New CFAV Survey on Bader

Adult Staff Execs
1

There’s a new survey on Bader about why you volunteer. It’s quite interesting and they want as many people as possible to do it. Check the scrolling news for it.

I thought I’d share with you my “any other comments to make” section, partly as some therapy for a particularly stressful time I’m having and also incase someone sees it up high - giving them a better idea of what we suffer with:

[quote=“Me”]It would be a lot easier to be a CFAV if there were more of us. The stress I’m under is immense from being in command - I sometimes feel I get more pressure and stress from this, my “hobby” than I do from my actual employment.

The amount of hours I gave are [35] the minimum I’d do in a month. In reality it’s a lot more - for example, I’m doing this survey in my working hours. We’re constantly expected to reply to emails, apply for courses and do things outside of “volunteering” time because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all - most volunteers I know spend time at their jobs doing “cadet stuff”.

I don’t feel very supported by my wing, and in recent months my previous very motivated and good staff team have had other committments come up which has limited the time they can spend doing cadet things.

I’ve got no confidence that my views as a squadron commander are listened to or acted upon. I feel more and more that what I’m “selling” to prospective cadets about flying, shooting, gliding is not happening and that I’m lying to people. I can’t remember the last time we sent cadets flying, and getting generally 8 slots gliding every 6 months is a really poor return for “air cadets”. Then we have shooting, which in our wing isn’t happening. The wing shooting officer doesn’t organise any wing shooting. It’s left to us to organise, which is a burden we’re unwilling to take on. This leaves us with the opportunity to do small bore shooting, which whilst manageable and achievable doesn’t allow cadets a sense of progression.

To top that off, attaining shooting qualifications and keeping current is becoming harder by the minute.

I feel there’s a lack of trust from senior officers, who enjoy having their trainset and playing with it often contradicting those above them, putting the volunteers in a difficult position - who do you listen to, HQAC or a regional commandant?

The lack of information recently over gliding bans, camping/fieldcraft bans etc shows poor leadership, leading to rumours spreading like wildfire.

We have a health and safety department that is a joke. One of my CFAVs was, up until very recently, more qualified than the CESO (ACO). His recent “urgent” safety announcement about bouncy castles made me laugh in disbelief, and his report into the person struck by lightning who “should have forseen it” shows his complete lack of reality.

The one good factor over the past year has been the Cmdt AC. She is really positive, looking to engage with those of us at the coalface rather than treat us like something she’s stepped in. The fact she’s visiting every squadron, wing and region shows her determination and I genuinely feel she cares about cadets and staff.

Sorry for the long rant, but I’m on the edge of chucking in the towel and this has made me feel slightly better.[/quote]

2

Hello. My name is … And I’m a squadron commander. Hello … and welcome to OCs anonymous.

We should have a support group, or is that really what ACC is for.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

3

I received the CFAV survey yesterday via email. I thought the questions asked would give a good overview of the corps.

4

[quote]Recently I have stepped down as a Squadron Commander due to the level of expectation put upon me by my superiors who do not provide me with the personnel to meet their expectations without significant stress to myself, my family and friends. Despite giving a high level of commitment I feel undervalued by the Organisation and continue to contemplate leaving despite a cadet and volunteer ‘career’ spanning in excess of 18 years. The Organisations attitude to volunteers is something it should be ashamed of, abusing the good nature of volunteers to get the job done.

Would I encourage my children to join? As cadets, yes. As staff, definitely not.[/quote]

5

I think the person reading these Survey’s at the other end might need this:

08457 909090

:wink:

In all seriousness thank you both for sharing your thoughts - I am sure this might be very interesting to see the true state of Staff Morale.

6

pEp, I’m sorry that you’re feeling the pressure. ACC as previously mentioned can help with a lot of problems and questions and I hope we here can help you with some of your problems. It may help if you gained some more/new staff members, or it might do wonders just having a good old staff meeting at Sqn, have another check over staff roles, change them around if need be. A staff meeting might just sort things out enough to relieve a little pressure from you. Email your wing staff and see if there is any more support available to you and your Sqn.

