Posted on May 19, 2021
Is my platoon leadership allowed to micromanage appointments by requiring their approval before scheduling an appointment?
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My platoon has new “rules”, they said that we have to confirm with our command team if a certain day for an appointment is acceptable before scheduling that particular appointment. They claim it’s from higher up, like everything that seems “babysitter” like, but no other company has even heard of this so called “new rule” from higher up. Is my platoon leadership allowed to micromanage appointments like this?
Posted in these groups: 
Platoon
Leadership
Platoon Leadership
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 14
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The answer is yes, Command can do this. Every unit I have ever been in had a policy letter that Command Maintenance Mondays, no appointments will be scheduled. Soldiers abuse appointment scheduling, deliberately scheduling appointments to avoid field training, maintenance, and other mission essential tasks. What Command cannot do is prevent you from going to sick call, and even THAT is tracked to show patterns.
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Your appointments could very well carry over onto a day that is filled with training that cannot be shifted to the left nor the right. So yes, they can have some oversight as to when you can make an appointment. They aren't telling you that you can't make an appointment, just that you need to check the schedule first.
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Depends on the appointment. Is the appointment extremely necessary and can only occur on x-date? Or, is it a standard appointment which can be scheduled so that you’re not missing mandatory training and/or deadlines? Micromanaging can occur, and at times, should be expected. Sounds like a few too many people were scheduling appointments to get out of things and the command responded in kind.
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Short answer, yes.
If it feels like "babysitting" then you probably just haven't learned how important it is to your own work and the team that relies on you to get the first or last appt of the day on a day of the week you and your team can most afford you to be gone.
It's not just an Army thing, in a civilian job if you continue to make appts in the middle of the busiest days, your employer will eventually give you unlimited time for appts by letting you go.
If it feels like "babysitting" then you probably just haven't learned how important it is to your own work and the team that relies on you to get the first or last appt of the day on a day of the week you and your team can most afford you to be gone.
It's not just an Army thing, in a civilian job if you continue to make appts in the middle of the busiest days, your employer will eventually give you unlimited time for appts by letting you go.
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As pretty much everyone has already said, yes they can do this.
I have seen it happen quite often - and it is almost always a reaction to not having enough Soldiers available to complete missions (even if the missions are white cycle taskings like post police). When the Command sees an issue of Soldiers having appointments that conflict with the mission, they tend to react and make sure it does not keep happening.
I would bet that if everyone just complies and works through the process, slowly the reins will be loosened as the perceived issue goes away. But that means everyone has to get on board, and that is not always an easy task.
I have seen it happen quite often - and it is almost always a reaction to not having enough Soldiers available to complete missions (even if the missions are white cycle taskings like post police). When the Command sees an issue of Soldiers having appointments that conflict with the mission, they tend to react and make sure it does not keep happening.
I would bet that if everyone just complies and works through the process, slowly the reins will be loosened as the perceived issue goes away. But that means everyone has to get on board, and that is not always an easy task.
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They can do it unless it starts restricting your access to medical/legal/whatever.
I know my company tried to do this at one point but it simply wasn't compatible with the medical appointments line so it quickly stopped. The appointment line gave us an appointment time/date and that was it. You were lucky if they let you pick the general time of day let alone the exact hour or date. Changing the time at the whim of your command resulted in unpleasant phone calls to the unit.
We were expected to know to work around major events like field and range cycles or mandatory training though. If people haven't been doing that you can expect some increased oversight. I would generally just do a quick check with leadership on date/times that would be problematic and they took that as covering the requirement to check appt times with them.
I know my company tried to do this at one point but it simply wasn't compatible with the medical appointments line so it quickly stopped. The appointment line gave us an appointment time/date and that was it. You were lucky if they let you pick the general time of day let alone the exact hour or date. Changing the time at the whim of your command resulted in unpleasant phone calls to the unit.
We were expected to know to work around major events like field and range cycles or mandatory training though. If people haven't been doing that you can expect some increased oversight. I would generally just do a quick check with leadership on date/times that would be problematic and they took that as covering the requirement to check appt times with them.
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STOP...TRYING...TO.SCHEDULE...ALL...YOUR....APOOINTMENTS....DURING...THE ...DUTY DAY!
Other Soldiers have to pick up your slack. If you did this as a civilian, you'd be fired.
Other Soldiers have to pick up your slack. If you did this as a civilian, you'd be fired.
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It's not out of the norm for leadership to screen appointment scheduling to prevent troops from setting appointments on days where there is training or some other evolution previously scheduled. They aren't denying you medical treatment but ensuring that non-emergency appointments don't negatively impact the mission when they could be scheduled on an alternate day or time. This isn't a new concept.
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To put it simply someone is interfering with one's medical care. Then again military leadership is severely lacking these days as it gotten worse since I was in.
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SFC Casey O'Mally
They aren't interfering with medical care. They are making sure medical care doesn't interfere with the mission.
No rational person would assume this applies to emergency room visits - because A) that is just plain silly, and B) there aren't appointments for the ER, anyway. Which means that these appointments - if they even ARE medical appointments (as compared to ACS, JAG, career counselor, etc.) - have flexibility in their scheduling. No one is dying because they had to take an afternoon appointment instead of a morning one.
No rational person would assume this applies to emergency room visits - because A) that is just plain silly, and B) there aren't appointments for the ER, anyway. Which means that these appointments - if they even ARE medical appointments (as compared to ACS, JAG, career counselor, etc.) - have flexibility in their scheduling. No one is dying because they had to take an afternoon appointment instead of a morning one.
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So don't get dead or armless even heart attacks are adverse to command and punishable. Death is an automatic ch 15, I saw it before. So is sick call, appointments, and whatever under the moon or sun. Even this question is an adverse ding on your record.
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