Originally Posted by Eye off the ball
Well, I PVRed at 29 a couple of years ago having been offered promotion and sending back the "regrettably I feel unable to accept" reply to the blue letter. I don't regret it for a minute; my life is immeasurably better now than it would have been in the RAF and, by the sounds of it, PVR is an even more compelling choice now than it was a couple of years ago.
What struck me when I jacked it in though was how disinterested PMA was in addressing some issues I had with staying in. In all likelihood I'd have left anyway but there was no effort made whatsoever to discuss alternatives to the distant tour I'd been offered only 2 months after getting married. My lovely wife has her own career but I was told that sorting that out was my problem.
I was told of my posting which, though a great career move, didn't suit me at that point in my life. When I asked what alternatives were available, I was told it was a good offer and I should accept it. This was closely followed by an OOA in Acting Rank which must have done little to serve Air Force interests but did much to reinforce my long considered decision to leave. Months after PVRing, some geographically more attractive, flying jobs miraculously materialised but I had psychologically 'moved on' and airline jobs were looking increasingly attractive.
I completely understand why so many are choosing to move on as I did, but it still amazes me that the RAF, and perhaps the military in general, make so little effort to hang to those in whom they've invested large amounts of money.
I'm sure this is reflective of many people's experiences. Personally, I find PMA too big and faceless - nobody is seemingly accountable for their screw ups and their management of people too often seems to be last minute and haphazard. Of course JPA hasn't helped whatsoever.
Several people in and around my office have recently been pinged for OOA dets with less than 3 weeks notice - not including courses; these are not new posts! When lead-in times are routinely busted I think we should have a system in place where the person doing the dicking is obliged to explain why they had to do it, to a gp captain or higher, who must then write personally to the individual and explain. It won't fix it, but it will highlight it and has
got to be better than the current response of 'not my fcuking problem'.
Also, if PMA are going to 'open doors', why not make information more accessible: publish board results and overseas lists online. On the subject of overseas drafting, we've
got to sort out the system so it's not dependent on happening to see a trawl by chance - something old fashioned like 'a list' tends to work when it comes to people planning their lives. We still haven't twigged that some people have commitments outside the Service and perhaps need more than 20mins to decide on a 4yr overseas tour. By all means manage the applicants once you've got them, but don't depend on people checking trawls every day! I even heard some people are busy at work and dread to think what the cumulative effect is of everyone in the RAF theoretically checking publicity bulletins for overseas volunteers every day! Work-time study anyone?
Many of our woes are resultant of unimaginative policies, compounded by thousands of deskbound officers who lack
meaningful vision to improve the way we do business. We have created an environment that encourages superficial change and makes sustainable progress TFD, where feedback opportunities are rare, so we don't even know what we think as a force or what we could learn. Bureaucracy is rarely challenged as this is the trade of 'trouble makers', so instead those manning the pumps are regularly subjected to new initiatives that hinder, not help. Most significantly of all however, I feel our contribution to the battlefield - flying - has slipped several places down our priority list.