Morale
 

According to the MoD the fact that forces morale is at its lowest ebb is ok because at least the books now balance!! So no additional cuts for ABC13 and a pay rise next year then.


Armed Forces morale at its lowest ebb since 2008, Mirror study reveals - Mirror Online

Aah. Poor them having to make the tough decisions. But it was the serving personnel that had to live with your tough decision.

[CYNIC]

In my opinion, those attitude serveys always, somehow, managed to paint a much rosier picture of the way people felt than was evident at the front line. Always looked bit like the outcome of a BoI; "Don't bore me with the facts and evidence gathered by the Board, I've decided to reach my own conclusions that suit my own adgenda."

[/CYNIC]

The "tough" decision would be to name and shame those who wasted the money in the first place.

"Aah. Poor them having to make the tough decisions. But it was the serving personnel that had to live with your tough decision."

Another classic example of the military mindset that somehow boxes up 'the MOD' and decides that it is a separate organisation to the armed forces and therefore can be blamed ad naueseum.

In reality those decision were taken by serving personnel, who will be living with them. The MOD is the military - whether the military like it or not!

I anticipated that response. :ouch:

I was going to explain about ivory towers, ministerial decisions, top brass, etc, but it's all too difficult. :(

Sadly after 32 years I am seeing the Service that I joined as a personal commitment change to something I am not familiar. I, as a young recruit, was told that integrity, moral courage and selfless Service was paramount. Being responsible for my decisions would decide my own future. It seems that the RAF is now a ‘job’ and is treated as such. This has turned some elements into a social experiment. I was under the impression that you joined up knowing that you would abide by laws and regulations. Not enlist then want to change them to suit your own personal circumstances.
It would be unfair to blame the RAF alone. Our own politicians don’t seem to be responsible for the decisions they make. It seems personal gain is more important than ‘Serving your country’.
Are things worse? No, just different for a different generation.

What decisions?

To cut personnel/equipment programmes to compensate for wasted money?

Or to waste the money in the first place?


If you don't or can't think beyond the first, then you're part of the problem.

If you can't name those responsible for the second, you haven't been paying attention.

Shurely, if morale is low, then beatings should continue until it bluddy well improves!

Foxy, I have to challenge you on the teaching bit- something we both clearly have strong views about. In my school, the staff really walk in ignorance of the Teachers' Pay and Conditions 'blue book'. Why, because I ensure they get their due and more. They in turn, don't play the 'not my job' card, and go the extra mile. Eg, funerals of non close family (not entitled to go)- I never refuse because it's important to them. Dentals and doctors the same. In return, I expect deadlines to be met, planning to be done and all the rest. Within my oft stated assertion that, "This is not a democracy", morale is high, as are standards.

Regards

CG

Sorry for drift, everyone.

CG, My wife and many of our friends are teachers. Anecdotal evidence is that you are defiantly in the minority, and if there is ignorance of pay and conditions it is out of loyalty and obligation to the children, not to the management or local government.

Back on thread, I will only support (not encourage) my kids to join up if they do so with a short term aim to gain experience and training, not as a career. Since leaving I've discovered there are many opportunities that reward your effort and endeavours, not rely on them to keep a broken system working for the benefit of others.

"Shurely, if morale is low, then beatings should continue until it bluddy well improves!"

Not quite the Imperial Japaneses Submarine Service yet...............

Jimlad1:
The MOD is not the military, the military is in places like Afghanistan suffering from the incompetence and self serving policies of the MOD. There may be members of the military in the MOD, some of whom have been promoted to the level of their own incompetence, some of whom additionally may be following their own self serving policies. That does not mean that the MOD is the military. It is not. On the contrary the MOD as a whole constitutes are far more deadly adversary than the military is ever likely to be called upon to confront in the field. Another of Mountbatten's "good ideas" that has cost far too much life and treasure.

Can't argue with that.

Hopefully the MOD have the same low morale; to match their low performance!

They and the Government should be hanging their heads in shame.

A few years ago, at a PR/media seminar, the point was made from the top that MOD = Bad, RAF = Good. Now would I be a cynic to suspect that there is actually a plan for the bad news to remain at the centre and the good news to go to the Service?

Some definite Nail and Head action there Chug.

Military types that work in MOD soon realise they have to become 'Political Animals' to survive and potentially get anything achieved.

