Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Hiring Process


Disclaimer: I also know some absolutely wonderful DA (Department of the Army) Civilians, including the Office Manager and Human Resources Rep from my Battalion.

My first week in IBOLC holding company, I learned that everything dear to me was being held hostage by government employees (I almost wrote "workers," but that would be misleading):

1) We can't access our travel pay, three thousand dollars in per diem from LDAC, or 1k-a-month housing allowance because: The finance office was so upset that some LTs came to their briefing without the proper paperwork that they were literally refusing to meet or speak (LTs were kicked out of their office) with any of us until our BOLC began - two or three months away for many of us, and unusually late to try and cash in travel-related pay.

2) The Armor School S-1 (personnel office) helped all the Armor BOLC LTs get their travel pay. When I asked our own S-1 workers to do the same, it... inspired this comic. It didn't help that they also immediately lost my orders.

3) Most importantly to me, we can't go to Airborne School in the 2-3 months waiting for BOLC because: A bunch of Armor students went to the Infantry clinic to get Airborne physical examss instead of their own clinic like they were supposed to. This disrupted whatever abacus-and-sundial system the Infantry clinic was working off of, which upset them so much that they were refusing to give anyone (including Infantry LTs!) an Airborne physical.

Every infantry officer is guaranteed a spot in Airborne after Ranger School, but that realistically means staying at Ft. Benning at least another five weeks (they wouldn't schedule ABN two days after Ranger, and then there's outprocessing from Benning). That's five more weeks away from my unit, away from PL time, and potentially out of the fight in what will already be a shortened deployment (good for the Army, but not what brand new IN LTs who haven't been broken by five consecutive deployments were expecting).

The conspiracy (I assume) of DA Civilians who refuse to do their job didn't count on one thing, though - a Second Lieutenant with way too much time on his hands. I am actively and passionately seeking solutions to everything. Time, and brainpower are on my side. And I'd say I currently have a pretty good record against the bureaucracy.

4 comments:

  1. Its not going to get any better at your next unit if my experience here is any indication. Prepare for S1 to lose a lot of pay inquiries and awards for your soldiers and have things get bounced back four different times because four different soldiers at S1 looked at it. Welcome LT!

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  2. LT,
    I've been skimming through your blog and noticed you got a slot to pathfinder school as a cadet. This is something I am very interested in and would like to discuss with you, however I could not find your email address through this site.

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  3. too true, sad thing is its like this in every government run office.

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  4. Congratulations LT. You made the REAL BIG TIME! http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35829

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