Saturday, January 4, 2014

I May Not Be Here As Long As I Thought

There was a crisis in the office earlier this week. In reality it was two problems that blended into one big mess that more than one person in the office is blaming on my company's baffling policy of seeming to hire anyone that walks in the door. My company's hiring techniques are something I won't get into but the consequences are the reason I fell into the position I'm in now.

Anyway it started off with one individual on my team quitting...or at least claiming he was quitting. For reasons that are not known to me he put in his two week notice on Monday. The problem? He was scheduled to deploy in two weeks. This puts the program in a bind in that they now have to find somebody to replace him on short notice. The person he is replacing in Afghanistan may have to extend, someone may have to work two jobs for a time to cover any gaps, or the worst solution, the position remains vacant until somebody can be found to fill it.

This immediate crisis was temporarily solved the next morning when the individual decided he didn't want to quit after all. However, from the office RUMINT this is not the first time he has pulled something like this and the leadership are not expecting him to complete his pre-deployment process in Indiana or get on the plane to Afghanistan. The problem is currently festering.

The problem became a crisis when my replacement in Afghanistan apparently had a melt down and was removed from his position by the customer (the military). By Friday he would be escorted off the base and is currently on his way back to us. Learning this hit me hard of course because I'm the guy who handed over the position to him and told my section he would do fine. I had been hearing rumors about things not going so well and the sergeant who is in charge of the section had messaged me on Facebook right after I left that they really needed me back. I figured it was just a matter of a new person learning the job, position, and role. I was wrong.

Currently the only other person on the program who is on the base will be filling in for my replacement and doing two jobs until somebody else can get out there. My boss scrambled to try to find somebody who could quickly deploy and fill the position for 2 to 3 months before being replaced. Options were extremely limited. Virtually the entire team is either just back from Afghanistan or scheduled to go in the next few months. The other teams are in the same position.

For a brief moment in time I considered going back.

2 or 3 months? Doing the same job I was just doing? I could do that in my sleep.

WTF? Am I insane? I've been barely back two months! Why would I do this to myself.

Luckily for my sanity somebody else volunteered. However, that volunteer left Afghanistan about a month and a half prior to me. She's also a single mom of two kids, she needs to be in the States more than I do.

During all of this my boss asked me when I would be ready to deploy again. I don't know if he was serious or not. I told him it would have to be after hockey season is done. I don't know if I was serious or not.

I spent my 20's deployed to Iraq. Seems I'm doing my best to spend my 30's deployed to Afghanistan.

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