navymich said:
It is difficult for reserves to get time off from their civy jobs. Whether it be because of the pay difference, their employers not letting them take the time, or time off not co-ordinating with courses/training. It is getting better, thanks to
CFLC, but for every reserve that has an amazing boss (topping up pay, holding their job and seniority) there is the horror story about the one who gets fired because they want to go away on course. Students have it a bit better, as they know when they will be available, and luckily many of the availability of positions coincides with this.
What CFLC is doing is commendable there have been, as you mention, many successes. Sadly, without legislation to back up the odd few "bad" situations, there really isn't any incentive for employers to be the nice guy. (WARNING: This is going to be a long post - please read on)
On the other side, many of the skilled reservists don't want to go away anymore. They have have lots of sea time under their belts, coursing is complete, and they are settled in jobs/family life and/or schooling. But as we all know, you lose your skills if you don't keep them updated, or, like always seems to happen, trades are modified and require upgrading.
As you know, it has been increasingly difficult to get core crew members away for coursing since backfills are become more and more rare. Trade modification is only part of the problem - We're unable to manage refresher trg requirements with the sailing schedule let alone specialty courses (Mine Warfare, Route Survey, IT, COMSEC, Loan Holder, Custodian etc etc). Frankly, when a core crew member does finally call it quits (or more likely gets promoted or finishes their "one kick at the cat" in the senior billet) it's nearly impossible to find enough qualified people remaining onboard to fill secondary duties! Ack!
Those above are the people that aren't on the ships. Now looking at the ones who are. You have the sailors that love it and will continue to do it until you drag them off, or they are promoted out of a position. With the lack of people, you are able to jump from contract to contract, and many crew have been on an MCDV since they came out. But with no sea-to-shore ratio for NavRes, you are running the risk of burnout, the sailing schedules can be absolutely hectic. Effort is made to take qualified people and have them teach ashore, but if it is a posting, you lose your sea pay and get bumped down from Class C pay to Class B pay (difference of 15%), and many choose instead to continue on the ships, as they have grown accustomed to the money.
(/ranting stations) I think burnout is the least of our problems at the moment. Where's the career progression in doing the same job for 5, 6 or even 10 years? Sure, I love sailing and I love my job but at some point someone else should be taking over for me and I should be going off elsewhere right? Wrong. There isn't anywhere for a PO2 NCIOP (or BOSN or NAVCOMM etc etc) to go except to sea since most of the good shore billets are taken up with perpetually unfit pers who refuse to go back to sea (/generalization). Sure the pay reduction hits hard - and if you couple that with the MASSIVE taxes in a likely posting area (Quebec City) it quickly becomes a non-starter and serious demotivator. The sailing schedules ARE ridiculous and we're BLEEDING people - both to civvy street and more likely to the regular force. In the past six months fully 25% of our ships core crew billets have applied for (or are already gone) for CT - many of them SENIOR, experienced people who are more than happy to take significant rank reduction for less sailing, fewer duty watches and FAR fewer secondary duties.
Many people will continue to plug away on the ships - thank goodness! NO ONE in thier right mind wants a core crew billet on the MCDVs these days! Can you blame them? The old school benefits are all but gone. We're expected to comply with MARPAC direction in myriad areas - Risk Management, Force Protection, Training and Logistics to name a few - using the same rules that apply to ships with 6 to 8 times our crew levels. While it's great for LS Bloggins to be a CSD Loan Holder, RADHAZO, Departmental Training Coordinator and perhaps even Well or Bar Manager (or VPMC etc) it can be a little much in addition to standing 1/3 watches at sea and 1/2 foreign port duty watches. Additionally, we're sending MCDVs out solo more often than in the past to make port visits. Quite literally this puts the ship into a 1 in 2 rotation for duty... then tack on all the COMREL garbage for those who are off watch!
What we NEED to do is review ALL of our SOPS and amend some things to make to job palatable to more people. There are just as many people in the Reserves today as there were back when we had all 6 ships on the coast up! Anyone who thinks we have adequate manning to run 5 ships is seriously fooling themselves. We have finally hit the brick wall when it comes to manning and the only solution is to make the job, for lack of a better word, BETTER! Sure, we could have Reg Force pers augment us, which I am all in favour of. Sadly, they too will realize the ridiculousness that is MCDV life and they'll never come back unless things change.
What I'm proposing here is a wholesale revamp of the way we do things in order to SAVE ourselves for the imminent (and I do mean imminent) collapse of the MCDV community.
1. Something needs to be done about the watch rotation in both home and foreign port (especially the latter). What? Make 5 ships nests in home port the norm at the very least or lock all the ships down daily and continue with Reduced Duty Watches. To solve the foreign port issues, we need to impress upon CANFLTPAC the importance of sending no less than 2 MCDVs to a port at a time.
2. Reduce the number of sailing days. Seems pretty basic doesn't it? Put people to sea LESS than 180 days and see what happens to morale. Suddenly everyone is able to do requisite refresher training, use annual leave without being FORCED to during block leave periods and spend some quality time with "the fam". Not only can they do all this, but they can do it in a less stressful timeframe.
