Navy dot Com Era

In the past few years, I have noticed a decline in the number of new enlisted sailors coming in and an increase of retention in Naval Medicine. It seems to me that more people are wanting to stay in for the long run. Because of this and the fact that the Navy can't keep everybody, the Navy has tried to downsize itself by kicking out the people who can't pass their physical fitness exams. I have seen a few people I know who got the boot because of this. Well, life is tough. It appears that the Navy is still wanting to shrink itself even more. It has already done so by shutting down bases worldwide. It has actually proved to be more of a cost savings to shut them down than to keep them open. Now the new strategy is to have a more "deployable" force.

With all this retention, the people I work with are now becoming more competitive. The evaluation system runs on a 5.0 scale with 5.0 being outstanding, highly recommended for advancement. It used to be that 3.0 was alright to have. It means that you have done your job. But now, 4.0 is the new average. Everyone is striving to go beyond and get that early promotion. Five years is about average for someone to reach E-5. I have heard of people advancing to E-6 in three years or less. Amazing. I personally don't mind about advancing except for the fact that, people who haven't reached E-6 by their 14th year will get kicked out. That is kinda brutal, but like I said before, life is tough.

With more competition, there is less "looking out" for each other and a decline in comraderie. People will do anything to protect their own butts even if it costs the career of someone else. I may be wrong, but that is my observation. Someone once said, "Why should I help??? He's my competition." There is the potential for this type of behavior to get out of control. The only cure to this is to create a less stressful work environment which focuses more on accomplishments at work than pitting people against each other in things such as "Sailor of the Quarter" boards, Evaluation Boards, Uniform Inspections and things like that. I say, get rid of that crap, what a waste of time.

The Navy is really good at keeping their people employed. They give their sailors something called watches. Now some people, like me, stand more than one watch. Some stand none. But in all reality, it is a complete waste of time. We don't get paid extra to fulfill this need. I understand that some places need to be manned 24 hours a day, but gosh, at shore duty, people should be standing less watches. Shore duty is a break from sea duty, duty with the marines and deployments which require you to work your ass off. More time with family should rule.

Nayeli and Soco at a Chinese Restaurant inside the Daiei Mall