I am being told to go to PT by the command on only 4-5 hours of sleep. As a junior enlisted, how do I solve this problem?

I can remember coming home from a club just in time to change into PT uniform and go to PT. We held each other up and maybe one or two puked but we made it through. If you can't work on only four to five hours of sleep, you may want to pick up a new career. If you get deployed you will get less sleep than that. Plus you have two different time to go. I believe command is being very accommodating. You may need to do some time management.

FM 6-22.5 and FM 22-51 Are good reference points to start.

However, I’d ask, how are you only getting 4-5 hours sleep? If you work 1600-0000, and now the 1SG makes a 0530 PT sesh mandatory, there’s plenty of time for sleep. It seems as though you have a time management issue with a now inconvenient PT formation.

Alter your pattern to adjust working the night shift. For example.
1430: wake up, personal hygiene
1500: first meal
1600: work starts
0000: work ends
0000-0530: personal time (to include naps if you want)
0530-0730: PT
0730-0830: last meal, personal hygiene
0830-1430: sleep

I get it. It sucks. It might not be the best leadership decision, but it’s not an illegal leadership decision. However professional your approach might be, the most effective approach (for everyone) is to just show up, sound off like Forrest Gump in basic training, and after the 1SG feels like his point has been made, things will go back to normal.

Best of luck

Some of you are going to have your ego hurt by what I am writing, but read this this all the way through and think long and hard on this before you hit that dislike/vote down button.

I have read some of the most bizarre, asinine, dare I say fool hardy comments, I have ever seen on Rally Point on this thread. Leaders, get a fracking clue, we are talking about soldiers who work in hospitals, not CQ, not Duty NCO, but soldiers who are treating YOUR soldiers! Would you want a civilian hospital to do the same thing as your loved one is laying in the ICU, NICU, or ER? How would you feel if you knew the staff only got 4-5 hours of sleep for weeks to months on end, and now your child is in their care? Feel good about yourself now? Feel like this is the way it should be for those who work these shifts? Feel like their soldier who got medevacked in deserves the best care we can give them, or some sub-standard level of care because we need to have full PT formations?

If you have never worked in health care, never had to work second or third shifts for prolonged time periods, had to work a person dying in front of you, well I got news for you: you haven't a clue! Ever watch a cardiac monitor for hours on end, try doing that in a sleep deprived environment, see how well you work out, or how well you like telling the survivors that their loved one passed away last night. With all the shortages in medical staff in the civilian world you don't think this kid is going to walk when his/her time is up? This is a case of Ego's, not leadership, or a lack of it. " I need to see a big unit in front of me." Hey Top, you run a hospital, that kid in ICU with the traumatic brain injury is far more important then your sniveling PT formation. That Kid in ICU is some ones loved one, if your second and third shift people are passing their PT tests lay off, or you will lose them, and won't be able to replace them, then you have bigger problems.

I've got little patience with most complaints I read here from junior enlisted about how many hours their unit can make them work, etc. In your case I feel you have a valid complaint that should be addressed by the senior person in your shift. It shouldn't be a matter of access to whomever it might be since they are there working with you. Go to the senior person on shift, explain your problem and ask if the other people working with you are having the same problem and how they are handling it. If all have the same problem, the senior person should start up the chain with it. Moving the afternoon PT sessions to 1430 or so might be a solution. I would guess it's a temporary problem since the new 1st Sgt and CO are trying to correct a problem they saw with fitness/overweight personnel, but may not have been aware of the problem with your specific section.

Many of the comments below are why junior enlisted soldiers don’t trust their leadership. And quite honestly if most of you were my leadership I wouldn’t follow you into a Chinese buffet if you were holding the gift cards.

The “just do what you’re told” mentality enables toxic leadership. It teaches those who are not yet leaders how to be toxic leaders. The soldier is not asking how to get out PT, the soldier is seeking advice on how to address her concerns to the chain of command to establish a more workable situation.

Far too many of you responded to the question with “look how tough I used to be” which is probably your default response to everything.

Military life sucks enough in ways we can’t control. Why are we telling this young soldier that is has to suck more in ways we CAN control?

What is the purpose of unit PT? To keep soldiers fit to fight and build esprit de corps. Can those goals be accomplished if the NCO’s on her shift conduct PT at another time? Yup.

