Hemorrhaging officers: Part II

Back in January I wrote a quick paragraph based off an article from the Atlantic that discussed why junior officers such as myself were leaving the military, and the Army specifically. The author essentially stated that officers were leaving due to a broken personnel system and frustration with military bureaucracy.

A study from Harvard states the same findings and backs them up with data. I think I may even participated in this study, which I don't expect you to read (I skimmed it). The folks conducting the study sent out surveys to officers currently serving and who have recently left the service focusing on 1st lieutenants, captains, and majors (or their Navy equivalent) in all four branches of the military and found the top 3 reasons for a decision to leave the military were:

1) career control (or lack thereof)
2) quality of life
3) military bureaucracy

I have to say that I agree completely with the results of the study. When I was filling out the survey back in January I determined there were 4 elements for me that led to job satisfaction:

1) enjoyment of the job/position (both overall as an MI officer and the current position/job held)
2) respect for my boss/superior (I don't have to like you, but I should at least respect you)
3) work environment (preferably not hostile)
4) ability to have some say in next position and/or duty station

I would argue that my #1 correlates to both quality of life and bureaucracy, #2 and #3 are quality of life issues, and #4 is obviously related to career control.

My own ability to control my career has been a case of blind luck. I was originally assigned to FT Lewis which I grew to love and was able to leave 502nd MI BN after only a year due to the personnel shifts that occur after any deployment and my stated desire to move to one of the stryker brigades on post. I had no say in the positions assigned to me in 3-2 SBCT but was able to return to FT Lewis due to the officer incentive program initiated when the Army realized it would likely lose more captains than it could afford if it didn't offer incentives to stay. I added two years to my contract in order to return to Lewis after the career course and luckily had some say in my next position, intel officer for the cavalry squadron in 3-2 SBCT. Of course when it was time to leave Lewis again my branch manager completely ignored my duty station requests and sent me to Huachuca, and then when I got here I was placed as a cog in the bureaucratic machine instead of becoming an instructor like my branch manager said I was going to do.

In terms of my other 3 elements, in my nearly 8 years in the Army there have been only a few times when enjoyment of my job, respect for my boss, and a non-hostile work environment have lined up. I won't go into dramatic detail but my time in 296 BSB, the short few months after my last deployment with 1-14 Cav, and my currently position are the only times when the stars aligned. There was a time when I thought tossing tables and screaming at subordinates for minor slip-ups was a required Army leadership trait.

Those "traits" have led to many an inside joke among my former co-workers though.