Friday, August 05, 2005

How Short the Memory

I'm on a zero. A big fat zero. Everything this month has gone wrong. Applicants have disappeared. Prospects have changed minds, moved, got busted for DUI, and so on and so on. If it could not go my way it has not gone my way. For the first time since I've been out here, and apparently for the first time in a while, the RA will box and the AR will not, thus keeping the station from achieving box. And I am the focus of their ire.

How easy they forget the months where AR boxed and RA was at 20% accomplishment.

I'm in a large station. Of the nearly dozen (we're overstrength right now because some replacements have arrived months before the people they are replacing are leaving) recruiters in my office, I am one of two AR recruiters. To make it even more painful, I'm one of two AR recruiters in the entire company. 50 some odd recruiters and I am 50% of the AR force for the company. The other one, who is a very good recruiter, is non-productive at this time because a serious family issue is preventing them from working more than a couple hours a day. As a result of that I, alone, am responsible for the entire AR mission for the company.

This quarter the mission was over 15 volume. Something like 7GA, 3SA, 3PA, 2 OT. For me. Alone. I get no support from the rest of the company. Previous to this quarter, and the end of RA cross-contribution, the other stations in the company would consistently write an AR contract. Now the other stations don't even bother. They don't ask "Well, if the RA isn't for you,maybe the AR would work better?" They just boot the kid out of the office and drive on.

I've been told that the reason I'm not getting any support is because I don't "make nice enough" with the other station commanders. I've been told I need to butter them up, take them lunch, pass them leads and prospects before they'll help me. Why? Why the heck am I being forced to go, bend myself backwards, to try and get these asses to do their job. It wasn't my decision to make it impossible for the RA to write AR. I'm sorry that some general's decision has cut off what they viewed as their cheap gravy train to get someone of a volume zero. Just because the RA recruiter can't write the contract doesn't mean that the contract doesn't need to be written.

I'm not asking for much. All I'd like would be for them to ask "Well, just suppose the AR could help you achieve your goals," or something to that affect. I'm assigned a mission for an entire company, but I cannot prospect through the entire company area. 50+ schools, thousands of businesses, hundreds of thousands of people. I have had a hard time getting 2 contracts a month. Now I'm expected to write 6? When all I have time for in a day is the same prospecting efforts which resulted in 2?

Man, I hate this job.

1 comments:

JACK ARMY said...

You leadership is failing, not just you but the Army as well. Why do I say that? Because they let a station with excess RA recruiters fail to make mission. Letting all those recruiters make the RA mission and ignore the AR mission is "criminal" (to use a term thrown around in USAREC way too much).

It is a shame that their self interest overrides the needs of the team and the Army (both components).

Yes, you are responsible for the AR mission, but so is your SC, CLT and BLT. If they are doing what is necessary to redirect efforts (especially if there are excess RA recruiters) to make the mission, then they are failing you, themselves and the Army.

Can I say it any other ways?

Keep plugging away. Don't let their negative attitudes get you down.

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