Ryan's Rant

Before you read this, you should know that this post is filled with incessant complaining.

Working for a Department of Defense agency means that you have a military hierarchical structure. For example, I am a GS-11 (general schedule). There are 15 levels to this system. DOD equates my grade as to the equivalent to a Major which is mid management for officers. The military is well versed in civilian ranks and most are aware that we have a lot of pull in their world. Even though I am a civilian, an Army Brigadier General (1 star) runs my base and a Vice Admiral runs my agency (3 stars). This is so that military can talk to military for large scale planning and organization which then is filtered down to us civilians. If I were to do something insanely stupid, it can make its way all the way up my chain. With that being said, the military places a large emphasis on following the chain of command without skipping levels.

Occasionally you run into people who forget where their place is. This happened yesterday with a 1st Lieutenant (O-2….which is much lower on the totem pole than I). This officer felt the need to send an e-mail regarding my workload to anyone who is important in DLA and the USMC, including my General. Now, this is bad regardless of the truth or intent. What is worse is that I was given no warning regarding this e-mail or even a conversation regarding the topic of discussion. If something of that nature had occurred then I would have been able to brief this Lieutenant that I had already taken care of it and further visibility was unnecessary.

As soon as I received the e-mail, I went to go see the Lieutenant and I provided an update as to what the real situation was. I asked him why he sent that all the way up my chain of command and unfortunately for him, the Lieutenant did not have a good answer. I don’t like to pull rank on people because it is something that should rarely have to be done. This is the first time out here that I pulled rank on someone. It didn’t go well. More on that conversation in a little while.

After my conversation, I immediately sent out a follow up e-mail advising everyone of the current situation and that it was under control and that I had made significant progress on all the issues with a final resolution only days away. Fast forward to this morning and I come into my office to find several e-mails on the topic from all levels of DLA and Marine Corps. Let’s just say it has been a difficult to sit down all day because I don’t think I have much of a rear end left after the chewing that I got. They say that misery loves company right? Well I spread the misery all around today.

One of the e-mails that were sent to me was from a DLA employee who had the tenacity to suggest that I was not doing my job and they were getting the e-mail so that they could correct it. Now this individual is a GS-11 and has absolutely nothing to do with the work that I do out here. This individual is also not in my chain of command. He suggested that I attend a weekly meeting that has absolutely zero value for me or the units that I support. My boss and my bosses’ boss agreed with him without even knowing how this meeting would impact me or the 26 Marine units that I support.

For the first time in my professional life, I tore into two individuals because quite frankly they didn’t know their head from their ass and I thought it was important that they know. I have never made a scene like that because I like to stay professional and level headed. Once you lose your composure it is way too easy to take it further than is required. I like rules and when an individual blatantly disregards them and I have to feel the effects, then I am not a nice person.

Several years from now when classified documents from Operation Enduring Freedom are made public there will be two documents detailing the ass chewing’s that I gave an officer and a DLA employee. I hope that they make all names public too. None of that redacted crap that the government loves to put out.

Sadly, even though I cleared my name with reference to my work load and my ability to get the job done here in Afghanistan, I now have more oversight and another meeting to attend weekly. All of this as a result of someone not following well established policy and protocol. What these two individuals did not realize when they started this chain of events, I have a direct ability to make their lives horrible while I am deployed. Deployed personnel get an incredible amount of visibility and power. Anyone who knows me will tell you that not only will I make their lives horrible but I will get a sadistic pleasure out of it.

Since I have been in Afghanistan I have gotten virtually no support from DLA, only headaches. For example, I will e-mail people within my organization about important issues and I will be ignored, yelled at or responded to literally weeks later. Our philosophy on being here to support the warfighter goes right out the window. It is absolutely amazing that they still find people who are willing to deploy for them. I think my days are limited as a DLA deployer. They may not let me deploy again :)

Ryan’s rant is now over. Have a nice day.