P
phlebotomist
Guest
I've been going through many of my friends' blogs recently, and their comments of NS in general have ranged from doom and gloom to indifference to grudging acceptance. Thus far, I have refrained from discussing my own experience, due to the fact that mine has been a rather ... different life from the majority, and there's pretty damned little to talk about it in the first place. Which explains why I tend to take a backseat when others tell their own stories, content to soak in as much as I can from the sweatborne tales of my peers.
As my own term draws to a close (I'm being relative here, 3.75 months is short by most people's standards), I guess I'll just open up on some of the things I've reflected on over the past 1.5 years plus.
I was downgraded in SISPEC just over a year back, and was posted to my current department (notice I don't instinctively use the word 'camp' or 'unit' here) on 7th May 2007. SAFTI MI is really quite a wonderful working environment to have in the context of the other 'options' within the SAF. I was pleasantly surprised on the first day I came in, largely due to my impression of SAFTI as an ageing, dusty complex like so many of its compatriots. But I was to be proven so wrong. The contrast between SAFTI and the average SAF camp is pretty drastic to be honest.
CLD. "I work at the Centre of Leadership Development in SAFTI MI." Many atimes I have repeated this statement to friends and family alike, only to be met with blank stares and slight nods of semi-acknowledgement. Thus, to provide some hint as to our existence, I automatically follow up with the next line, "Oh, we do stuff like the 7 core values stuff" which tends to elicit more life out of the guys, together with smirks and sarcastic remarks (in a good-natured way). What does CLD really do? We develop and implement tools and frameworks for leaders to improve their management skills, as well as drive the SAF-wide focus on personal development. It's truly a backroom job, but trust me, ask any senior commander worth his salt, and he will grudgingly acknowledge that what we're doing is a thankless yet absolutely crucial job. Granted, the Boss may have built up quite a fearsome reputation for extreme enthusiasm and overall aggressiveness, but hey, you need someone like that at the top of a place like this. If you don't make yourself heard, who's gonna bother listening out for you?
What do I like most about CLD? That it's probably as close to a non-military organisation as you can get within the SAF, except perhaps the Army Museum. Now don't get me wrong here, I don't mean that there's no discipline and everything's chaotic or whatever. It's the people that make up CLD. While there are individuals with conflicting management styles and such, that's inevitable. I wish to highlight one major point, which is the one thing I am most grateful for in this place, and that is lack of an incentive to slack.
If that stunned you for a second, go back and re-read it. In some places, people who do things fast and efficiently get loaded with more (usually mundane / downright menial)work, or at the very least get berated for 'sitting around doing nothing'. Now what sort of attitude does this sort of climate cultivate? It's pretty obvious. There is absolutely no motivation to be task-oriented and efficient. Why bother to do things efficiently, if you're gonna get whacked for having 'free time' after that? You might as well take your time, and act busy. Sometimes this is described as 'wayang'. Amazingly, there exists a word in the English language that sums up this phenomenon perfectly. It's called 'boondoggling'. Dictionary.com defines it as "work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy". Bullseye, no? To aggravate matters, a lot of superiors fail to think through the implications of their management policies, and take the easy way out. Which is to overload the hardworking, reliable guys (I speak from personal experience here, and yes I was in this category) while 'closing both eyes' with regards to the slackers. So guess what? The decent guys get thoroughly pwned for being 'good', while the slackers just vegetate more. In my book, that would be defined as ASKING FOR IT. I'm not even asking for gratitude or compliments of any sort. But such a system is just encouraging slackers to slack more, while quite literally PUSHING the good people over to the dark side. Brains, plsthx???
Anyway, enough of ranting (if you guessed that I was complaining about my SISPEC experience, you're spot on). Thankfully, such failings do not exist to such a despicable extent in CLD, if at all.
Reflections. People always assume by default that an active combat vocation is far tougher than a service one like mine. I whole heartedly agree. I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I was dissatisfied with the way things are right now. Yet, I have not laid back and taken things for granted. I like to believe that I am missing out on countless learning opportunities relative to my peers, if only to spur me on to try and do something worthwhile with my bonus time. Sure, having a driving license when you ORD may look cool to some. But you can always go for driving lessons after ORD. Some other lessons, you only get this one chance in your life to experience.
Time is a gift, but only if you spend it wisely. It can very easily become a curse, the moment your self-motivation and drive shuts down due to lack of stimulation. I think I've come through rather unscathed, thanks largely to regular visits to the library (maybe I should tally up the bookcount come November), driving (to a small extent), French lessons and my good ol' piano at home. WoW doesn't count; it just serves as an entertainment outlet to balance out the more serious stuff. My fitness (what little there was in the first place) has definitely suffered, but I'm working on it, and will continue to do so after ORD. Frisbee, anyone?
Work these days seems to be winding down, in proportion to my amount of time left (not like it's within my control). So it would appear that everything is getting ready for my departure (which is good). Many-a-times, I have asked myself, if I could do it all over again, would I have done it differently? For now, my answer is a tentative no. And not just because I have a 'good' life right now. Would I have gone through the full 9 weeks of BMT, training hard to get into command school, only to end up behind a computer? That's an emphatic yes. If not for BMT, I wouldn't have imagined I could march 24KM in FBO. If not for BMT, I probably would have been less aware of my fallibility and shortcomings. While I cannot claim to have made that many new friends then, their company was still greatly appreciated.
