Thursday, January 20, 2011

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.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

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.