To be fair, I’ve done the same twice. I get a far better work life balance in the civil service and local government!! Even better with LG as i’m not blowing £3k per month to stand on a train to Londinium 3 days a week!!
2 Likes
Maybe that’s a problem that needs to be rectified. I wouldn’t know a regular day if it bit me on the backside.
I’ve had dealings with LG and get past around 4pm and I’m sure they put the answerphones on that eventually direct you to a phone in a soundproof broom cupboard and close email.
1 Like
many of ours have been forces wives, getting a local job near the base their husband works at for his 2/3 year stint
That’s not the problem, that is their contracted hours; 37 hours a week for full timers. If you work more than your contracted without additional pay more fool you.
Whilst I agree that salaries are not brilliant as a CS. I am sure I could earn more in the big wide world but I wouldn’t get a better work/life/Cadet balance doing anything else.
1 Like
Needs of the business and customer trump everything.
In exceptional circumstances we can get TOIL.
Different people have different priorities on a work life balance and most ultimately end up at an employer who shares those priorities (or at least allows them to operate in that framework). You’ll nearly always need to make a sacrifice between job satisfaction, work life balance, and salary but different people want different balances.
viva la difference
Looks like the drawdown is starting…
I wonder how many more stories we’ll seep in the coming months?
1 Like
A lack of suitable OC is a terrible excuse to close a unit…
There are 3 Sqns in my wing run by SNCOs/WOs
There should have been consultation, perhaps a Sector Commander could have supported the WO who becomes OIC etc.
There must be more to this than in the story, perhaps the OC Wing will provide a comment to allow for fair journalism 
1 Like
I’ve already seen a similar story on a well know Facebook group populated by cadets who know they’ve been cadets too long.
1 Like
It would be interesting to see how many, and where, squadrons have closed in 2017. Heard our Region has lost at least one from four out of six Wings.
From that page, it looks like 2391 and 1218 squadrons will close this month…
Only if they can find someone who wants the job though.
You would think that with 11 remaining members of staff at the squadron, someone could be found to babysit the squadron until a suitable replacement could be sourced?
And 99% of the time they can, which is why squadrons don’t normally close just because the OC leaves.
True dat.
Of course, if you’re a Wing Commander, and have been asked to shut some squadrons to save money, I’m guessing closing a squadron with immediate staffing issues is an easy win…
1 Like
Shocking, Just shocking how CRAFAC can allow this to happen.
Personally I feel the Corps is struggling at the moment and closing sustainable units is another kick in the teeth.
2 Likes
And there’s the crux of the matter! Nobody - in modern times - wants it. Or, where there are people, the Corps might not want them. “Squadrons run by Sgts? That’s not the sort of thing I want in my Wing” - a lack of respect for the volunteer and/or not valuing the skills people offer over an out of date model of what people “think” they want the ATC to look like.
Maybe, just maybe, if there was more support in place and a lot less BS, then they’d find more people willing. But with the slow and gradual erosion of the core offer, the ever increasing burden of administration and BS, the bureaucratic nightmare of staff recruitment - and subsequent retention - means that this organization is really, really up against it.
It requires a special kind of person to run a squadron in the current climate. And we’re very short on them, and with very little in the way of incentives to get them into post.
6 Likes
But they haven’t.
They have been told not to be too precious about squadrons if it makes sense to focus resources on a single unit rather than 2, having one healthy, thriving unit and not two struggling units.
We all know the reality of that desire and the various elements that come into play. We also don’t know the full story here, only what their chairman knows and has chosen to whine to the press about, and that through the filter of sensationalist journalism.
I would hope that the staff, cadets and Civ Com do a Churchill to the ATC and find somewhere where they are valued and respected.
I do hope this doesn’t allude to the ‘super squadron’ model, which is a childish concept held by some in the ATC’s higher echelons. Having met a number of these over the years, their lack of understanding of what squadrons are really like, not the pen pictures they have, is easily apparent when they speak. What they are doing in the Corps is always a mystery.
2 Likes
Not really, but it is similar. Rather than trying to produce large units running on multiple nights, it is more about helping cadets and staff benefit from the stability and flexibility that can come with a healthy parade strength of cadets and staff. I’m talking about a more normal size of squadron - around 30 in my experience.
If a unit cannot attract the necessary staff (or cadets) to function effectively and regularly, the goal should not be to maintain a squadron at all costs, Instead it encourages wings to look around and see if anything can be done to redeploy personnel, even if that means 1234 Sqn closes in favour of 4321 Sqn nearby, who may have fewer shift workers.