3. We need to get rid of COMSEC and CSD Custodians on the boats (former happening) and MOG 4 should (rightfully) take over the duties of Program Coordinator and Flex Designer (strangely, they actually have a PLANSO on the East Coast... what a novel idea). This will, of course, require that the MOG actually "work". The MOG should also take on custodial responsibility for all ships when dealing with Risk Management and LOGREQ/Sailing Intentions/ORR. If anyone up the hill read our OPSUMS (besides the sections pertaining to what is broken) they could draft all of this crap on our behalf and Risk Management is a HUGE cluster because XO's and COXN's just don't have the time to make it a priority.... perhaps the SYO or UENVO should take care of it? Ooops... same people.
4. Immediately reduce to 4 standard readiness ships and sort out how many people we have and how many we need (NERVS MCDV perhaps?!!?) to sail them. Get everyone moving into long term billets and stop moving them hither and tither to do WUPS on different ships right after they just did a set. Who are we fooling?! The same 50 people have done WUPS 95 times... eventually MWVTRAINPAC will catch on... or someone will DIE.
5. Establish 31 (a whole ship worth) billets for BACKFILL so people on the ships can do courses, training and... oh gee I dunno... get time off when a family member dies or when they themselves get hurt.
6. Get the NRD's moving on getting people shipboard qualifications during Class A night. I still don't understand why a person from an NRD can't be QM, DENG or SWK qualified when they get onboard. While we're at it... get them some BASIC force protection training... like have them hold a rifle for two minutes and MAYBE (crazy idea) familiarize them with Standing ROE and application of force.
7. Finally... get rid of Class B and Class C. Make it full time, or part time and pay people accordingly. I'll never understand why two LS Clerks working at the same shop make different cash... it's the SAME job. Frankly, we're asking for trouble with Class B anyhow - the limited liability *is* a liability at sea especially in the post 9/11 era. Funny enough there is a CANFORGEN that states all people serving on an MCDV are to be class C.... implemented? Nope.
I could go on and on... but I'll spare everyone's eyes... Basically put *IF* we treat our people better maybe we can stem the tide of CT's and NATCANs and get our manning looking better. (/secure ranting stations)
The original idea behind the 2 or 3 year posting on an MCDV was for a sailor to get trained and qualified, and then return to their home unit after their contract was done to pass on the knowledge to the people there. This very rarely happens. Contracts are being handed out like candy, with a new one received 6 months prior to your current one finishing. Want to stay? Great, here you go, welcome. Outsiders say "if you're going to make a career out of it, join the reg force". You get used to what you know, Class C reserves are making the same pay rate as reg force, and now that the pension is coming through, what is the difference? Personally, I don't want to live my life contract to contract, wondering every time if this might be the year that there isn't one. And many are finally waking up to this, and either CTing, or making the break to go to school, or back to school, or returning home and getting a civilian job.
We (NAVRES) need to stop the fantasy of the "returning to the unit and spreading experience" sailor. People don't generally return... they either quit, stay on the coast or join the Regular Force. We need a comprehensive strategy to run these ships. If we can't demonstrate that we can do it - and do it well - we will go back to the (IMHO) "Bad Old Port Boat Days" of binge drinking and fleet recognized incompetance. I'm quite honestly proud of what we have managed to do with these ships and the professional and hard working crews we have formed over the last decade - It is an impressive accomplishment. We are on the very brink of losing our credibility simply based on manning issues and a systematic "bleed off" of our best and brightest.
I'm happy for my time as a reserve. Very rarely have I not been able to get full-time employment when I wanted it. I loved the trips, the money, the courses, the friends I made. But, like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. I feel that I put my all into it, and therefore got out of it what I wanted. But you still get the ones who come out for a good time and an easy time, and you realize that you've grown and it's time to move on and let the next generation take your place. The pace on the MCDV is very hectic, and scheduling is not known very far in advance and is often less minute. Great for the way reserves were, young and single. But as the MCDVs grow older, so do the crews and you will find many with families now that are realizing that they need more stability in their lives and it's time to move on. Unfortunately, it seems that this idea has hit more and more people and is spreading like wildfire, and thus the current mass exodus.
Michelle, I think we (old timers) all see the problem. We just need someone with the cajones to tell NAVRES that it is FAR worse than they think and that they need to fix it. I'm almost to the point where I think CANFLTPAC should take over management of our little fleet and the MOG can return to the old Training Squadron days. The ENTIRE system - from career management and recruiting to materiel acquisition and personnel retention - needs to be massively overhauled.
We cannot and must not accept a reduction in overall capability just so we can maintain an image of a 5 ship fleet. Whats more useful to a commander? 5 ships restricted to 12 hours a day at sea or 4 ships capable of 24/7 operations? I think the answer is pretty plain. I just hope someone tells COMCANFLTPAC and JTF(P) sooner rather than later that we're perilously close to an MCDV fleet incapable of meeting the objectives of MARS IV, Sar Zone and "other" Operational taskings.
Miss ya on the boats... hope the new digs are treating you well.
LK
