Listen to me whine...

Read these little incidents I meet in the course of my work and understand why guys are ok until they serve NS.

Let me start with the most recent. 2 hours ago, I received news from my guys that my bunk had been broken into... and the son-of-a-bitch broke into all our cupboards and stole all our magazines from all of us, my compass, our PS2 and X-box. I can't even go for off in peace; it's not the first time and since we've made an effort to ensure that we lock our bunk before we leave. I've decided to blow it big. Let's see what will happen.

Backtrack a bit.

Story 1.
We have to teach the some of our riflemen in our battalion first aid this week as part of their training requirements. Basically what we have to do is to train them to become half-medics within one week. I have been trying to plan the lessons since middle of last week where I met some resistance. The other 2 medic specs who will also be involved in teaching kept asking me to push the job to my senior medic, who is not very capable and is never spontaneous in his work. Nothing was done till Friday, when I started planning on my own. My senior medic accepted my plans (of course he would), booked the lecture rooms and got the class list as required. It was now one of the guys that has the same rank as me that gave me problems.

Problem 1: The course manual was under his charge, and he couldn't find it. No effort was put in on his part to get a replacement, all he made was a suggestion. In the end I did.

Problem 2: The guy simply rejected the idea of having to teach based on his previous experience: though it is part of our job. He felt that since the riflemen are difficult to control in nature, we did not need to take the course seriously as they simply would not listen.

Problem 3: Very obviously, he is displaying his negative attitude: by his tone of voice, body language and rejected remarks. He is a specialist, but was behaving like a man.

Just to let you know, he is somebody all of us know. Apparently, to me, his attitude towards this was unacceptable as he failed to realise that by taking his suggestion we would be liable for not performing our duties (as this is an order from above) and the blame and responsibility would be on us should anything happen in future exercises. And he also failed to realise that I, too, have worked with the riflemen before, although not in terms of teaching them lessons.

Story 2.
We have a guy that was posted to us 2 weeks ago. Everybody in the medical platoon hated him to the core, and strongly petitioned to me and MO to post him to one of our rifle companies as we have to do manpower adjustments based on our operational requirements. The manpower issue has been a big headache for a long time, as my guys keep finding reasons to get themselves downgraded. Let me tell you first why they hated him so much.

They claim:
Reason 1. He is cocky, talks too much crap, and is not street-smart.
Reason 2: He asks for privileges when he's still a newbie.
Reason 3: He is always seen reading books and not being productive when he is doing his on-job training.

In my perspective, although most of the allegations against him are true to some extent, it should not constitute such hatred. I have also been trying hard to help the guy go through his initial adjustment period by telling him not to do some things that he is not supposed to, but my medics just refuse to do anything necessary to accept his presence. The allegations are not fair as well, reasons as follows:

1. When my batch of 7 guys were just posted in last year, the same people that made the allegations asked for privileges more strongly and blatantly.

2. When you are new on the job, do you know what you are supposed to do when the more senior ones do not tell you anything (as they refuse to talk to you)? Obviously not!

3. Most of the time, my medics have nothing to do anyway. They sit in the documentation area or the dispensary to chat or play computer games. Even my 2 other specs are guilty of this. Does it make sense for a group of slack people to allege another for slacking?

4. They cited the fact that the new guy said inappropriate things in front of MO when everybody is around to prove that he's not street-smart, but I believe he was doing that to retaliate. If that's the case, I can tell you that last year, one of the guys from my batch put dead cockcroahes into one of our seniors' boots because he wanted to express his discontent.

You tell me, who has a more serious problem?! The sad thing is, the group of immature people I am dealing with are not just people who dropped out of poly. Some of them are diploma holders, and most of them come from JCs, with people from Victoria, Temasek and Hwa Chong; and 2 of them are from DHS. Singapore's elites.

They see wrong in others, but not on themselves; they feel that people are treating them unfairly, but fail to realise they're doing that to others too. Maybe they do, but they probably feel that that should be the way. They always claim that they'll be treated better in the corporate world, as they will be rewarded for what they do; and there is no point working seriously in the army because there is no incentive, the slack always get to slack and the hardworking ones always have to do the work. But is it true that the world outside is better? Or do they think that the corporate world is like their schools or their homes?! And do they realise that if they had done their work properly and positively, there will be intangible rewards? At least, MO and me would recognise it, have a good impression on him, and the working environment can be happier? Now, if I happen to be hiring people in the future, these people that worked with me during my NS days would be first struck off the list. Unless they become really good and indispensable.

This is getting long. I need somewhere to vent my frustration. And tk... the pics are good! Much better than your Gundam's! When you get the DVD pls share...