Monday, August 21, 2006

Temptations

Darth Commando talks about the latest misrepresentation of recruiting improprities. He says exactly what I was going to, and he even goes so far as to do real research. I could rehash it without any attribution, but I'm in the mood to talk about something different, and maybe elaborate on what those numbers may represent.

The desire for a contract is something that is almost overwhelming to a recruiter at times. When the end of the month is rolling along and you have nothing in the Army it's hard. It's a harsh moment to have your failure known to all. Even harsher to know that a documentation of your failure is going to be coming on a DA4856 soon enough. Sometimes that pressure does become overwhelming. I had that moment last month when I sent two people to the floor who just weren't ready. If I'd had someone in the Army at the time I'd have tried harder to hold them back and get them both into better shape so they could meet body fat and not rely on the ARMS.

Oh well. That's sort of mistake doesn't get you in the NY Times though.

A few months ago I had something of an integrity check. An applicant I was working and had scheduled for the floor managed to get a ticket. It wasn't a massive ticket, but it was more expensive than he had to spend, his parents weren't going to pay it for him because he'd gotten nailed for speeding before and they were fed up with covering his fees. However, it was a speeding camera that had caught him. Since he was driving his dad's car the ticket originally went to his dad so, technically, he didn't have the open law. However, his mother had called the local PD and told them the situation. They were reissuing the citation in the kid's name.

So here I was, the recruiter caught in the middle. Now, there was a very, very good chance that, in the couple days before he hit the floor the citation would be reissued, and an open law violation would be readily apparent to anyone with a computer. I could tell the kid to shut-up and say nothing about it, but that never works. Something to remember as a recruiter is that Skippy will always talk. In the station you, another recruiter, and the station commander can all hot seat an applicant, but they'll still pop to stuff they never even thought of with you. And it's the sort of thing that can get one hemmed up a lot quicker than you expect.

Luckily I was spared having to compromise my integrity when his mom decided to cover for him by paying the ticket. It helped that he agreed to pay her back at twice the fine since he was getting a bonus of over 10k. But still, I'd like to think I'd have done the right thing by just calling SFC SC2 and telling him he had to cancel because of open law. I just don't know really. Who knows, I might have just split the baby and paid the ticket myself, but using my own money is always Plan ZZ in my book.

Late and tired. Have a good one folks.

*UPDATE*

I want to make it very clear that I have never, and will never actually pay off a law violation. It's against regulations and I have better uses for my money. When I talked about paying it off I was talking in a hypothetical what my choices might have been, and what I might have been tempted to do. I'm tempted to do a lot of things, but that doesn't mean I give in every time. Breaking a rule that will likely get me Article 15'd at best is something I'm not going to be tempted to do.

Again, I did not, and never have, paid off a ticket or fine.

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