So you won't hear me complaining much about NS after the dust has settled. I'm rather proud of how I've managed to maintain some semblance of my mental faculties despite the intellectual backwater I find myself in at times. Though I wonder how I'm gonna explain it all to my kids, without destroying their motivation to strive towards achieving their maximum potential, when the time comes.
As my own term draws to a close (I'm being relative here, 3.75 months is short by most people's standards), I guess I'll just open up on some of the things I've reflected on over the past 1.5 years plus.
I was downgraded in SISPEC just over a year back, and was posted to my current department (notice I don't instinctively use the word 'camp' or 'unit' here) on 7th May 2007. SAFTI MI is really quite a wonderful working environment to have in the context of the other 'options' within the SAF. I was pleasantly surprised on the first day I came in, largely due to my impression of SAFTI as an ageing, dusty complex like so many of its compatriots. But I was to be proven so wrong. The contrast between SAFTI and the average SAF camp is pretty drastic to be honest.
CLD. "I work at the Centre of Leadership Development in SAFTI MI." Many atimes I have repeated this statement to friends and family alike, only to be met with blank stares and slight nods of semi-acknowledgement. Thus, to provide some hint as to our existence, I automatically follow up with the next line, "Oh, we do stuff like the 7 core values stuff" which tends to elicit more life out of the guys, together with smirks and sarcastic remarks (in a good-natured way). What does CLD really do? We develop and implement tools and frameworks for leaders to improve their management skills, as well as drive the SAF-wide focus on personal development. It's truly a backroom job, but trust me, ask any senior commander worth his salt, and he will grudgingly acknowledge that what we're doing is a thankless yet absolutely crucial job. Granted, the Boss may have built up quite a fearsome reputation for extreme enthusiasm and overall aggressiveness, but hey, you need someone like that at the top of a place like this. If you don't make yourself heard, who's gonna bother listening out for you?
What do I like most about CLD? That it's probably as close to a non-military organisation as you can get within the SAF, except perhaps the Army Museum. Now don't get me wrong here, I don't mean that there's no discipline and everything's chaotic or whatever. It's the people that make up CLD. While there are individuals with conflicting management styles and such, that's inevitable. I wish to highlight one major point, which is the one thing I am most grateful for in this place, and that is lack of an incentive to slack.
If that stunned you for a second, go back and re-read it. In some places, people who do things fast and efficiently get loaded with more (usually mundane / downright menial)work, or at the very least get berated for 'sitting around doing nothing'. Now what sort of attitude does this sort of climate cultivate? It's pretty obvious. There is absolutely no motivation to be task-oriented and efficient. Why bother to do things efficiently, if you're gonna get whacked for having 'free time' after that? You might as well take your time, and act busy. Sometimes this is described as 'wayang'. Amazingly, there exists a word in the English language that sums up this phenomenon perfectly. It's called 'boondoggling'. Dictionary.com defines it as "work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy". Bullseye, no? To aggravate matters, a lot of superiors fail to think through the implications of their management policies, and take the easy way out. Which is to overload the hardworking, reliable guys (I speak from personal experience here, and yes I was in this category) while 'closing both eyes' with regards to the slackers. So guess what? The decent guys get thoroughly pwned for being 'good', while the slackers just vegetate more. In my book, that would be defined as ASKING FOR IT. I'm not even asking for gratitude or compliments of any sort. But such a system is just encouraging slackers to slack more, while quite literally PUSHING the good people over to the dark side. Brains, plsthx???
Anyway, enough of ranting (if you guessed that I was complaining about my SISPEC experience, you're spot on). Thankfully, such failings do not exist to such a despicable extent in CLD, if at all.
Reflections. People always assume by default that an active combat vocation is far tougher than a service one like mine. I whole heartedly agree. I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I was dissatisfied with the way things are right now. Yet, I have not laid back and taken things for granted. I like to believe that I am missing out on countless learning opportunities relative to my peers, if only to spur me on to try and do something worthwhile with my bonus time. Sure, having a driving license when you ORD may look cool to some. But you can always go for driving lessons after ORD. Some other lessons, you only get this one chance in your life to experience.
Time is a gift, but only if you spend it wisely. It can very easily become a curse, the moment your self-motivation and drive shuts down due to lack of stimulation. I think I've come through rather unscathed, thanks largely to regular visits to the library (maybe I should tally up the bookcount come November), driving (to a small extent), French lessons and my good ol' piano at home. WoW doesn't count; it just serves as an entertainment outlet to balance out the more serious stuff. My fitness (what little there was in the first place) has definitely suffered, but I'm working on it, and will continue to do so after ORD. Frisbee, anyone?
Work these days seems to be winding down, in proportion to my amount of time left (not like it's within my control). So it would appear that everything is getting ready for my departure (which is good). Many-a-times, I have asked myself, if I could do it all over again, would I have done it differently? For now, my answer is a tentative no. And not just because I have a 'good' life right now. Would I have gone through the full 9 weeks of BMT, training hard to get into command school, only to end up behind a computer? That's an emphatic yes. If not for BMT, I wouldn't have imagined I could march 24KM in FBO. If not for BMT, I probably would have been less aware of my fallibility and shortcomings. While I cannot claim to have made that many new friends then, their company was still greatly appreciated.
So you won't hear me complaining much about NS after the dust has settled. I'm rather proud of how I've managed to maintain some semblance of my mental faculties despite the intellectual backwater I find myself in at times. Though I wonder how I'm gonna explain it all to my kids, without destroying their motivation to strive towards achieving their maximum potential, when the time comes.