I hope things become better for you and the pressure lifts a little.

7

Unfortunately the military nature of our organisation and the fact we have a chain of command does not look kindly on ‘whistle blowers’. Instead people who dare to put their head above the parapet are usually shot down or put into a position where leaving is the only option with no action taken against the root cause.

Hopefully our new ‘media savvy’ Commandant will see this thread and the results of the survey and take some action. I know we are a military affiliated organisation but I feel it is about time for some transparency to flush out the rotten eggs who make life stressful for the rest of us.

8

What is disturbing about this statement is it needs something like this survey to maybe bring it to the attention of our SLT. It doesn’t appear from the blurb that comments/results will be passed on to the respective organisations. If they are I can see no change from our SLT. Given that people are or are on the verge of; just standing down, going NEP or quitting completely from Sqn Cdr posts, combined with numerous other staff leaving and our SLT just blindly bimble on seemingly ignoring that there must be “something rotten in the state of Denmark”.

I think that a message from the survey will be one of CFAV who carry on as they see the value of what the Corps brings to the cadets and society as a whole with a modicum of personal gain, while feeling under valued, unsupported and taken for granted by an organisation at the top full of empire builders, who have forgotten or never knew what they were there to do.

9

I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a moment, so please, nobody take this personally…

Maybe people just need to man up and understand what taking a commission entails… ie: command, responsibility, service before self, etc…

The RAF won’t give you praise and accolades for doing what it sees as ‘your job’, you just get gripped if you don’t do it. Chatting with other friends from cadet days who went on to reserve or regular service, we agreed that the big culture shock for ex cadets is that there is no positive reinforcement. Basically, you get paid, that’s your reward and the contract stipulates that they can do whatever they want with you.

I know people can say that they’re ‘volunteers’, but I so was I. I keep hearing people saying ‘we’re putting our officers in command too early’, but if they aren’t ready to command, why are they becoming officers? I’ve never felt that I wanted that level of responsibility or the workload and stress that goes with it, so I’ve never applied for a commission (as a reservist or a CFAV).

Of course, the real solution to all this is like I said on another thread: take the ‘air force’ out of the ‘air cadets’. Get rid of the (para)military element and you lose the problem of the culture clash.

Again, food for debate, I’m not trying to belittle anyone’s experiences or troubles.

10

There are two things I’ll pick up on here.

One is the concept of the Volunteer. Too many people fdon’t quite understand what it means to volunteer for a uniformed role. I think they are used to the looser definition where one volunteers to do this, or that or the other, and no more. They don’t realise that in volunteering for a uniform role, they are opting in to a whole package of things, which includes some events they would rather not do, adhering to a command structure, and taking on responsibilities, even when that does get a bit stressful or unpleasant.
Whenever I hear someone say about a certain element of the role that ‘I’m not doing that, I’m a volunteer’ my immediate reaction is to want to remind them that the can opt in or out of ‘the package’ but not the individual elements within it. Thats not to say that the chain of command should ignore our personal circumstances, and that the level of commitment we give must be balanced against the rest of our lives, but to use the ‘Volunteer’ word whenever something comes along that people don’t like is wrong. Yes you can always stop volunteering, but that means opting out of the whole package.

The second is the idea that Commission means command and that our officers should be ready to accept command from the moment of commission. New Junior Officers should indeed be able to lead, and it is important that we give them every opportunity and encouragement to do so. The worst thing I hear is perfectly able candidates saying ‘I’m not going to commission because I don’t want to get stuck in the office’. Command is a much bigger step, and one that does require experience to fulfill successfully, and we should not push people into such positions before they are ready. We must remember that compared to regular or reserve forces, we have only a short course at Cranwell, and much more on the job training, so we do need to accept that our officers need time before being given a command.

