Originally Posted by
charliegolf
So... more of an opinion than an objective report then? My opinion is that everything's fine.
CG
Everything is not fine. My evidence by working with active duty, civilians and reserves on the pointy end every day.
-An inordinate amount of time is being spent by senior leadership, and the ranks, on diversity and inclusion issues. While these issues are of huge importance, they have been at the expense of warfighting emphasis. Senior leaders going to focus groups, diversity panels, not wargames. Please do not take this as being opposed to these initiatives, but they have sucked time from primary missions.
-Telework. Sounds good, but leaves those actually at the office doing more and becoming burnt out. Yet we have those that insist we are just as productive while working in our jammies- news flash: we are not.
-hyper focus on chasing certain demographics in recruiting, retention, promotion panels...etc. Again while important, can leave a distaste when most have been accustomed to a "best qualified" criteria.
-Doing more with less. Budgets tight- new missions, no missions dropped.
-Streamlining- you used to have folks do your pay, get your supplies, do your maintenance- but now you have to access an app, talk to a different command, hope you find the right person to help, when you used to just shout over the cube.....
-Unintended consequences of well meaning initiatives such as extensions of maternity and paternal leave. Fathers in our organization were just granted 12 weeks paternal leave, and while well intended, there has been an impact- we just had 5 pilots at the same unit request paternity leave in the same time frame- guess who gets to fill out the duty rotation? Mom/dad can't deploy? Guess we double pump the single guy that just got back......
-Normally high performing individuals not seeking/desiring command positions- no longer seen as worth the BS.
-Coming train wreck of blended retirement. Another well intended (oh and saves money) program intended to give something to those that leave service before fully retirement eligible, but will greatly reduce the incentives towards a 20 year retirement, which was the norm, but will now be sharply reduced. Why stay 'til 20? More will leave at the 8, 10, 12 years mark- these are your most experienced folks.
-Grass is greener syndrome. Good economy, good jobs, telework/remote work....
-Green initiatives. Hot desking, green buildings where the toilets flush poorly, new HQ has purposely fewer parking spots to encourage mass transit, but mass transit is awful at that locale. Having virtual training which is touted as "just as effective" but it pales to butts in seats.