Originally Posted by
Foghorn Leghorn
LJ, with respect, the pay is particularly poor if you want high quality individuals with experience to come back in to the Service under a reservist scheme. Whilst I agree, circa £500 per day is not feasible, the pay per day for reservists (dependant upon which reservist scheme you come back in on) when compared to similar jobs in the civilian profession, such as a pilot, is poor.
Thank you FL - this is exactly my point and also why I spent several weeks’ worth of conversations (Altruistically !) with several MB and HW individuals in an attempt to put the realities on the table.
To re-iterate: I had many contacts over the years to entice a ‘rejoin’ but at no stage did the offer seem attractive as it was either rejoin FTRS or FT at a lower pay band than when you left AND repay your pension lump sum ..... Errrr no!
The forces deny themselves significant and very experienced (outside experience ; therein also lies a cultural challenge ) people because there is no path back into service life that is not regressive. Why would I want to rejoin at same rank (BUT lower pay band) when I have a decade of development outside the military ? This is why I embarked on a conversation when it was presented as a highly flexible ‘we will consider anything ‘ role for which there was a pressing requirement. It was not a flying role though my FJ flying experience would have been helpful.
I provided the daily rate here, and to the desks, for comparison of what someone like myself would expect here in the civilian world as a means to judge the rate on offer and to illustrate why someone like me (mid-career and very capable) could simply not put it into the ‘pot’ of options.
Anything that we take on has an opportunity cost; for clarity I was not expecting £500 a day ( please remember this is NOT the 7 day a week daily rate that FT service pers are used to) but would have considered £250-300. On offer was £150 a day for 3 days a week. Folks; let’s be quite clear - this is peanuts for a challenging role of importance.
The wider issue is that there is no path for someone who left say, as and SO2/ SO1 to rejoin as a 1 star or above. Other nations’ forces do.