Getting Worked to Death

Wooden Statue in the Tokyo National Museum

Getting stationed in Japan has it's ups and downs. Aside from the great liberty here, unfortunately, there are some manning issues at this place. It has got me wondering, is it so hard to find people who want to come to Japan? The shop I work at has been working on a skeleton crew for almost a year now. We lost four techs and only two of them got replaced. One of our crew got deployed to Iraq, one is working in Diego Garcia and the rest of us are constantly pulled for command, ASF, decon, Biomed, color guard and ASW duties. Two have been pulled to do strictly administrative services (another manning issue). Our boss(the chief) is never there because he is working a side job, wasting time at meetings and pull all kinds of unusual duties. Everytime we suggest process improvements, he just acknowledges, but nothing ever happens. He is so useless. He is a "Yes, sir", "Yes, maam" kinda guy so it ends up screwing us in the end.



Let me give you a scenario, which crap like this always happens. Last Friday, we shutdown our shop to move 50 lockers to make room for a new Lieutenient! Although, there is an empty office with computer hookups and air-conditioning a few yards away. Using the lame excuse: "It is too far away." Our boss doesn't have the power of suggestion or come up with good ideas. He would must rather get spit on, just so that he doesn't look bad. I wish I can be in his shoes. I would fix everything. In this scenario, I would start by telling that officer, "No sir, this is a controlled and industrious area. We cannot allow people to trek back and forth through this workspace to your office because someone could get seriously injured and you would not want to be responsible for that." You see, the power of saying 'NO' and a good reason would do the job. That officer would be a damn fool to force it.



Well anyway, that just leaves me and the LPO (my other boss), here to fix and repair equipment at the hospital. Another thing, I'll be leaving for Kuwait in a few days. So that is going to leave only one person (the LPO) to repair, maintain and calibrate all of the medical equipment in this hospital, branch clinic in Sasebo, Iwakuni, Negishi, Atsugi, Camp Fuji, Chenhae Korea, and the pacific fleet. I'm scratching my head... And right now, I would say we're up 40% on all things running the way it should. I don't wish this situation on anyone. It is clearly a nightmare for any new guy checking-in in the future. I'm tired of working hard and late all the time and putting out fires. Once I get finished with something, 4 or 5 things come up. The workload is multiplying! I just have to say one thing, "So long, and thanks for all the cola."