DHs all lose their jobs so the TA can do them?????

[wheresthepimms]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14181145

Ok read the article then tell me how this makes sense? My DH currently works with the TA and he is always complaining about how you can't make them do anything, they say they will turn up then don't, they won't even show up for the summer ball (even if you pay them a days training to show up). Maybe these politicians should come spend some time with the TA and see how unreliable they are. Must qualify there is about 1% who are useful but even they forget to show up most of the time.

I think you will find that we are very reliable and very good at our jobs, i would like to see the regs do there jobs with the equipment we get!! If your husband was so good why would he be working with the TA (with him saying we are so rubbish and all).

Amanda I think you will find the TA get all the same equipment as the regs there are some that do well at their trades, but those in command are not as good, and probably never will be (unless they are x regs doing the job they used to do) as they don't have the understanding of command and how the regular army works. My DH didn't and never would choose to serve with the TA as the whole of his Btn find them annoying. He goes where the army sends him, some poor person has to work with you. Maybe your unit is a good example of how it should be done, but from my DHs experience the soldiers and officers are very unreliable and the reason the regs don't like them is because if you say you will do something then you should do it. We organised a family fun day, laid on transport to all the units so no one had any excuse for not being there, a lot of hard work and effort went into it on the side of the regular soldiers, the TA said they would be there, when the day came the transport arrived empty as there was a lot of no shows at the TA centres, but no one even had the courtesy to say they were unable to come anymore. It is units like his that give the TA a bad name, but what can you do? They can't force them to show up as you are civilians and the regs are constantly reminded of that fact when trying to organise stuff. I would also say that it is not all the TAs fault, how can someone who only gets 38 MTDs a year (due to the defence cut backs) be expected to be as good at a job as someone who does it 365 days a year.

I am affraid to say we really dont! we are still working with clansman (radios). most of our seniors are ex regs and are very good at what they do, most of the rubbish has been weeded out. Talking to the regs and ex regs they will all tell you there is as much rubbish in the TA as there is in the regs. We tend to get sent people who are so far up there own butts they need a snorkle to breath but this tends to go once they have been with us for a while. My regt regularly goes on tour with regs and the regs have no issue with us when they see how we work.
If we put our name down to do training or socials and do not turn up we get hauled up in front of the sm so maybe your hubby works with a rubbish bunch, if this is the case i would ask you dont judge us all by there poor standards.

They wont put our funding up to levels it was 3+ years ago so we are going to have to do more work with less funding.
I work Monday to Friday and weekends too and get so annoyed when regs treat us like idiots. I am a part time civvi, part time soldier. i can get called up the same as anyone with a mod90.

My husband is also a regular by the way
He works with TA soldiers on tour and has no issues, he knows that the TA soldier will have his back as well as a reg will.

the gov just want to save money and want soldiers on the cheap, they know we are good and they know they get us for less (no pensions,no support,no medical....well non of the good things about being a soldier)

sounds to me like your unit is the type the gov want. My DHs unit is bad from the top, as they are not really interested. I did ask (as ex TA) why people were not in trouble for not attending when they say they will and was told "because if we tell them off they say they are civvies and then sulk and don't show up for months". I think they need to weed out a select few and it would change. DH does say that those who volunteer as usually good and with the extra training perform well on ops but then there are those that "don't want to go back from R&R as I didn't like the heat and getting shot at" (he did get told he would go to jail if not going back and went reluctantly). But yes there are slackers in the regs too. As for doing it on the cheap, having many friends in the National Guard, it is not on the cheap, they get a LOT more training than our TA and even spend a month in the summer on camp. When they deploy they do a 6 month pre deployment training package and then deploy for the year taking 18 months out of their civvie job, they do however have a very different attitude to the reservists and their jobs are more protected than those in the Uk and they are given many tax breaks, incentives to be in the reservists and their employers are compensated for it as well.

With moral at an all time low (as your DH will be telling you) this is just another money saving scam that will force all the regs to leave as they don't feel valued. Not sure about your unit but most struggle to recruit right now and if the adverts are saying join the TA do a regs job and be sure you will end up going to war well the recruitment will fall even more. Maybe the gov new strategy is to bridge the gap from reg to civvie life by making regs redundant then forcing them into the TA

Little bit offended by your comments saying only 1% of the TA are useful!!! Unfortunately our full-time jobs require us to work so therefore it is not possible for us to attend everything the TA does and that includes summer balls! I think you'll find that unlike the Regs the people in the TA work 37.5 hours plus every week and don't get time off for sports on Wednesday afternoons or to attend functions. Plus many of us have families that require our attention at weekends sometimes and so can't make every weekend. We use our annual leave to attend TA courses etc unlike the Regs which means we can sometimes use it all up and have none left to attend anything else.

I really really think that the 6 months I spent in Afhgan in the Emergency Deptartment meant that I was more than 1% useful. I certainly know the rest of the hospital were certainly more than 1% useful and I think you'll find the soldiers whose lives they saved will say the same thing. I suggest you stop spouting crap about the TA. There are just as many useless people in the Regs my DH has 5 Cpl working under him and none of them are deployable due to welfare reasons or long term illness...something I laugh at a lot as you certainly wouldn't be able to say in a civvie job 'oh no I can't do that my wife is depressed blah blah' or carrying on doing a job for years when you are physically or mentally unable to carry out that job.

Right rant over! Got to try and grab an hours sleep before I do my regular job.

This is what it sounds like to me too Amanda,
"the gov just want to save money and want soldiers on the cheap, they know we are good and they know they get us for less (no pensions,no support,no medical....well non of the good things about being a soldier)"
Although the good things about being a regular soldier are being done away with too imo.

very true, cutting back big style