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We are being told that our Defence Forces are so overcommitted and unpopular that they cannot meet their recruiting targets. The solution, we are told, would be compulsory national service. Have people forgotten Vietnam already? You cannot compel a person to be motivated or like what they are doing. [Even if it is not military service*.]
Our Defence Forces have been plagued with inquiries into bastardisation, poor safety, personnel retention issues, and other issues. Middle management is leaving in droves because they can get better pay, and better conditions elsewhere. Luckily, having acquired employment experience, they have choices available to them. Perhaps if the armed forces were to treat those it already has better, with more consideration for the *people* themselves, they might be
* isn't it amazing that people who wouldn't be required to participate are so aggressively advocating it?
Our Defence Forces have been plagued with inquiries into bastardisation, poor safety, personnel retention issues, and other issues. Middle management is leaving in droves because they can get better pay, and better conditions elsewhere. Luckily, having acquired employment experience, they have choices available to them. Perhaps if the armed forces were to treat those it already has better, with more consideration for the *people* themselves, they might be
- a more attractive employment option, and
- more likely to keep their experienced people?
* isn't it amazing that people who wouldn't be required to participate are so aggressively advocating it?
pessimistic
Recruitment
I think it would be very strange for anyone to enlist at the moment, considering the commitments that Australia has made for it's forces in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, even if the Defence Forces had perfected their treatment of personnel.
Re: Recruitment
(no subject)
Plus they've whittled away all the "perks" that military personnel used to get, considering them to be manifestly unfair and the user should pay (forgetting that a military job is generally not like any other job, even if people aren't shooting at you).
Then again, in any serious national emergency situation my commision can technically get reactivated (at least until the med-board takes one look at me and tells me to go home and rest).
national emergency. run out of willing targets.
part of the thinking behind the flat(er) structures of some organisations is to get around this problem, but ultimately someone has to be the one who makes the final decisions, etc.
the civilianisation of military has been going on for a while. ditto with police in some places. as the organisations have become more acocuntable to external civilians, so they have been put under more pressure to morph into something the chosen civilians can understand ... with resulting consequences.
i've made my views on "user pays" elsewhere.
so far i've not made it as far as getting a commission. perhaps this year will change that.