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WANT A JOB MAKING COFFEE?

DAA

Army.ca Veteran
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Here is the actual Reserve Employment Opportunity Class B Job posting which has since been cancelled...

http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/reo-oer/details-renseignements.aspx?positionnumber=o-8210&lang=eng

 
DAA said:
Here is the actual Reserve Employment Opportunity Class B Job posting which has since been cancelled...

http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/reo-oer/details-renseignements.aspx?positionnumber=o-8210&lang=eng

9.Remarks: Replacing a Reg Force mbr which is on parental leave

WTF?

So this wasn't just something that someone dreamed up, it's an actual position that is staffed by the Reg Force?

I say again, WTF, over.


edit: OZ beat me to it.
 
Isn't the canteen person seen as extra duties? Insane.
 
It's out in the open now....

Whoops.....almost quoted that here until I saw the author's name....
 
We have Reg F posns, including section heads, which have been unfilled for years because there are not enough pers available - and there are people who make coffee as their primary job?  Granted, probably not the rank level and skill set that we could use as a section head, but they could do something useful.  Most workplaces have a long list of jobs that could be done if only someone were available to do them - and I'm betting they're all more important than coffee. 

I wonder how the cost of a Reg F member, including salary, benefits, health care, employer's share of EI/CPP etc., etc., would compare to the cost of a long-term contract with a local coffee firm to take care of this.  They do exist. 
 
Hmmm...seem to recall this is something a Steward does is it not?

Just tossing that out there...

MM
 
bridges said:
..... I'm betting they're all more important than coffee.
:eek:rly:  Careful.... not everyone in today's army drinks 'double mint latte with extra foam.'
 
Yep, this looks like a Steward posn.  Stewards have lots of different types of jobs. 

Journeyman said:
:eek:rly:  Careful.... not everyone in today's army drinks 'double mint latte with extra foam.'

???

Not sure what that's about.  Anyway, I'm among those surprised to see a soldier providing the coffee as their full-time job.  But maybe someone who does that kind of job can chime in and explain why it's best done by a CF mbr.
 
bridges said:
Not sure what that's about.
  ::)

It's a joke. Some of us think coffee is important, especially first thing in the morning.

Nevermind.
 
medicineman said:
Hmmm...seem to recall this is something a Steward does is it not?

Just tossing that out there...

MM

Save that everyone except the Navy decided they didn't need stewards and got rid of them.  They've been paying for it ever since by getting other folks to do the things that stewards used to do.

The fact is that, as described, this could in fact, be a full time and busy job, depending on the size of the operation.  Whether a CF member or an NPF employee (on a static base) should be doing it is an entirely different matter (I would argue that Canex should be doing this - it's in their mandate).
 
Colin P said:
Perhaps a job for injured soldiers recovering from their wounds?

Yep that occurred to me too.  Around here we have jobs that injured/recovering soldiers can do, and frequently do - but we don't have them as established CF posns just waiting for the next injured soldier to show up.  Anyway, it's curious. 


Journeyman said:
  ::)

It's a joke. Some of us think coffee is important, especially first thing in the morning.

Nevermind.

Double-mint latte with extra foam ... I'm sure that has your necessary caffeine too.  Just saying.  ;)  But I have a hard enough time getting Tim's to put ONE shot of mint in their advertised mint-chocolate Ice Capp, I don't want to push my luck and ask for double. 
 
As of this morning the REO position has apparently already been yanked.
 
Pusser said:
Save that everyone except the Navy decided they didn't need stewards and got rid of them. 

The rest decided that officers can make their own beds and take care of themselves at meal time.
 
CDN Aviator said:
The rest decided that officers can make their own beds and take care of themselves at meal time.

But they forgot that stewards also run the entire NPF operation in operational areas.

For the record, stewards don't make beds anymore and working the Wardroom is a only a small part of their overall duties.

About 15+ years ago, the Army eliminated all steward positions and decided it would run its messes with NPF employees (who tended to be inner circle friends of those in appropriate postions, but that's another story).  Not six months after the last Steward had been posted out of the Army, the Army sent out a critical manning message for - get this - a Steward, to run a field canteen on an operation.  Lo and behold, there were none to be had as the neither the Navy nor the Air Force had any to spare.  The position was filled by someone else.  Several months later the NPF Board of Directors was faced by a request from that same operation (and the Army) to write-off $50K-$60K (or thereabout) of spoiled and lost canteen stock because the non-stewards in charge of the canteen didn't know what they were doing.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  Professionalism and training go a long way to ensuring this.  Stewards are professionals trained in NPF management (their primary responsibility).  Assuming that just anybody can do it can be a recipe for disaster.
 
Colin P said:
Perhaps a job for injured soldiers recovering from their wounds?

Understand your theory Colin but  I can't think of a more degrading job for an injured warrior than making coffee for someone.
 
Brihard said:
As of this morning the REO position has apparently already been yanked.

It's still in REO, just with a status of "cancelled".

The perplexing part is that at least two different staffers had to sign off on the messge before it got posted in REO.  Clearly a "WTF were you thinking?" moment should have occured somewhere in the chain of command....
 
Pusser said:
But they forgot that stewards also run the entire NPF operation in operational areas.

For the record, stewards don't make beds anymore and working the Wardroom is a only a small part of their overall duties.

About 15+ years ago, the Army eliminated all steward positions and decided it would run its messes with NPF employees (who tended to be inner circle friends of those in appropriate postions, but that's another story).  Not six months after the last Steward had been posted out of the Army, the Army sent out a critical manning message for - get this - a Steward, to run a field canteen on an operation.  Lo and behold, there were none to be had as the neither the Navy nor the Air Force had any to spare.  The position was filled by someone else.  Several months later the NPF Board of Directors was faced by a request from that same operation (and the Army) to write-off $50K-$60K (or thereabout) of spoiled and lost canteen stock because the non-stewards in charge of the canteen didn't know what they were doing.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  Professionalism and training go a long way to ensuring this.  Stewards are professionals trained in NPF management (their primary responsibility).  Assuming that just anybody can do it can be a recipe for disaster.

That's nice, but the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. Existing QM and food services organizations - which have a primary sustainment role - should easily be able to run canteens on operations; that was what I saw over and over in Afghanistan, which I think is about as 'operational' as it gets. Imagine that; we actually have field deployable trades whose primary job it is to deal with keeping stuff in stock, and keeping track of perishables. And - wait for it - we even have people in the CF whose primary job is money management.

The historical intransigence of the senior service notwithstanding, in today's stressed military we do not need uniformed members whose primary role could even conceivably lead to the establishment of full time PYs for coffee bitch or running canteens. If the Navy can demonstrate and justify a legitimate requirement for a specific manner of service aboard ship, that can be delegated to cooks so that we can retain the compulsory deployability that comes with being in uniform. For EVERY other non-operational position which stewards fill, it should be part of our ongoing rationalization to offload those tasks to others who already have the various parts of those jobs as part of their trades.

The recovered PYs can be pushed right back into operational units. This isn't even the familiar 'up yours- fill the battalions!' refrain we in green are fond of. I'm sure even if the navy kept every PY formerly dedicated to it would find ample use for them- some small percentage for the tasks stewards were actually critical for, and the rest to trades that are in constant short supply.
 
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