So, if you've never been in the Army, you've probably never known what it is like to have everything about your job change drastically, with only a few words from your boss. Now, I am not talking about job security, I am talking about the where are you going, what are you doing, and when are you doing it, etc.
In the past couple of weeks, our deployment location has changed and changed back more times than I know what to do with. We are either going to Bagram, or Kandahar. In fact, some of us may go to Bagram and some of us may go to Kandahar. Only in the Army...
But the more fun portion is my job change. I used to work in current operations for our battalion. I was involved in all of the planning craziness as our staff could barely get their heads above water. Mostly, because any time we tried to plan into the future, our brigade would ignore our plan and throw stuff at us anyway. When I first got to our staff section, I worked in future operations. I hated it. Everyone was so busy handling the current stuff that no one could give me any direction for our future ops. I basically watched everyone else be busy and run around and had little to nothing to do myself... part of this was I hadn't proved I could handle anything yet. But then something came up so I had to handle being in charge of our whole section while we were on a Field Training Exercise. It was truly a trial by fire. But after that (and then running our section for a time in garrison- our normal- environment) I was ready. And so I told my boss I wanted to be moved to current operations and he agreed. We were getting a new lieutenant, who is higher ranking than me, and he is about to make captain, but this was ignored and I was given the harder job because I had proved I could handle it.
Now, as my boss is getting closer to his promotion, we are starting to prepare for a new boss. Part of this preparation has me switching jobs back to future operations. This is because my boss' boss wants us to start focusing farther out and getting our heads above water, and part of this is because my coworker is about to make Captain and it would reflect very poorly on him to have the "easier" job. But the problem is, I have to start everything from scratch and I am not really focused on the future. It means I am doing both jobs in this transition, and truth be told, the other guy is doing neither. He is a very approachable guy who likes to tease and make fun and I keep teasing him that he can't tease me about anything in our job until he actually does some work around the office. He was tasked with an investigation when he first got to our section that had him running around for the battalion commander (all of us officers get tasked to handle various investigations for our commanders), so he was busy with that while I handled a lot of the work around the office. The problem is, I am a self-starter and willing to ask questions and help out.
So now, I find myself tasked with everything current (finishing our Mission Readiness Exercise as well as planning and preparing for NTC) and everything future, that is, more than 30 days out, (planning casing ceremonies for 3 companies, planning all necessary training for various positions during the deployment, as well as making sure we get everything on the calendar for everything we have to do in order to deploy). Its been a bit of a nightmare and I find myself with a very long list of things to do and plan. And of course, in the mean time, I get to meet with my boss (my OIC, officer in charge), and his boss, (my battalion commander) on Monday morning to find out what else needs to go on my planning plate so I can start planning it. Fun fun!
I love planning and I truly enjoy my job, even if it may seem like I don't. I'm not trying to complain or whine; I just figured I should give some insight into my job and what I am doing. I will try to keep updating what I am doing, where I am going and when as things change.
In the past couple of weeks, our deployment location has changed and changed back more times than I know what to do with. We are either going to Bagram, or Kandahar. In fact, some of us may go to Bagram and some of us may go to Kandahar. Only in the Army...
But the more fun portion is my job change. I used to work in current operations for our battalion. I was involved in all of the planning craziness as our staff could barely get their heads above water. Mostly, because any time we tried to plan into the future, our brigade would ignore our plan and throw stuff at us anyway. When I first got to our staff section, I worked in future operations. I hated it. Everyone was so busy handling the current stuff that no one could give me any direction for our future ops. I basically watched everyone else be busy and run around and had little to nothing to do myself... part of this was I hadn't proved I could handle anything yet. But then something came up so I had to handle being in charge of our whole section while we were on a Field Training Exercise. It was truly a trial by fire. But after that (and then running our section for a time in garrison- our normal- environment) I was ready. And so I told my boss I wanted to be moved to current operations and he agreed. We were getting a new lieutenant, who is higher ranking than me, and he is about to make captain, but this was ignored and I was given the harder job because I had proved I could handle it.
Now, as my boss is getting closer to his promotion, we are starting to prepare for a new boss. Part of this preparation has me switching jobs back to future operations. This is because my boss' boss wants us to start focusing farther out and getting our heads above water, and part of this is because my coworker is about to make Captain and it would reflect very poorly on him to have the "easier" job. But the problem is, I have to start everything from scratch and I am not really focused on the future. It means I am doing both jobs in this transition, and truth be told, the other guy is doing neither. He is a very approachable guy who likes to tease and make fun and I keep teasing him that he can't tease me about anything in our job until he actually does some work around the office. He was tasked with an investigation when he first got to our section that had him running around for the battalion commander (all of us officers get tasked to handle various investigations for our commanders), so he was busy with that while I handled a lot of the work around the office. The problem is, I am a self-starter and willing to ask questions and help out. So now, I find myself tasked with everything current (finishing our Mission Readiness Exercise as well as planning and preparing for NTC) and everything future, that is, more than 30 days out, (planning casing ceremonies for 3 companies, planning all necessary training for various positions during the deployment, as well as making sure we get everything on the calendar for everything we have to do in order to deploy). Its been a bit of a nightmare and I find myself with a very long list of things to do and plan. And of course, in the mean time, I get to meet with my boss (my OIC, officer in charge), and his boss, (my battalion commander) on Monday morning to find out what else needs to go on my planning plate so I can start planning it. Fun fun!
I love planning and I truly enjoy my job, even if it may seem like I don't. I'm not trying to complain or whine; I just figured I should give some insight into my job and what I am doing. I will try to keep updating what I am doing, where I am going and when as things change.
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