VR:-
There is a simple solution. Chin it off.
There's an even better solution IMHO, and that is to restore the powers of command to Station and Unit Commanders. That is where the real change has come since my days, and very much for the worse. The RAF really only ever had commanders of men (and latterly women) up to Station level. Above that it was, and still is, a bureaucracy. Never mind the fancy titles of "Air Officer Commanding in Chief", etc, the real commanding was done by "the Boss", or if you were in real stir, the Staish.
Now everything is referred up the CoC, be it Compassionate, Domestic, or what used to be plain old "exercising the Powers of a Subordinate Commander" as laid down in MAFL. All swept away now of course by Human Rights, Legal ambulance chasers, etc. Restore those powers and let the bosses be bosses again and you'd be a lot better off, in my view.
OC 48 Sqn at RAF Changi, when told that his First Line Servicing night shifts were being denied refreshment visits by the NAAFI bun wagon, because the local manager deemed them to be unprofitable, threatened to bring in an outside contractor (contrary to the trading monopoly enjoyed by NAAFI). The manager called his bluff, so the boss went to the Staish and gained his support, arguing that the Operational Status of his Squadron could be undermined by demoralised ground crews. Despite the NAAFI sending out some el supremo to Singapore to stop him, he went ahead anyway, agreed a price list, a monthly sub into the Sqn fund, and payment for rent and electricity consumed. The arrangement outlived him, outlived the switch from Hastings to Hercules, and outlived the Sqn move from one end of the airfield to the other. Whether you agree with his actions or not, those were the powers of command then. Time they were reinstated!
If they were, nonsenses as described by others above would soon cease to bother.
