Posted on Aug 18, 2020
My Platoon SGT wants to counsel my soldier for watching his child during COVID-19. Is this counseling justified? How can I help my soldier?
3.09K
21
15
2
2
0
- My unit "says" it will work with SM during the epidemic
- SM has never missed more than an hour due to watching his child
- All my soldiers can cover down. They know each other's jobs. Everyone can cover down.
- His wife is a nurse, she can work odd hours and she has.
- He is an outstanding SM
- Because of Covid-19, he's more cautious of who watches his child because of certain medical factors
- To my knowledge, there is no daycare on the post and Mom and Pops daycare off-post
- SM staying home is always a last resort.
- My SGT is teleworking for a very similar thing. (change a couple of parts, has the same situation)
- SM has never missed more than an hour due to watching his child
- All my soldiers can cover down. They know each other's jobs. Everyone can cover down.
- His wife is a nurse, she can work odd hours and she has.
- He is an outstanding SM
- Because of Covid-19, he's more cautious of who watches his child because of certain medical factors
- To my knowledge, there is no daycare on the post and Mom and Pops daycare off-post
- SM staying home is always a last resort.
- My SGT is teleworking for a very similar thing. (change a couple of parts, has the same situation)
Coronavirus COVID19
Counseling
Children
Child Care
Leadership
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 10
Technically yes. A counseling is nothing more than documentation about an event. In this case it is about the child care. I would look back at the child care situation. Each base was required to maintain child care for essential workers. At my post we were required to have a memo to enable us to use them. The wife may qualify for this. A counseling isn't something that is negative. It is a tool to help Soldiers and guide them.
(5)
(0)
SFC Steven Borders
I agree whole heartily Sir. My question is though why is this PLT SGT counseling if in fact he/she is teleworking themselves for child care reasons. But as you stated a counseling isn't something this is also negative.
(0)
(0)
SFC Kelly Fuerhoff
I don't know about other bases, but JBLM opened up CDCs back to single/dual military priority list. It's not just essential workers since June.
(1)
(0)
4
4
0
A counseling isn’t the end of the world. It just as much a security blanket for the issuing supervisor as it is a plan for improvement.
If it isn’t iPerm’d it never happened once the soldier PCS’s
If it isn’t iPerm’d it never happened once the soldier PCS’s
(4)
(0)
4
4
0
I'm always leery of answering these types of questions. I'm not sure what constitutes counseling in the Army. In the Marines, nothing made it into an enlisted man's record book unless it was signed off by the Company Commander. If I was the company commander in this scenario, and the information you've presented is a complete picture, the Platoon Leader and the Platoon Sergeant better have one helluva good reason to make it "official." Then the 1stSgt and I would drink several cups of coffee while we thought about it. If we weren't both solidly on the same sheet of music, I think we'd be talking to the BnCO and BnSgtMaj.
(4)
(0)
SFC Kelly Fuerhoff
A counseling packet doesn't generally leave the unit with the soldier nor does it go to your OMPF. It's a tool for supervisors to use to guide soldiers. It isn't just for when someone does something wrong. It also isn't just full of counselings. It should have any training certificates, usually a soldier data sheet, ERB, etc.
(1)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google