policy comes journal that screws the soldier no one at the top says anything. Or at least that is how it seems to be. But let a policy come out that benefits everyone. Oh hey don't do it yet we have to get clarification. Really? Don't you think all the fucking clarification was thought out before a policy or directive was put out. It just seems funny to me that's all. I should go on about all the other bullshit in this job that gets thrown in to make it harder. Why is it that every few months dome asshat comes up with a new Excel spreadsheet. Someone explain that. And usually I can find all the shit they want in that dumb ass spreadsheet on the system. Bit no I have to pull all that shit up then transpose it to the spreadsheet and send it up. Some people got to damn much time on their hands. Hey dipshit look at the systems that we were given and use them. Change with the times people or the times will change around you.

Oh man where to start now. No matter what someone is always fucking with you. It seemed that when people were not joining they were fucking with you about that. Now that people are joining and you are making mission they find some other shit to fuck with you about. And to illustrate my point I will try and use the following examples.

First off I would like to start off with the MAP. Yep there is that ugly ass word again. But the other day we are told that everyone will be held accountable to the MAP from the bottom up. Fine, okay, got it. But, really? Why are we stuck on this thing when people are joining at a record rate. Then we are told that if the recruiters don't make appointments that they will be made to stay late to make up shortfalls and that the station commanders will sit there and supervise the recruiters. Well not long ago didn't thinking like this create the atmosphere that we were tyring to avoid not all that long ago? Yes I believe it was. I thought that the policy in place says that production will not be held to time off. Yes there are a few ways around it. I get that. But to hold a person hostage to production is just plain wrong. Now if those same people didn't do the work that was set out for them then yes keep them afterwards. I am going to sit here and say it again. YOU CANNOT MAKE SOMEONE COME IN THE OFFICE. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT HOW GOOD YOUR BENEFITS ARE OR WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER THEM. YOU CANNOT MAKE ANYONE COME IN FOR AN APPOINTMENT. And here is what it all comes back down to again, our destiny is going to rest in someone else's decision to do something.

Now here is something else I don't get, just sending someone down to pick any job that that has been offered to them. Now the Army has sold itself for years and years that when you come to our office that you will get to choose the job of your choice. So now on a dime you want recruiters to sit there and tell people that, "Hey I understand that you come in here to join, but you are just coming in here to be just a soldier." Well if they wanted to hear a line of shit like that they would go join the fucking Marine Corps. People come to us for a particular job. Bottom line. If that is what the powers that be wants then why not just offer an open contract to every Army applicant. That way there is no question about what is going to happen when they go down to MEPS. That would be a little easier to explain to people. I am tired of having to fill out the fucking 5W's as to why someone didn't pick a job at MEPS. Especially when they have a 75-99 on the ASVAB and the only thing that is showing on the system is 92G or some other bullshit. Especially when not even a year ago their buddy who has referred them got what they wanted. What do you think that person is going to do? They are not going to join. Well then I have to hear, "How did we ever let it get to this?" And on that same note as above. YOU CANNOT MAKE SOMEONE TAKE SOMETHING THEY DON'T WANT. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE ARMY IS KNOWN FOR LETTING PEOPLE CHOOSE THE JOB THEY WANT. Well I have an idea why not just shut down production for a while and then we won't have these fucking problems. But we have to build the DEP pool for next FY right? Right. But yet we are pushing people's ship dates out into January. Maybe I am getting tired of it all. I just don't know. Then there is the big push for USAR, and prior service. I get the push for USAR. Just not the prior service, especially when we don't have the ability to process IRR transfers. All we have to prospect with is a sorry ass DMDC list. Which BTW I have yet to get a single contract off of. 99% of those people on their do not want to join. But yet that is all we have to prospect off of. Most of those fuckers are out of state, don't want to join. My recruiters and myself have been told to go fuck off more times off the DMDC list than HS seniors. Well enough of this all this bitching ain't going to change shit anyhow. No matter what we are always going to get fucked with.

I don't get it at all. Are we as a command stuck on the beret that we just say the hell with what was just put out on a policy letter. Well I saw it happen today. That's all I am going to say on this one.
And now for the other things that are really beginning to gripe my ass. Since when do we bade an ncoer off of production? Time and time again I keep hearing this shit. I thought a few years ago we got out of that mentality. And then there is the old hey if you have not made your apts you are going to stay till 2000 bullshit coming back. Don't understand that one either. Have we forgotton what has happened and not all that long ago. Really so now we are trying to go back to basing time off on production again. Right back to an ncoer based on your production too. Fuck the total soldier concept. Guess some cannot leave well enough alone, oh well so much for treating them like soldiers.

