This is the question I ask myself at least once a month, sometimes more. I always ask myself this question whenever I get frustrated at the differences between life in a military community and a civilian community. Those of you who have experienced life in a military community know exactly what I'm talking about, but those of you who haven't don't have a clue. And that's not your fault, something that I understand, but it still does little to help me deal with it.
For all of you out there who have never served, let me try to explain.
The differences between life in a military community and life in a civilian community are night and day. Life in a military community comprises the everyday use and following of ideals such as honor, integrity, reliability, dependability, punctuality, and above all else, following the rules. Everyone who joins the military knows from Day One that he or she will be expected to live by these values and ideals, and they willingly accept the challenge. If they weren't willing and didn't have at least a really good idea of what was going to be expected of them, they wouldn't have joined in the first place. Sure, the military community has its malingerers, liars, and unreliable people just as the civilian community does, but it has far less of them and they are dealt with much more quickly and decisively than in the civilian community. Once you're identified as one of the above by the military, your days are numbered - and if you've got a good supervisor, that number won't be any higher than two digits, with the first one being a "3."
If only it were the same in the civilian community.
I'm willing to bet that each and every one of you who may be reading these words can, if you stop and think about it for ten seconds, identify at least two people in your workplace who are lazy, useless, good for nothing workers who you can't understand why they still have a job with your company and why the company hasn't flushed them down the toilet a long time ago.
You can, can't you?
I share your frustrations, believe me. In my job as a Loss Prevention Specialist for a major retailer, it's part of my daily responsibilities to go behind literally every associate in the store and ensure that they're doing their jobs the way the company policy says they are to do them. And every week I come across something so stupid, so inane, and so obviously wrong that it just stupifies me to think that someone can do something like this and get away with it. But because of the way the civilian community is established, and because there is a shocking lack of personal honor and integrity among a larger portion of the population than I would like, it's gonna happen every week and continue to happen. And I doubt it will ever change.
The thing that galls me the most is the lack of personal integrity and personal honor. For example: take the cashier who asks the manager if she can have a Saturday off, knowing that Saturday is THE biggest and busiest sales day of the week, and it just so happens the company is running a sale that weekend. Of course, the answer is going to be "no," so what happens bright and early Saturday morning? The cashier calls out "sick." How convenient, huh? And she calls out again on Sunday as well. She's scheduled to be off on Monday since she was supposed to work the weekend, and surprisingly enough she shows up on Tuesday as if nothing happened.
Then there's the Department Manager who gives his notice, and promptly does what the military calls "going on the ROAD." ROAD stands for Retired On Active Duty, and refers to someone who has submitted their retirement papers, knows the military can't touch them from that point on until they retire, and promptly gets a case of the lazies - they come to work, go to lunch, and go home each day, accomplishing little if anything at all during the day. So one of our Department Managers gives his notice and goes "on the road." And to make matters even worse, he calls the store one afternoon and tells them that "I'm going to be sick on Monday, so I won't be there." And sure enough, come Monday he's a no-show at work.
So, dear reader, are you starting to get the idea?
Sure, I realize that no community is perfect, and I'll be the first one to tell you that after 23 years in Uncle Sam's Air Force, the military community sure isn't perfect. But it's a Garden of Eden compared to what I've seen here "on the outside."
I miss the Air Force and military service every single day, and I envy those who are serving. I also realize that there's little if anything I can do to change what's going on out here; the best I can do is learn to live with it and cope with it the best that I can. Sometimes I don't think I'll ever be able to adapt, but most of the time I think I can. This past week has been one of the former.
And, believe it or not, writing about it helps.
IHC
2 comments:
I can definitely emphasize with your feelings and know exactly how you feel. I have one thing in my recent past that made me feel like the attitudes and ideals instilled in me since that first day at Lackland (and youu can betcha by my Old Man since day one on this planet. During my last week before walking out the door as a retired person, my supervisor had my annual performance review in his hands. Now this guy was a graduate of the US Naval Academy, so you can figure he was pretty much by the book (sometimes I would wonder), but his last remark to me as I got the VERY FIRST EVER 100% all attaboy performnce rating in our district (these are discouraged by "upper management") was that I was the only member of the staff that tried to enforce all of the rules even though it was obvious that no one else would do that. After all of the years of frustration on that point, it felt might grand to have someone in the capacity of management actually notice.
Ray, as for the civilian community, I just have come to expect what you are experiencing, so the shock isn't as great. I also have my Cajun mouth (no scar tissue on my tongue from biting it), and have no difficulty telling some of these cretins what I think, and sometimes slamming it to them when the opportunity avails. I am also fortunate enough to live in an area with a high percentage of retirees from the USAF (and a scattered grouping of the other branches) so life here on the South Coast ain't all that difficult.
I'm learning to adjust, but it's an ongoing process. First, I had to learn to adjust to life in New Jersey, and for a Southern boy like me, that was kinda tough. Now that I'm living down South again it's not so bad, but sometimes it all just gets to me. I'm not as outspoken as I used to be about it because I got tired of talking to a brick wall...I also got tired of being accused of being "too hard" on people, so I've adapted. I don't like it much, but I've adapted. And the closest base to me is Ft Jackson, which is about 45 minutes away. But that's Army, so that' don't count! Shaw AFB is about 90 miles away, and one of these days I gotta get over there...got some things to pick up from Clothing Sales!
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