MW

11

[quote]tango_lima

Maybe people just need to man up and understand what taking a commission entails… ie: command, responsibility, service before self, etc…

The RAF won’t give you praise and accolades for doing what it sees as ‘your job’, you just get gripped if you don’t do it.

I keep hearing people saying ‘we’re putting our officers in command too early’, but if they aren’t ready to command, why are they becoming officers? I’ve never felt that I wanted that level of responsibility or the workload and stress that goes with it, so I’ve never applied for a commission (as a reservist or a CFAV).[/quote]

Give this man a medal! :worthy:

This is not to decry that there are problems and issues that need to be resolved, but taking the burden of command requires a particular type of individual.

If we do not properly prepare people in terms of expectations before we commission them, and then train and support them once commissioned, we will see a continual decline in the numbers of commissioned officers and commissioned Sqn Cdrs. In my opinion, people leave/are broken by the demands of command because of poor preparation for those demands, and a lack of training and support. I am fighting my own battles within my Wing currently in this respect, against individuals who don’t seem to get that, and seem to think the answer is simply to continue putting uniforms on people with the bare minimum prep, development, and training.

The grim reality is that the current ACO uniformed CFAV selection & training package is ineffective, especially in respect of SNCOs, who only sit a Wing board (of approx. 30-45min?) and undergo no other objective form of selection to ensure they are either (a) familiar with the SNCO role, or (b) suited to it. OASC is a massive step in the right direction for potential Offrs, but then the ATF courses (for SNCO and Offr) are neither long enough or in depth enough to properly train people for their intended roles; and seem to repeat a lot of training which is (or could be) delivered locally, therefore wasting IMO time which could be spent “injecting the RAF” into candidates which ATF is better positioned to do at RAFC Cranwell than we are within Wings.

Another alternative is to fundamentally redesign the delivery model.

If Sectors became more of a “unit” than a “formation”, with a core Sector training programme, delivering core activities (e.g. shooting, first aid, DofE, AT, etc.) that Sqns simply fed cadets into (and filled the remaining time/parade nights/weekends with their own local programme & training/preparing for Sector training weekends/courses/activities) and a Sector training team, manned, trained, and qualified to deliver; the “cadet experience” would be more evenly delivered, and would take a lot of the pressure off Sqns/Sqn Cdrs. Part of the problem is that 900+ units are currently all expected to, in the main, “do their own thing” but within that deliver a full and varied “cadet experience” …putting tremendous pressure on individuals, and especially Sqn Cdrs (compounded by the increased admin and assurance/compliance burdens of the past 10yrs - ish).

There are systemic solutions to these problems, but they are radical, and require significant changes of mindset at all levels …something the ATC is not good at, especially at the coal-face, at Sqn level, in my experience. A lot of people (a) want to simply to their own thing/empire build, and (b) don’t - ironically - like doing as they are told!

Cheers
BTI

12

[quote=“tango_lima” post=18249]I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a moment, so please, nobody take this personally…

Maybe people just need to man up and understand what taking a commission entails… ie: command, responsibility, service before self, etc…

The RAF won’t give you praise and accolades for doing what it sees as ‘your job’, you just get gripped if you don’t do it. Chatting with other friends from cadet days who went on to reserve or regular service, we agreed that the big culture shock for ex cadets is that there is no positive reinforcement. Basically, you get paid, that’s your reward and the contract stipulates that they can do whatever they want with you.

I know people can say that they’re ‘volunteers’, but I so was I. I keep hearing people saying ‘we’re putting our officers in command too early’, but if they aren’t ready to command, why are they becoming officers? I’ve never felt that I wanted that level of responsibility or the workload and stress that goes with it, so I’ve never applied for a commission (as a reservist or a CFAV).

Of course, the real solution to all this is like I said on another thread: take the ‘air force’ out of the ‘air cadets’. Get rid of the (para)military element and you lose the problem of the culture clash.

Again, food for debate, I’m not trying to belittle anyone’s experiences or troubles.[/quote]Er, bingo.