The trouble is, the moment they turn into said Political Animals they are then totally unable to properly look out for the interests of the Military.

From the Mirror article...
So, in other words if it is at its lowest SINCE 2008 surely in 2008, under the previous New Liarbour Government, morale must have been lower than it is now? Therefore morale must have picked up (not sure I remember when that was!) before falling again, but is still not as low as it was under the previous bunch of political idiots :rolleyes:

I reckon if the survey was done now, morale would be even lower. The Olympics security debacle has driven most people to the depths of despair.

My unit is broken. 20% downgraded or sick, largely due to the 3 times a week beastings from the PTIs, and of the rest, 15% are OOA, 15% are on reserve for OOA, 30% are on Olympic Duties. It leaves 20% remaining, many of whom are either posted shortly with no replacement, discharged with no replacement, on guard (still have to do that!), or untrained and therefore not able to be utilised.

My management have tried to refuse taskings that come in, but the upper echalons only hear white noise. The end result being that people cannot get their OOA prep done because they are constantly doing another task, meaning those OOA are having to stag on for longer.....

Morale is rock bottom at my place.

When somone mentioned to a 2* the other day that fulfilling his requests might take a little time due to lack of people and too short a deadline, he apparently pointed out that there were "24 hours in a day" and people should "dry their eyes." Well done Sir, inspiring!:{

Your 2* sounds like a complete cock! At least at my place the 2 and 1*s will turn off taskings and then go in to bat on our behalf. As any good leader and manager should. Unless of course, they are more interested in promotions and knighthoods than unit effectiveness. Doesn't change the fact that morale at our unit is, overall, pretty low and the MO we have on Staff said of the results of a staff survey that if the unit was his patient he would be considering prescribing anti-depressants all round.

Edited to add that despite having grown up leadership in place, it's still all pretty ropey.

Morale on my Sqn is non-existant. I loved my job and the service but i had no alternative but to send off that letter in January - ( 8 months out of 15 OOA and a lucrative alternative job in civvy st forced my hand. I was successful. I now only have four nightshifts left in the RAF. To those who remain, Per Ardua.

Re the "24 hours in a day" comment - it's a reflection on the terrible working practices of 2* / 3* officers. How do they think they are in a fit state to make important decisions at 8pm having been at work since 6:30am?

Anyone who thinks they are important enough that they need to be in the office for 14 hours a day, plus a solo Sunday afternoon email session, either has too big an area of responsibility or is appalling at delegation.

Edited to add: Or they are afraid of making big decisions, so they spend far too long looking at trivia.

I chose to jump ship a few years back not long after a particular Stn Cdrs conference at Coningsby. The massed crowds were discussing a variety of issues when OC Cottesmore commented that there was no 'fun' anymore. At that, AOC 1Gp, brown nosing to CinC STC, responded by asking said stn cdr whether he had ordered him not to have fun. Knob.

I understand the chap is now a faceless 3-star in Europe somewhere. Probably still a knob.

...and perhaps the response should have been "yes, Sir, but if there are 24 hours in this day, then there are no more than 8 hrs tomorrow..."

Seniority's short term mindset in a nutshell.:rolleyes:

Its probably appropriate to point out the MOD/Senior Officers/Civil Servants legislative policy statement at the moment. "We have never forgotten that you have no choice". And before some wag says yes you have, you can leave I would like to point out that at times I have enjoyed keeping my pile of piece in one !!!!. where's Bob Crow when you need him.

Nice to see in this day and age of "health and safety", "human factors", "quality improvement", and supposedly more enlightened times that a 2*'s approach is that of a Victorian mill owner who simply works his employees to death..... (see post 20)



Hopefully he'll be one of the 25% to be cut!! :ok:

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...-posts-go.html

"Who did it?"



Deny everything Baldrick!!

Biggus. You forgot:

http://www.recyclinglives.com/wp-con...go-360x240.jpg

GBZ,

I didn't, we don't do IIP any more.....

While I agree with the sentiments expressed, it is a simple fact that Labour were not in power when the policy was formulated (June 1987) and issued (Jan 1988) by AMSO to knowingly waste money on a scale that would make your eyes water. This deliberate waste was formally reported to PUS (Chief Accounting Officer) in Jan 1988 and June 1996 by MoD's own auditors.

Successive regimes, including Labour, have supported both the policy and those who actively and enthusiastically implemented it. The last five Ministers for the Armed Forces (Labour and Coalition) have been happy to condone these actions, in writing.

