The video - unwittingly - sums up many of the Base Support issues - namely, that discretion and decision-making has been increasingly centralised. Case work - initially prepared at unit level and then to Command for a decision, is now referred to the Casework cell in Glasgow.
An OC Admin Wg - in old money - has very, very few powers - pay, housing, maintenance of base and quarters, contracted out catering, policing - all of these are now managed off-base; moreover OC BSW has no budget for most things! Add travel to that as well!
This has been the result of years of high-level inititiatives across the Services to make savings, yet the accumulated risk is at point of delivery - whether it is admin support or on the workshop floor.
I agree that Adiners don't always make it easier - refusing to acknowledge emails; restrictive opening hours (though often as a result of staff reductions - look at all the empty desks next time you go into PSF; and a SNCO cadre that needs rodding out.
I am in a digital posiiton, very, very remote from my support unit. Mail can take weeks - so I ask them to scan docs to send them to me. No can do! Similarly, as I only have that rubbish remote JPA acces, I still submit manual claims for routine trips (SCV non warrant costs, etc). To save time, I prepared the forms so that all i needed to do was put in dates and sign them, attaching necessary documentation. Oh no, not acceptable now. JPAC.
As a scribbly who escaped from the fold many years ago, what I have seen reinforces my decision to move away from the mainstream and do the difficult, yet interesting tours - in MB or overseas. Yet the vitriol I have encountered from fellow senior scribblies has been intense.
I recently learned of a former colleague who stayed with a very risk averse mainstream admin career -OC PSF - Outer Office - OC PMS - Manning - OCBSW with a critical force, and now knocking on one-star. He managed to engineer it so that he would not serve on HERRICK by analysing the job description and insisiting that he was not qualified for this role, faxing it to the US 2 star who would have been his boss. Scandalous. Whether we like it or not, many tours for senior bods in Theatre require a degree of 'heroic amatuerism'. I was further disgusted to elarn that he got an OBE for providing some childrens' facilities. I thought those days had gone. At least his jubilee medal won't look lonely