Ultimately it is the commander’s decision, and the commander may stick to the decision already made. But what kind of leaders are we if we don’t voice our concerns to that commander to make the best possible situation for our soldiers?

“Suck it up” is why good troops don’t re-enlist or leave the military with problems. Or they turn into little balls of rage and resentment and insist everyone must suffer as they suffered because reasons.

I had a similar situation when I was a junior enlisted. Your best advocate is your platoon sergeant / platoon leader who go to the command team and explain why this schedule may not be optimal. The key here is not only propose why the schedule is not good, but to propose an alternative that fits the needs of everyone and is better for your particular section. What bothers me about your situation (and in some cases the Army in general) is that someone is not looking to make things better, they are just looking at "good enough" with priorities in the wrong place. Bodies in formation sounds important, but I would think the safety of the patients in the hospital would be paramount. Also, there's the "taking care of people" aspect that we have become so bad at as officers and NCOs. Sure, you could go power nap, do your PT, and then sleep 6-7 hours after that. But you also need time to recharge and be a person. Any doctor, psychologist, etc. would agree such a thing is essential. Though sure, they can execute 1SG's guidance and be ok with making you all sacrifice everything to meet a "I need to see bodies" requirement, but the question every leader should be asking is: "is there a better way?" I can think of about 5 better ways so I know it exists. This is an example why command teams should never switch out at the same time (usually a 1SG stays while a new commander changes, etc. They never should change at the same time). You need to have that continuity of leadership. Someone to tell the new 1SG / or new Commander why a COA will not work and why based on the "continuity person's" experience at that level. You as a junior enlisted? Sadly you don't have much control. My advice would be to have a nice sit-down with your TL / SL / section leader, etc. and discuss the issue. Don't forget to offer alternatives. Hopefully that person will advocate alternatives to your platoon sergeant.

Part of being a leader is listening to your people when they have a valid concern. Based on the facts presented, I think this fits the definition of a valid "gripe".
What's the ultimate goal here? Get the mission (work) done and maintain a fit, motivated fighting force. It seems to me the PT can be accomplished at another time. The senior soldier at the hospital should be directed to get the PT done. Why as a CO or a senior NCO would you care when the PT gets done as long as it gets done?
"Because it sucked for me, it has to suck as much or more for you" is weak. Be a leader, not a dictator. Empower your soldiers; give them some responsibility to get a task accomplished. Ultimately, it's going to make YOUR job easier. My $.02.
Retired O-5 USAF unit commander

Not to be churlish, but really, do you think the enemy is going to postpone battle till you get your rest? As an engineer in a ship on 3 section duty WITH a full work day my normal day was 18 hours at sea, if all I had to do after a four hour watch was do pt and then crawl back in my tree I'd have thought I was on a pleasure cruise. The military life is all about overcoming adversity, grow up a little...

I've tried to die on this hill before. It doesn't work, I promise. I was working 12 hour shifts in the ER 1700-0500 and we were expected to be at weekly PT before we went home. Same thing if there were barracks inspections, briefs, or any other random thing that might happen during my "off" time like SHARP Face to Face etc. No one is holding SHARP classes for the 5 of us at 0300 while we are at work, so we have to be there one way or another. My advice would be to mention how dumb this is (preferably to your E5 first line and no one higher) as more of a gripe and not a "I'm gunna fight the man!" and let him do what he will with that. If it were me, I would be in my NCOIC's ear about the NCO Creed and providing for our Soldiers etc etc and leave it at that. You can either piss and moan about how dumb this is (which it is), or you can accept that you will do a lot of dumb shit in the Army and use this as an exercise in resiliency. If you were in a deployed environment, you would weep tears of joy if 1600-0000 followed by a little PT were your only duties. Hunt the good stuff!

Sorry - I have to agree with the OP. True, we all have to consider the option of working without sleep (I did enough of it), but in this particular circumstance, it's PT. This isn't training for an operation that would involve sleep deprivation. To put it simply - if you worked all day from 0800 to 1600, then had to run back to work at 2330 for PT, wouldn't that be an issue that should be repaired? We train as we fight - and if we're training people for poor management, then something should be re-examined. I do like the PT at 1430 idea.