Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Anger and Frustration

I almost lost it today. I'm on a zero. It's deep into T1 and I've got nothing. The new RCM is days away and I will be closing this month out on my first nada. I'm frustrated. Nothing has broke my way. People who I needed to say "yes" said "no". People who were going to get through MEPS didn't. It's just been a bad month. And it's made worse in that it's the best month the company has had in ages. In previous months people who had failed got lost in a sea of failure. This month, I'm an island to myself.

Without a doubt I'll be toughing it out. I've got a large and leathery ass. You have to chew on it for a long-long time before you hit anything which will hurt. I don't fear 1SG conferences or training session at the CLT. I've done my job. I've been out prospecting for hours and hours and hours. I've talked to everyone, groups, individuals, people who looked ready, people who looked crazy. If you were out walking the streets or standing in line at the Target or Wal-Mart I was saying "Hi" and handing you a business card. It just hasn't gone my way. I'm still new. I don't have the established network of friends and COIs and VIPs and FSs to feed on when times get lean. I'm building it and I can see that network paying off in another 6 months, but in the mean time I'm dying.

What made me almost lose it today though was a co-worker and someone I do consider something of a friend, I'll call him SSG George. He's been at the station for a while, but this is his first month on numbers. In T1 of last month a kid walks in while SSG George is the only person in the office and says he wants to join the Army. George conducts him, gets him to take the ASVAB and Phys/enlists him in Week 1. Good for George, he gets to bust his cherry with a GA walk-in. So George has been on auto-pilot all month. No one bugs him because he's got a GA. Last week another guy walks in and George gets to conduct him. 99 on the EST, he just got fired form a local grocery store, and he wants to join the Army. Kid joined this today giving George 2 GA walk-ins.

I admit it, I'm jealous. I'm pesticide to contracts this month. If you were an applicant of SSG B something has gone wrong for you. Hearing loss, traffic fine you can't pay anytime soon, and so on and so on. I've done what I'm supposed to do and it hasn't worked for me. I emptied my tiny funnel last month trying to meet an excessive mission and I'm paying for it this month. While I'm here struggling I've had to give one contract to the regular Army (I actually didn't have to, but if I didn't I'd be a dick and I'd rather be happy with myself and on a zero than think of myself as a dick and have a contract in), and I watched another recruiter get to write two GA walk-in contracts. That wasn't the cause of my frustration though. My frustration was caused by SSG George's attitude.

I will take trash-talking from anyone in the station and dish it right back. My production has sucked this month and as a result the station and the company is going to pay the price. I can accept that. It's the first time that the AR has been hurting while the RA has been thriving. I've lost 100 recruiter incentive points because of RA FS losses since I've been here. The RA recruiters' production has been stabbing me violently since I arrived and I've never complained. I see how hard they work and struggle and I know it's not their choice to miss mission. The first time the roles are reversed and they scream like a small child with a skinned knee.

I had made a smart-assed remark to one of the other recruiters in response to a smart-assed comment he made to me. SSG George then suggest I be quiet until I can write two GAs like he did. I was glad that George said that as he was walking out the door because I was going to explode when the sock wore off. He's written two this month because he was lucky. Pure and simple. He vacuumed up two guys who walked in ready to go with nothing wrong. Those were to two good-to-go walk-ins this station has had all quarter. And the new guy got the both of them. It was total BS. Should I have gotten them? No. They didn't want the Reserve. But those were not recruiter generated. They weren't a referral from someone George knew. They were luck. If those guys hadn't walked in for George he'd be on the same zero I'm on.

What keeps me from going ape-shit is the knowledge that George doesn't have anything else. He was trying to sandbag the guy today so he'd have him for next month, but he wasn't allowed. I've seen his production. I know what he has in his funnel: nothing. Unless his luck holds he'll be in the same world of hurt I am in a month. I don't wish it on him, and I hope he makes it, and if I can help I will, but if he doesn't I will take a bit of schedenfraude from it. Yes indeed.

Anyway, this has turned way too much into a "Dear Diary" thing, so I'm shutting up.

3 comments:

JACK ARMY said...

Feeling your pain, brother. I got stuck with a worthless recruiter because my 1SG refused to do his job.

If you subtract the walk-ins from this guy's production, he only wrote 4 recruiter-generated contracts in 28 months! And I kept getting my ass chewed over it.

Anyway, you're doing the right thing. George will realize his bullshit when he's hurting and you're rolling.

SFC B said...

The most frustrating part of the thing is that he's new. He just doesn't realize how effin' hard it is going to be. Hell, I'm still on NRP so I barely realize it, but I've seen it. I've worked my ass off this month and it didn't break my way. He's been coasting since W1 and is going to be in harm's way shortly. As much as I'd like to see that, I don't want it to get to that point. Oh well, whatever doesn't kill me makes me strong I suppose.

Militantpundit said...

He will pay soon. This month will bite him in the ass because he has been sitting on his thumbs strategically placed next to his head.

Keep your head up. Make friends with your Navy and Air Force neighbors. They will feed you sometimes especially during those bad days. The AF here will reject half of the people that walk in there, so if you can get in well with him/her, they might be able to push people to you. They will not be easy contracts (waivers, etc) but it will keep the heat off of you.

Jack, I am sure that there would be a fault transfer for your recruiter if he were in my office. I am sure you can find a problem with something he has done... };-)

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