Swab Summer is hard.
With all this running around, sometimes it's just hard to keep your eyes open....
Swab summer is, as my friend Mohnke called it, a 3-Dimensional battle for our company.
From below, we have to maintain professionalism and treat the swabs equally and fairly, and we have to keep being tough on the problems that we see. It's hard to always set a standard.
From the sides, we have our Waterfront cadre. They spend the majority of their time down at waterfront, teaching the swabs to sail in an ultra relaxed environment. They break that trainer-trainee role in my opinion. Then they come up to the barracks, tell us how to do our jobs, and tell us we're not tough enough/we're too tough. It's ridiculous, especially since we run shit all day without problem and they lack the assertiveness needed to be effective cadre (seriously, one wouldn't call out a female for having sloppy hair because 'it wasn't a good time'). Frustrating, but not a big issue. More like something to bitch about while we get the work done.
From the top, we have our ineffectual and non-present command. They constantly tell us "can't do that". Today, we scheduled a drug-search teamwork exercise. We played music and outlined the training objectives clearly. Halfway through, it was cancelled for the pure reason that it was in violation of some obscure rule. The rules were made to keep wild cadre in check. That's not us, so we need more leeway to do our jobs. It's remarkable that the command around to watch us and not out on liberty drinking or something.
We're doing a phenomenal job despite the circumstances. Tommorow is my fourth and final day as senior cadre. I'm looking forward to it.
This is easily the best leadership experience of my life.
Swab summer is, as my friend Mohnke called it, a 3-Dimensional battle for our company.
From below, we have to maintain professionalism and treat the swabs equally and fairly, and we have to keep being tough on the problems that we see. It's hard to always set a standard.
From the sides, we have our Waterfront cadre. They spend the majority of their time down at waterfront, teaching the swabs to sail in an ultra relaxed environment. They break that trainer-trainee role in my opinion. Then they come up to the barracks, tell us how to do our jobs, and tell us we're not tough enough/we're too tough. It's ridiculous, especially since we run shit all day without problem and they lack the assertiveness needed to be effective cadre (seriously, one wouldn't call out a female for having sloppy hair because 'it wasn't a good time'). Frustrating, but not a big issue. More like something to bitch about while we get the work done.
From the top, we have our ineffectual and non-present command. They constantly tell us "can't do that". Today, we scheduled a drug-search teamwork exercise. We played music and outlined the training objectives clearly. Halfway through, it was cancelled for the pure reason that it was in violation of some obscure rule. The rules were made to keep wild cadre in check. That's not us, so we need more leeway to do our jobs. It's remarkable that the command around to watch us and not out on liberty drinking or something.
We're doing a phenomenal job despite the circumstances. Tommorow is my fourth and final day as senior cadre. I'm looking forward to it.
This is easily the best leadership experience of my life.