Oh yeah and back to this beret bullshit. Everyone is running around trying to get clarification on the policy that was just put out by the Secretary of the Army. I mean I don't have a fancy degree or anything but I can read and it seems prettty simple to me. It says that the softcap is the primary head gear. What is so hard about that? But the command is making it that way. Do these people realize how much of an ass they make themselves look like when they do shit like this. Army policy comes out and is published and everyone who matters either simply cannot read or they have to get clarification. Hey I have an idea. Just follow your orders that's what you tell everyone else to do. You don't expect everyone to sit back and disect that shit like a sab brief. No you expect them to do as they are told. But when something is put out like this the higher in charge needs to clarify. Bullshit. Just follow the order and move out

Snow and Ice

I have some thoughts about the mission and the dreaded snow and ice. So here it goes. Why is it that the leaders will not allow govt cars to be on the road. Because there is a risk of them getting wrecked, and the recruiter getting hurt. But we are willing to have them risk their lives in a POV come to the office and make phone calls to high school seniors who maybe out of school. I know there are those out there that says that's the judgement call of the leadership. I have touched on this all before about the snow and ice. And another thing about the phone calls is it not about time that those things go away? I mean really we live in a age of caller id, social networking, facebook, blogs like this, and the like. What gets me is this, people know who is calling, if they answer 90% of the time they are going to tell a recruiter no their son or daughter is going to college anyway. You know what? Don't care we are doing good anyway. So honestly I don't see the point of making all these phone calls. And yes I am talking from a station commander point of view here. That is one of the most pointless prospecting tools we have is that damn phone prospecting. Why not send everyone out with a list and just knock on people's doors most of the day. I know when I did it, I found a lot of people this way. Sometimes I found people I was not out really looking for. Even the FM says this is the most effective way to get contracts. And to me the bottom line is about everything. Anyway bottom line is this. Why have these guys come in and make phone calls, I mean really is one 8 hour day going to make that big of an impact on the end game? No it won't. I mean the top brass will shut down operations in the name of training. Make everyone attend training no matter what you have going on. I have been told to tell recruiters to schedule the apt or that packet getting built and have them at training. That crap right there has hurt more people getting in than a few snow days.

For the first time today in a while I have seen people being grouped together for not writing a contract. Correct me if I am wrong but are we not allowed to do this anymore? I thought (maybe I am wrong) there was a message put out about this. But it essentially says that it is up to the station commander as to how to complete the mission. Recruiters are not to be held to individual contract missioning. Station commanders are not supposed to be counseling soldiers on contract placement and such crap as that. If I as a station commander wanted two recruiters just prospecting one doing the packets and the other as my future soldier manager. Then that's the way it should be and no one should me fucking with me if we are making the mission. At least that is what I was taking from the message. But I could be wrong. So why was it today that our 1SG is worried about why particular recruiters didn't write a contract this past month. I mean don't get me wrong, in this day and age there shouldn't be an excuse. But he should have at least asked the station commander hey what did you have recruiter XYZ doing this past month? Station commander gives the answer and the everyone moves out.
Now we are hearing about leadline, well let me clue some of you in on this one. I thought we were always on leadline thinking. At least I have been. Leadline is when you attain the goals on your MAP (Mission Accomplishment Plan) on a weekly basis. I mean if you fall behind on your leadline then you will have to work twice has hard the next week and so on down the road. By attaining leadline this will prevent the station as a whole from having to try and do what some of us call "Stovepiping" in other words trying to throw down everything you have in the last week of the month, because at the beginning of the next month you won't have shit to show for it. Stovpiping is a viscious cycle that I have seen before. While there is a time and place for it. It usually shouldn't be done month in and month out. So why is this leadline thing a new idea? If you as a station comander are running your station the right way then this leadline thing shouldn't be a fucking issue.

GA's Closing? Yeah right!

