15 July - entry 1

Today was more or less a rollercoaster. I didn't have the chance to really pull my shop on board with the database expansion idea because i spent so much of the day putting out fires and trying to take care of my personal career path. A year long deployment opportunity came up with a short suspense to apply on, and i decided to hop on the offer. So I spent a good portion of my time just trying to get info about the deployment. Yes, i do feel bad in retrospect because i should have been focusing on bringing this great new idea to my shop, but at the same time, I'm excited, I'm bringing a new level of energy to the workplace, and I'm really promoting the operational side of what we do. That and also it's a really neat job. Being undermanned as my shop is, i was able to leave the TSgt and the Amn alone to their jobs and was confident that everything would run smoothly for their areas. Of course the area with no coverage slacked a little because i'm the only one who knows how to maintain it.

A coworker of mine is experiencing the stress of not only having his boss gone, but an additional 50% of his mid level leadership gone as well. This guy is exceptionally good at taking up the slack, but I know that he's just frazzled after the end of the day so I do the neighborly gesture and offer to take him out for dinner after work. He needed the release and it was a good time. It drives home a good point though, you need to praise openly for subordinates who do a good job, and also give them an opportunity to vent their frustrations in private.

I think I'm doing a good job of letting my troops vent their concerns. My main concern is that there are some things, like the manning issue, that I can't control. I can only try to split up our current workload more equitibly in order to lessen the burden on single members. I just worry that while its ok to complain about things you can fix, things that can be changed, and that complaining and seeing constructive actions take place as a result is a good thing, complaining about things you can't fix only breeds a hostile environment.