Admin Guru
Personally, depending on the context of Sir Stuart’s comments, I think the remuneration package is actually fairly reasonable when you consider it to civvy street. I grant that the 1% and 0% rises since 2011 have meant that our pay has gone down by ~10% in real terms if you have run out of pay increments in your current rank. If you were lucky enough to be promoted or start your current rank then your income will have pretty much stagnated in real terms for the past 6 years. But, people are not leaving because of the pay - it’s the terms and conditions of service, the perilous state of quarters/messes and our working environments, the constant churn of the past 20 years’ Op tempo, the malaise that has generally set in amongst us all that fiscal decisions are running the military and the lack of charismatic but intelligent leadership at 3-star and above in all 3 Services (where it would seem the “old boys’ club” only promote the 2-stars in their own likeness). Worst of all, it is the loss of trust that drives so many away and the fact that from SAC to roughly 2-star just about all allowances, management decisions, travel and discipline decisions are mired in the most ridiculous scrutiny and process that many are getting fed up with it. Further, as we drive away that ability to make a decision as an NCO or Officer we bog ourselves down in ever more bureaucracy - more and more MAA regulation, pointless JPA-tracked courses stating the bleeding obvious using so-called “online learning” and “practice bleeding” down to the lowest common denominator because a very small number can’t behave or need looking after. NCOs and Officers are no longer allowed to be leaders and we indoctrinate them at Dartmouth/Sandhurst/Cranwell and thence on at Shrivenham in our weak processes and make them think alike. Only really on Ops can the NCO or Officer use their head, that is why many look forward to ops, but if they come around as often as they have been in recent years then the work-life balance with family life starts to become a significant stressor.
That is why we lose our people, it is not the pay, it’s the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ that does it. Funnily enough (not that funny really) the US military are having serious retention problems as well - we share many of the same issues.
Sunday rant, over...