I heard me a nasty rumor the other day, that "they" were going to restrict us putting in GA's. I want everyone to know that this is absolutely the funniest thing I have heard in like a long time. Really they are going to restrict GA's? One thing comes to my mind, that will be the day. What I don't get is this. The seabrook report still shows we need to GA's. (Oh yeah I almost forgot, GA=Grad Alpha which=a person who has graduated from high school that scores above a 50 on the Armed Services Vocation Aptitude Battery. It's a test that measures how well someone will do in certain areas or job fields.) Now back to the GA issue. Was told that seniors will be the only thing we can put in. Oh yeah, well let me tell you how this is going to work out. (I may be wrong) Recuiters are just going to fake the funk, Station Commanders are going to fake the funk, pretend like they are recruiting for seniors. And when the numbers go down, ie the Army or whatever needs more GA's, then the category will open back up. Here is the thing, while I understand that seniors are a priority. They always will be...But the market is not going to handle no more than what the DOD market share is for a given area. In other words if an area has only averaged lets say 20 seniors a year for DOD. Then guess what you are not going to get much more than that. I don't care if you dominate the market. You are going to lose some to other services. So while I would like to put all those seniors in from the DOD market. In all reality if my station just completely dominated the market the most we may get is 15 or 16 seniors for an entire year. There is a reason the Army needs grads each year and those are never going to go away. I just found it humorous. Hope you did too.

Time Management

Time management is something I would like to touch on. Why I don't know, but it's really a topic that just gets under my skin. Let me be the one to say it right here. There is no such thing as time management. Again, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TIME MANAGEMENT. Why do I say that? Well imagine this, time is something that is constantly in motion. You cannot control something that is constantly in motion. Just imagine a car going down the road at 55mph, there is no way to slow it down, speed it up, and it will never run out of fuel. And you are stuck in that car forever. Now you cannot manage that car. But here is what you can do. You manage what you do within that amount of time. And to be really frank about it some people really do suck at it. I know I do from time to time. But here is the thing, if you know you have certain things that need to be done everyday, then why do you act like it's a fucking surprise everytime the suspense comes around. Now the other day I was in another station doing some things and I noticed how this other station cdr was running his day. Comes in closes the door to his office, didn't even acknowledge me, or even his guys in the station. Stayed in his office on his personal cell phone. I never saw an AAR going on or any other kind of interaction. Now right at the end of the day. He starts to get all frantic, and starts to get everything done. His assistant pulled me to the side and wanted to know if I could talk to him. Apparantly this goes on everyday. Now let me take this a step further. If you look at how someone manages their day. I would be willing to bet this is how they manage their month, the quarter, and even the year. I have also noticed that this station will start to put people in toward the end of the month. Yeah if you don't see it, I see the trend. It took me a long time to get this. I tried to convey this to my peer but I think it fell on deaf ears. Sometimes pride is a hard thing to swallow. People if you know you have certain things that has to get done just go ahead and do them. AAR with your guys, pull all the damn reports you need and just get the shit done. I don't get it.

Holy shit I cannot believe the amount of people out there whining about the 9-5 policy. I don't know what their deal is. The other day we were in a meeting and there were a few other 79's asking the commander just when are they supposed to do their end of day aar. The reply was just do it after 5. Well I for one have a problem with this. These guys it seems are just trying to get around the policy that has been put into place. What they need to do is manage what they do within the given amount of time they have. Then there is the we don't know how to get in touch with the seniors this 9-5 is killing us. Hey dumbass why don't you get your recruiters into the school. Or better yet why don't you dedicate a day or two and figure out how to contact them via facebook. We were told to think outside the box not to try and make the fucking box bigger. I swear some people are just plain idiots. Then I have heard some of these jokers wanting to get an exception to adjust the hours. Stupid crap like 11-7. The way I see it. This is the type of old ways thinking that is going to put us right back to the the 12-16 hour days. But most of those 12-16 hour days was filled up with nothing, you had recruiters and station commanders screwing off most of the day doing what they want. And only truly 6-8 hours of quality work got done anyway. With the 9-5 it's forcing some to be a damn leader and I don't think they can deal with it other than whine. There is more to getting in contact with someone other that "get on the phones" I don't know if anyone knows this or not. But we are living in a "mobile/social world now. That damn telephone is not the answer. The answer is to figure out a way to contact these kids by facebook. I know my Future Soldiers will hardly respond to phone call. But you shoot them a message on Facebook and they will get back to you almost everytime. They read that shit. To me that is the problem with most people is the unwillingness to change. Embrace it or it will embrace you. I was told that once. And looking back on it, it's very very true. In short I am tired of people trying to fuck with a 9-5 policy that was put into place to enhance the quality of life. But yet others out there are still trying their best to get around it. Don't get around it, embrace it, deal with it, and figure out how to lead your troops to success. If you cannot do from 9-5 then you sure as hell are not going to do it from 9-9, 11-7, or whatever other bs you can dream up.