[quote=âcygnus maximusâ post=8933]
The VR(T) needs to stop believing itâs a âspecial caseâ and stop bleating that itâs such a hard thing balancing work and cadet commitments such that nobody else could do it. What weâre talking about here is Service in the round and there is an apparent lack of understanding regarding what our Regular and Reservist colleagues actually do. Reserve officers work full time like VR(T) do, they attend their Sqns on Parade nights and weekends, they will also have to undertake secondary duties and the administration of their Flts outside of those times and that means evenings. Most Regular officers I know, outside of Op tours, frequently work 11 + hours a day, they too have secondary duties and the personnel management of their airmen to do, much of which can only be done out of work. Please donât think for a moment that any of these officers could not run an ATC Sqn; they could and Iâm pretty sure actually have![/quote]
You draw some interesting parallells there - all rubbish, but interesting none the less.
Reserve officers are commanding a group of adults, who are being paid to be there, and have a very clear set of sanctions that can be applied if they break the rules. Whether thats simply throwing them off the unit, docking pay, or sending them off to colchester. The sanctions are there, known about and the ADULTS that it involves know about them. Donât reserve units also have full time admin staff to do some of that admin work?
Regular officers are also commanding a group of adults, who are doing their day job. Theyâve completed extensive training and had strict discipline instilled in them from day 1. Again, there are a set of very clear sanctions that can be applied, all of which are known, and likely to have been experienced during training. They have a whole infrastructure behind them supporting them in their jobs.
VR(T) officers on the other hand are commanding a group of volunteer adults and a whole bunch of teenagers. The adults have mixed backgrounds, from ex-regulars who think they are the bees knees and can do a better job (but rarely step up to do it) through to parents of little johnny and are only there to make sure that said offspring gets promoted and all the opportunities. The staff rarely cause the problems. The teenagers on the other hand are there voluntarily (or foisted there by parents), have little in the way of discipline, and know that any sanctions we can apply are a joke. We canât even stop them going flying at the moment, and funnily enough, a lot of cadets donât seem that bothered. Iâve not had a single cadet asking about when the next flying slot is. They seem to accept that its gone for now, and arenât that bothered. Last time I checked, there is no infrastructure in place to support us. I canât just pick up the phone and request MT to send a minibus to move some people around. If uniform needs replacing, I canât just wander out of work and down to stores to get it replaced - its a 3-4 week process.
As for the sanctions we do have, we canât even dismiss a cadet for bad behaviour without going through several layers of beaurocracy.
Oh, and as for the regulars working 11 hours a day - welcome to our world. I tend to do about 16 when its a parade night, then I have travel time on top of that.
Iâd actually quite like to see a regular officer come and run a cadet squadron for 6 months. I wonder how much hair theyâd have left, and how many staff and cadets theyâd have? On the other hand, I wouldnât even consider going to run a regular or reserve squadron (I wonât even run an ATC squadron, Iâm no mug), although I suspect that I might fare better than the regular coming to run an ATC squadron.
