Does anyone else in a leadership position in the reserves find it difficult to maintain a civilian position, find stability, or progress?

2015-06-11T10:30:55-04:00

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/05/local/la-me-citizen-soldiers-20130506

Betrayed? Citizen soldiers lose jobs; U.S. government biggest offender

The jobs of the nation's citizen soldiers are supposed to be safe while they are serving their country: Federal law does not allow employers to penalize service members because of their military...

Response by CSM David Heidke made Jun 11 at 2015 10:35 AM

2015-06-11T10:35:00-04:00

I wrote a command post article about this a while back.

Citizen Soldier's careers suffer because of our service. Undoubtedly!

Response by PO1 John Miller made Jun 11 at 2015 10:51 AM

2015-06-11T10:51:42-04:00

I didn't respond to the survey because I'm not a Reservist or Guardsman. But I do sympathize with your situation. I've heard of it but personally have never seen it with the Reservists I have worked with.

The reason being I think is because all the jobs I have had since I retired from the Navy have been with a government and/or defense contractor. A lot of these jobs actually encourage drilling reservists to apply.

Another option you might consider is civil service with the Reserves and or National Guard. I've seen quite a few postings on https://www.usajobs.gov/ that specify a military obligation whether it be in the Reserves or Guard.

Yet another option available is full-time Reserves or Guard.

Just food for thought, and good luck in finding stable employment!

USAJOBS - The Federal Government’s Official Jobs Site

This is a United States Office of Personnel Management website. USAJOBS is the Federal Government’s official one-stop source for federal jobs and employment information.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Jun 11 at 2015 10:58 AM

2015-06-11T10:58:16-04:00

I was a civilian in a Navy organization that the Flags were also my Reserve bosses. I did have the senior civilian once tell me he'd never promote a reservist because they aren't here when you need them. That filtered up to the Flag and right back down to the CO. He was more than supportive thereafter. You'll always have managers who don't want to manage around your Reserve duty. The question is it a corporate culture?

I will tell you that one choice isn't there and that's being fired for being Reserve. That happened to several of my staff that were recalled. Did it violate the law? Yes. Did anything happen? No. Here's why. Justice Department has minimum thresholds to meet, usually in the $2-3M range. Since most people eventually find other jobs, the damages wouldn't meet their minimum. It doesn't matter how strong the evidence is. I had an O-5 in my Command that received a letter from a lodging chain that he was terminated and the reason was his affiliation in the Reserves. Slam dunk right? Nope. Justice just said "You're an architect and the market is good for architects". They didn't even care that there was no severance benefits. They closed the file as the CDR took on another year active as he needed a job now, not 3 months later.

You will see a lot of the first answer out there. Please don't give employers a reason to hesitate in investing in you by being a good steward of the company. That means you don't drop work on the floor, keep management informed, etc. and otherwise look like you care about the company you're working at. It only takes a few dirt bags to turn a company off.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 11 at 2015 11:21 AM

2015-06-11T11:21:38-04:00

I worked for a U.S. based French company, for almost 3 years. (Actually, TWO....same industry/competitors...I left the first, and myself and several military officers who worked at the first company, were immediately picked up by their competitor...but, LONG story there...)

There were alot of issues at play regarding why I (and several other military officers/SNCOs they had recruited left within a 6 month time frame), but I never really felt it difficult to maintain the position. The company deliberately went through a military recruiter and hired military officers/SNCOs for their front-line leadership/supervisory positions. They KNEW they were getting bargain basement prices compared to the 6-figures+ the Army has invested into our leadership training.

Progress/Upward Mobility -- There was none, nor would there ever be. As a French company, the French held all the upper management positions, and I don't forsee that ever changing. For those in the front-line leadership positions--I had 40+ direct reports myself--that was the furthest our careers would ever progress, no matter how hard we worked or excelled. It was an interesting irony that all the upper management were French, yet, they deliberately sought out U.S. military officers to provide the leadership that they couldn't.

I never had difficulty with them working with me regarding my training obligations. The biggest problem is that they took lasseiz-faire leadership to the extreme. They really just didn't care about most things. Good luck trying to get anyone to care about any issues your employees were going through. To some, this might have been the perfect position because there was very little concern, care or accountability--in fact, it was inexistent--supervisors came and went as they pleased--some to such an extreme that production floor employees actually started to keep their own record of a supervisor's time off the production floor.

Upper management really didn't care what supervisors did, just so long as they maintained order and kept the 200+ production floor employees as far as away/distanced from them as possible. It was nice to have this autonomy, but, it was near impossible to get anything done. My biggest issue is that there was just so little support....and, for a supervisor with 40+ reports, you NEED that support. It's like the guys on the ground not have all the support required to effectively execute an operation.

One thing I did do, though, was put several key individuals there in for an ESGR Patriot Award:
http://www.esgr.mil/employer-awards/patriot-award.aspx

I didn't agree with alot of things there, but, they never really gave me a hard time with work obligations vs. military obligations. Doing that at least gave me the chance to show appreciation for what they DID do, even though their 'working with me' wasn't so much out of patriotism or love of the military as much as it was just simply not caring.

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve > Employer Awards > Patriot Award

The first in ESGR's series of awards is the Patriot Award. An employee serving in the National Guard or Reserve, or the spouse of a Guard or Reserve member, may nominateindividual supervisors and bosses for support provided directly to the nominating Service member and his or her family.The Patriot Award reflects the efforts made to support Citizen Warriors through a wide-range of measures including flexible schedules, time off prior to and...