For the most part, we don’t get paid. So it’s hardly surprising that people might want to be treated a little more nicely and have to deal with a bit less of the s***e that generally goes with paid employment.

13

“The package” notwithstanding, we are very much volunteers and give our time freely for this organisation. While we may have agreed to a set of rules and a minimum level of attendance, most of us have other commitments which may conflict and which will often supersede the needs of the ACO, whatever the “package” may expect of us. Whether those conflicts are genuine of are the invention of the individual is for the volunteer’s conscience to decide but the ACO doesn’t get to question it so long as the minima are met.

I certainly agree that not enough seems to be done to prepare people for taking command of a squadron or for assisting them while they are there (some units can get good help while others will be left floundering - there is no general structure providing consistent support)

Should squadron commanders be under a specific contract to carry out that role? Agreeing to a set of detailed terms of reference? It is, after all, one of the key positions in this organisation and the success of a unit can depend very much on the availability of the OC, especially in these days of SMS authorisations.

I also still believe that we should only commission from the ranks. I simply do not buy into this idea that SNCOs and officers are 2 very separate strands of personality as it is not borne out by what I find in the real ATC and, as such, I cannot see an issue with starting ALL uniformed service at Sgt(ATC) for a full term of 4 years at the promotion point (and on completion of all current prerequisites) allowing them to apply for promotion or commission as they see fit.

14

I gave my spare time freely to be RAuxAF and my pay didn’t really cover what it cost in terms of lost earnings, travel, kit insurance all the other nebulous costs that went with being a reservist. I still didn’t have the option to turn around to the CoC and say ‘I’m not doing X, I’m a volunteer’ (and my TACOS included the word ‘volunteer’) or to demand that the training staff be nice to me because I’d had a hard day at work.

I think my point is that a commission is a commission is a commission, be you RAuxAF, RAFVR, RAFR, RAFVRT or RAF, the commission has exactly the same status however you come by it and that means that you should be prepared to be equal to that status. As an SI I never had the issue some people seem to have with saluting VRT officers or calling them Sir or Ma’am, because I was happy to hold the above view and felt that the majority actually did a lot more good work than most regular officers.

It’s ok not to be equal to being an officer, most people aren’t. But I don’t understand the view of ‘It’s not fair, I commissioned and now people want me to do all this officer stuff’. Although I’m sure it’s not intended that way, it comes across as people wanting to have their cake and eat it.

15

[quote=“corgi” post=18246]pEp, I’m sorry that you’re feeling the pressure. ACC as previously mentioned can help with a lot of problems and questions and I hope we here can help you with some of your problems. It may help if you gained some more/new staff members, or it might do wonders just having a good old staff meeting at Sqn, have another check over staff roles, change them around if need be. A staff meeting might just sort things out enough to relieve a little pressure from you. Email your wing staff and see if there is any more support available to you and your Sqn.

I hope things become better for you and the pressure lifts a little.[/quote]

Thanks Corgi, good advice :slight_smile:

16

no, having their cake and eating it would being paid £50k a year to do a job and then bitching about that job being demanding, difficult and frustrating.

doing a difficult, demanding and frustrating job and being paid absolutely diddley-squat for it - as well as being mocked for bitching about it - is the living definition of neither having your cake and eating it. empty belly, empty hand, empty pocket.

17

no, having their cake and eating it would being paid £50k a year to do a job and then bitching about that job being demanding, difficult and frustrating.

doing a difficult, demanding and frustrating job and being paid absolutely diddley-squat for it - as well as being mocked for bitching about it - is the living definition of neither having your cake and eating it. empty belly, empty hand, empty pocket.[/quote]

Nobody’s being mocked. Being a reservist was an utter pain in the rear that I got paid peanuts for, and I ran the risk of being mobilised, sent somewhere dangerous and coming back deficient limbs or in a box. And when, to quote Greenday ‘the pain weighed out the pride’ and I realised I wasn’t equal to the task any more, I handed my kit in.

