Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 02, 2010

People in the military who complain that they would do their job if they had better supervision after they get a new NCO make you wonder what their excuse was with the previous NCO. Since Melissa’s unit apparently knew how to do their jobs before she took over, how did they become stupid and ignorant overnight, and why is that her fault?

I agree with both of you…

Any vets or current troops out there? I’m wondering if Trudeau is talking about something that’s big to active soldiers but reads like simple office politics to us civilians. A while ago I was going through a book of Bill Mauldin’s WWII cartoons, and many were downright puzzling without footnotes explaining the context.

Sheik,

Nothing changed. But the crew assumed that things would change. That things would get easier. They should have known better.

Disappointment is breeding discontent.

Never underestimate the power of a comic….

Leadership is an innate trait, not a legally conferred right. In smaller units, particularly in combat, troops look to the person who is going to give them the best chance of surviving and/or succeeding, and that is not always the person designated as leader by higher authority.

When I was promoted just because there was an opening and I was next in line, I only had problems with my friends. They acted as if they received promotions too. I had a choice of putting up with it or not. NOT.

This essentially boils down to the mission or troop welfare. It’s a catch 22. Sure, the choppers need to be up in the air by 1300, but how long have they been at work? Do they get days off? While I was in the sandtrap it was 0800 to 2000 (and I was the first to leave) and we only had Friday morning off (until 1200 hrs). BUt I had a desk job. During the first oil war, as a deployed Marine, we trained every single day without any days off until we arrived to the Gulf and did our first field-ex.

And it is interesting that Mel at least has the insight to ask, “maybe it’s me?”

Military or private sector, doesn;t matter. The adjustment is with the team in dealing with Mel as a superior now. Friendship can only interfere. The military is very good about separating this out. Private sector less so. In the provate sector, depending on the company management, too much office politics can occur, leading to disaster for he newly promoted. My particular favorite is someone designated a lead with out HR responsibility for their team mates. Insubordination can be fostered when management does not fully support the lead. The lead has full responsibility for team success, but no way to discipline insubordination and non performance. I’ve seen this in 2 projects, same company.

In this case, the team is dfamiliar with Mel and should already uinderstand the teams purpose and goals. They just need to understand priorites over friendship.

During Vietnam, if a Marine sgt yelled “down!”, he was saving my life. Or I could have said “Why?” and had my head blown off. “Ours is not to question why—–”

At my house you have three choices…..

My way, my way or my way.

here it’s my way, my way, my way or all of the above

Its not complicated - her team is just trying it on to see if she’ll give them some leeway. Good for her that she won’t - give an inch and they’ll take a mile. Hopefully they’ll buckle down soon.

The crew thought that when they got “one of their own” that position, things would be easier on them and she would still be best buds.

Mel might have some growing pains in the job, but she is doing just fine. And yes, it is true that “it is lonely at the top”.

Well, one of the basics of leadership is to foster an environment that encourages each of your employees to own their results. Mel is perfectly justified in demanding deadlines and standards of quality, but as the chaplain will remind her, not everything has to occur “her way” so long as those goals are achieved. For people to have pride in their work, they have to identify it as their own work too.

There’s a significant difference between barking orders and managing & motivating people. Mostly it’s a matter of communications - setting clear expectations, providing coaching and feedback, and reviewing results for the purpose of performance improvement. This is often confusing with supervisory personnel who were promoted as a result of their technical expertise as opposed to “people persons”. Mel can learn the skills and needs to if she wants to further her NCO career.

She told them what to do, and then she went off and did her own grunt work instead of making sure they did it. Commendable as far as attitude goes - she’s NOT putting on airs. However, it’s now her job to assess her troops skills, their weaknesses, and their abilities. She wasn’t doing that job.

It’s clear - SHE has not received guidance (she’s looking for it in this strip) and she also has not given any to the troopies.

My comments stand, long may they wave.

Kudo’s to Trudeau. His scenario’s relating to the military have beem consistently good. Can’t say the same when he becomes political or lost in the 60’s. Stay with the military where you are doing good.

Benson, It’s pretty much the same as an office in a lot of ways and I think that’s kinda the joke he’s making. Mel’s struggling with changing over from ‘one of the guys’ to ‘leader’ and that’s always challenging.

As to OpTempo, that’s always up there. When I was at Camp Cupcake, we worked frequent 18-20 hour days. Our initial schedule was 0500-1700ish with one day ‘off’ out of every 10.

We got things shaken out leadership wise and I got our schedule to two overlapping 10 hour shifts with one day ‘off’ out of every 7. MUCH better.

Orion

Familiarity at work here - there’s always a problem when you’re put in charge of a bunch of people that know you as an equal or a member of the same group of peers.

This is why you’re shipped to the furthest military base away from your home for boot camp - to eliminate all the “that’s not the way we do things around here” blowback.

Note - I’m not a military man, but I have attempted to teach a girlfriend to ski (physically demanding, very technical) with identical results - mutiny.

Bensondonald said, about 18 hours ago

Any vets or current troops out there? I’m wondering if Trudeau is talking about something that’s big to active soldiers but reads like simple office politics to us civilians. A while ago I was going through a book of Bill Mauldin’s WWII cartoons, and many were downright puzzling without footnotes explaining the context

I’m a vet and don’t be swayed by any arguement that the army is above politics. Unless you’re in a fire fight, office politics is the norm.

Why is Mel going to the chaplain about this? Her platoon sergeant should be mentoring her.

I was listening to “Talk of the Nation” on a NPR podcast today, and they were interviewing Tom Ricks (he wrote “Fiasco”) about the best and worst histories/memoirs on Iraq. The best: “House to House” & “Chasing Ghosts” among others. The worst: Books written by Tommy Franks, L. Paul Bremmer and Sanchez. Ricks actually said that Franks was “stupid” and he wasn’t much more impressed with Bremmer or Sanchez.

Ricks did say that one of the best commentaries has come from Doonesbury. He said that Trudeau has a good feel for the multiple perspectives and dynamics of each situation, and then he went on to site a strip that I missed … TAKE THAT STEBON! You “Perceptive Man” hater.

My personal best book: “The last True Story I’ll ever tell” by John Crawford. His Guard unit was called up at the beginning, he was 1/2 a credit from an anthropology degree at FSU and his 18 mo. deployment lasted longer than his marriage. Others have had to pay a far higher price, but still Crawford’s bitterness toward the military is unmistakable.

Reference the Shiek;s comment. I think Mel was promoted and took over because they were not doing the job acceptably before.. As a 20 year Army Aviation Vet she looks like a superb NCO to me.