As for Gordon Brown, for all his faults he is the one senior politician to have condemned MoD, calling it a "citadel of waste". What puzzled me was his apparent refusal to do anything about it when he had the opportunity.

The Public Accounts Committee, by convention, is chaired by an Opposition MP; currently Margaret Hodge. (Which is why there is always shared blame in such matters, but it is also a self-healing arrangement). Again, successive versions have been vocal about waste, but as soon as the underlying cause and culprits are revealed to them, they mysteriously back off. This has happened again very recently. Why? It can only be to protect the guilty who, as you say, should be rotting in gaol.

Why gaol? Because by perpetrating this waste they MUST have breached the legal obligations they were under and made false written declarations - which is fraud.

But the same successive regimes have ruled that committing this fraud is NOT an offence in MoD. The facts are not denied by MoD. I have the letters with the signatures of all these decision makers, so the answer to "Who did it" (as well as "Who encouraged and protected them?") is well known.

New regulations (according to the Telegraph), mean all Military Personnel now have to travel Economy Class (Most Circumstances) . Have similar changes been made for the Civil Service? A friend of mine, who ranks lowest of the low (in Civil Service terms), always goes First Class by rail because her Boss (a Sqn Ldr equivalent), travels with her.

dalek, yes, they travel 2nd class too.

We stopped IiP because we couldn't afford it. I know one money waster was Brian Burridge's dirctive for everyone to get the ECDL. Complete waste of time and money. Instead of teaching people how to write it would have been better teaching those that wanted to how to type.

Interesting to comparecivil service courses and military ones. CS ones generally last a day, employ a couple of facilitators who have probably never met before and are usually a waste of money.

RAF ones generally lsast one week or two, start on a Monday thus requiring travel on Saturday or Sundayand you usually learn something.

Strange that; my fiancee is 'Wing Commander equivalent' in the Civil Service and she went standard class to 'shabby wood' the other week.

The cost of attending meetings double handed far exceeds the difference between 1st and 2nd class travel! A technical Project Manager in what was MoD(PE) was required to be able to carry out every job in the team, so there was seldom justification for anyone else to travel, the exception being if he had a trainee with him.

When IPTs were formed (2nd time round, not the late 80s model) IPTLs were given the authority to drive a bus through the regulations. It was "their" budget and they could spend it as they liked. So you'd get the indirect labour (invariably the senior grades/ranks with no responsibility or accountability) swanning off on 1st class jollies and drinking the hotel bar dry on the IPT account (literally, on one notorious occasion) and direct labour (usually the lower ranks, but those with the signature) refused permission to attend the likes of design and safety meetings they were meant to be chairing. That would explain the situation Dalek describes.

This also serves to highlight the basic problem I've come across in many IPTs . The "pyramid" is inverted, with the most senior staffs surplus to requirements as they contribute little. And yes, before you ask, I've been an IPTL, but 23 years ago when IPTs were not bloated with untrained staffs each doing a fraction of a job!

Well said Chuggley.

tuc:
So the rot set in under PM Margaret Thatcher and her SOS for Defence, Michael Heseltine. Organised and deliberate gross waste that was recouped (or at least that was the plan) by a direct attack within the MOD upon Air Safety, and in particular the budget for the provision of UK Military Airworthiness. Those responsible are known and evidence has been submitted to two judicial reviews, the civil police and the RAF Provost Marshal. Nothing has been done, not even an interview, as they are evidently "honourable men". Evil happens when good men do nothing!
There have been 62 deaths alone in Airworthiness related military air accidents reviewed in this forum, broken careers, and most devastating of all, a system that remains broken and will continue to be so until the MAAIB and the MAA are made independent of the MOD and of each other.

Morale
 

Sad that 2* in post 20 believes his own spin. My experience at HQ Castle Grey Skulls is of very supportive grown ups and we do say no - especially to Centre. Moreover, my team are encouraged to question where value is dubious and to seek explanations of new words/jargon. Not surprisingly, less bull, higher productivity and more time for meaningful tasks.

I always thought the simple cure for low Morale was in the word itself..

Mor Ale






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Whaddawewant?
 

On a miserable day on 85 Squadron at West Raynham in the early 1970s we used to shout "More beer, longer runways, bigger women". That seemed to cheer people up, albeit briefly.