The nature of service, in this case commissioned, is that it takes from you and you get very little tangible in return. That’s just how it is. I’m a CI because I don’t have the energy, enthusiasm or drive to be a SNCO or an officer with all that that entails. By putting on the uniform, you make a promise and if you can’t fulfil that promise you should take off the uniform. No big deal, the role wasn’t for you.

18

I look forward to getting the DPM/MTP uniform that I’m required to wear to a set standard issued to me in this equal society you speak of…just one example. I’ve been on summer camp (RAF Cosford) and charged the VRT rate for my time in the mess. Small examples but shows the playing field isn’t level.

Anyway…

19

I know this wasn’t aimed at me, but I’m going to answer your points from my point of view:

I was under no illusions when I took a commission what it entails. I know about RISE, but unfortunately not everyone seems to and the further up the food chain you get, it seems the more people forget it. I am fully aware that I’m responsible for absolutely everything that happens on my squadron. What would be easier is if I either had a) a permanent admin staff to help do everything I’m required to, or b) someone reduced the amount of things I’m required to do. I don’t have the (volunteer) staff to fill all the positions that a squadron needs. My life would be simpler, for example, with an adj. Unfortunately mine has much more important things like family and a job to prioritise, so he can’t spend as much time doing things as I know he would like. I have a training officer who is a baby member of staff that we’re coaching through with a view to going into uniform down the line. This means I can’t just let him get on with it, I need to constantly oversee what he’s doing and provide help and advice where necessary.

No one is looking for praise or accolades (but they would be nice once in a while). I just want people to understand that I basically have 2 full time jobs, one I get paid for the other I don’t. Comparing it to regular service is flawed. You get a lot longer training (especially as an officer), and you have (in theory) support channels to help you - we don’t.

Part of the issue is that when you sign up, no one sits you down and explains all the crap you’ll get. At least if you join the reglar service/RauxAF, you know more of what to expect. Signing up to run a military themed youth club is not quite the same.
The idea that you should only be commissioned when you’re ready to take command is also flawed - how do you get on the job training if you’re not on the job? IMO you need people to be on a conveyor belt of CI/cdt - commissioned for a few years - OC.

I took command because I felt guilty that it would otherwise pass to someone who really didn’t want it and didn’t have the time commitments to give to it. Because there were no other officers nearby to do it, and because I felt obligated to on behalf of the sqn and the cadets (and because I knew when I signed up that the day would come).

You are right, we’d lose the issue of military thinking, but we’d probably also lose the funding and the ethos that goes with it.

20

[quote=“tango_lima” post=18249]I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a moment, so please, nobody take this personally…

Maybe people just need to man up and understand what taking a commission entails… ie: command, responsibility, service before self, etc…

The RAF won’t give you praise and accolades for doing what it sees as ‘your job’, you just get gripped if you don’t do it. Chatting with other friends from cadet days who went on to reserve or regular service, we agreed that the big culture shock for ex cadets is that there is no positive reinforcement. Basically, you get paid, that’s your reward and the contract stipulates that they can do whatever they want with you.

I know people can say that they’re ‘volunteers’, but I so was I. I keep hearing people saying ‘we’re putting our officers in command too early’, but if they aren’t ready to command, why are they becoming officers? I’ve never felt that I wanted that level of responsibility or the workload and stress that goes with it, so I’ve never applied for a commission (as a reservist or a CFAV).

Of course, the real solution to all this is like I said on another thread: take the ‘air force’ out of the ‘air cadets’. Get rid of the (para)military element and you lose the problem of the culture clash.

Again, food for debate, I’m not trying to belittle anyone’s experiences or troubles.[/quote]

I generally agree with your sentiment, but the way I read the comments were that the individuals were not getting the support they needed, rather than the pat on the back - 2 different (perceived) forms that being/feeling valued can take.

I also support a more professional approach by the ACO - both in outlook by Staff, but more importantly improvements in the support available from the Infrastructure. Without the right support, even the best staff in the world are set up for a fall.