What do you believe is the biggest waste of time for Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines?

Col Kyle Taylor — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:35:41 -0400

Everyday service members are required to do things that are a waste of time that could be much better used for other tasks. These practices need to be highlighted and changed or removed from tasks.

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Jul 28 at 2015 10:38 AM

SGT Ben Keen — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:38:43 -0400

The one thing that bothered me during my time in was sitting in the motorpool waiting for formation. So instead of just having my troops sit there, we would hold "Tailgate Time". Sort of like SGT's Time but didn't have to be all training. We used as a time to talk and to train. We were still stuck in the motorpool but at least it was a way to make the best out of the 15 minutes you had to kill waiting on formation.

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 28 at 2015 10:56 AM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:56:24 -0400

Personally I think that a lot of the rank specific training is a waste (i.e. Lance Corporal's course, corporals course and the like) they are anywhere from a week to a month of training where you learn to be the rank you already are. I think that your Staff-NCO(s) should be tasked with the teaching of these items, it would be done at down times in your work and not take you away from your work and your marines for weeks at a time. In truth if your Staff NCOs cant teach you these things themselves they shouldn't be the rank they are. I can see the need for standardizing these items but taking away Marines for that long of a stretch is just not a good idea.

Response by MAJ Raúl Rovira made Jul 28 at 2015 1:58 PM

MAJ Raúl Rovira — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 13:58:08 -0400

1. PowerPoint = PainPoint. My soldiers and I wasted countless hours building and editing slides. The slides can't just be good enough, they must be perfect. (Unrealistic Expectations)
2. The meeting before the meeting. (Lack of focus. Just hold one meeting if the meeting is needed)
3. The formation before the formation. (Lack of trust, just say the time. Be there or be late)
4. Waiting for the end of day formation to get the notes from the end of day leader's meeting. (For some situations it may be needed if something is hot early morning, but it should not be the norm. Also, PT formation is just 12 or 13 hours away)

But the biggest waste of soldier time I've seen was a soldier in Afghanistan tasked to check vehicles on the road during PT time to make sure vehicles on the road have a tag authorizing movement. That's a soldier not doing PT or mission.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 28 at 2015 2:30 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:30:16 -0400

Resilience training

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 18 at 2017 6:09 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 18:09:48 -0400

I think the biggest waste of time is when they schedule change of command inspections and you end waiting hours for them to show up. One time the new incoming commander wanted to see the Drash tents all setup. So as a company we went to the motorpool. Set up a ton of tents at 0700 in the morning. At 0900 we were told it was rescheduled for 1300. Then we were told he was coming at 1700. At 1800..the Staff Duty NCO who was a SSG sent his runner to tell us "that he didn't give a flying F**K what we were doing but the Motorpool need to be locked up now and we had to leave". My NCOIC who was a MSG didn't really care too much for that and told me "I'll be right back" and stormed off to teach this Staff Duty NCO a thing or two about respect and tact. The new incoming company CDR ended up showing up at 1900 and we finished up at 2000. This was a friday and we left the tents up all weekend and tore them down on Monday. This was a BDE company and when the DCO heard about this he told the new incoming CDR in no uncertain terms that he would make a idealist schedule and he will make every appointment and from now on.

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Aug 18 at 2017 10:18 PM

LTC Jason Mackay — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 22:18:46 -0400

Following a meticulous checklist for SRP and have the first civilian in the process rip out pages because they were not "invented here", to be re done three stations in.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 19 at 2017 1:52 PM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 13:52:39 -0400

Safety briefings.
Not safety briefings that have a point, mind you. The ones that are basically telling joe stuff he already knows and heard last week, like don't drink and drive.
The point of these is not to tell Soldiers something they need to know, or even reinforce something important. The point is to innoculate leaders from consequences when joe goes off and does something stupid. Then they can tell the battalion commander "I told them not to do ...."

Waste of time.

Response by SP5 Norman McGill made Aug 19 at 2017 4:17 PM

SP5 Norman McGill — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 16:17:41 -0400

Like what are we talking about here?

Response by SPC James Anderson made Aug 19 at 2017 7:50 PM

SPC James Anderson — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 19:50:34 -0400

PMCS, I think it was every Tuesday. Come back from PT and spend 8 hrs working on your vehicle that hasnt moved in the last 5 months, do this every week all year. 2nd would be the hours of just busy work made up by NCO's to make enlisted look like they are doing something. Just send people home for gods sake.

Response by CW2 Ernest Krutzsch made Aug 20 at 2017 10:06 AM

CW2 Ernest Krutzsch — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 10:06:02 -0400

We were getting the maintenance award from the USAEUR Commander, when I was in Berlin. We were told to be at formation at 0600. The USAEUR Commander showed up st 10, What happened? Belin Brigade told BN Cdrs, be there at 0900, BN said 0800, Company said 0700, Platoon..0600, and it was freezing out. Also, I remember we did hriefings on Butcher Board, we got things done without Times New Roman, or Animated Graphics

Response by Sgt Wayne Wood made Aug 21 at 2017 7:54 PM

Sgt Wayne Wood — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 19:54:04 -0400

Sensitivity Training