Lazy Weekend
I haven't done anything today, and if feels great. I have a four-day weekend (Sat-Tues) because of Easter and a British Bank Holiday. Friday, I was tabbed for escort duty, and that means that I watched two British contractors survey a field where we are building a new intelligence center. All I did was sit in the car for 9 hours and read USA Today, Car and Driver, and whatever reciepts I had left in the car. One more stripe (up one rank) and I won't have to deal with this escort junk anymore, and I couldn't be happier about it.
It's kinda unique being a Graphic Designer in the Air Force. As an Airman (E1-E4), you are trained to do artwork and basically how to do your job. But, you end up spending alot of your time on mindless details (see above, cleaning, sitting through briefing after briefing), and don't get to do your job. Once you become a Sergeant (E5-up), and are finally good at your job, you don't do it anymore. You are expected to only supervise those Airman below you that aren't really getting to do their job anyways.
And that's my main problem, one that I have to swallow everyday. There really shouldn't be graphic designers in the Air Force, and I've actually heard that they might eventually get rid of the career field altogether someday. It doesn't seem right to me to promise someone with an artistic bent that they are going to be counted on for their creativity, but then only let them be creative 5 hours out of the 40 they spend at their desk every week.
I look at it as if I ran my own business. If we weren't in uniform and had contracts with Uncle Sam, how many of my coworker's and supervisor's would I have work at Tooley Co.? The sad, un-exaggerated truth is that only 1/4 of the people I've worked with would have a job with me, the other 3/4 might as well be on welfare. If the Air Force could find some way of rewarding and promoting individuals in a way that held any integrity other than just book tests, maybe rank and awards would mean something. But, they rarely do. They just mean that you're good at fill in the blank tests (rank), been around a long time (also rank), or it was your turn to win (awards).
Okay, enough ranting. I don't even know where I would go with this next anyways. I'm just hoping that in three years, when my enlistment is up, that I have good opportunities on the outside to work hard at something that actually makes a difference.
It's kinda unique being a Graphic Designer in the Air Force. As an Airman (E1-E4), you are trained to do artwork and basically how to do your job. But, you end up spending alot of your time on mindless details (see above, cleaning, sitting through briefing after briefing), and don't get to do your job. Once you become a Sergeant (E5-up), and are finally good at your job, you don't do it anymore. You are expected to only supervise those Airman below you that aren't really getting to do their job anyways.
And that's my main problem, one that I have to swallow everyday. There really shouldn't be graphic designers in the Air Force, and I've actually heard that they might eventually get rid of the career field altogether someday. It doesn't seem right to me to promise someone with an artistic bent that they are going to be counted on for their creativity, but then only let them be creative 5 hours out of the 40 they spend at their desk every week.
I look at it as if I ran my own business. If we weren't in uniform and had contracts with Uncle Sam, how many of my coworker's and supervisor's would I have work at Tooley Co.? The sad, un-exaggerated truth is that only 1/4 of the people I've worked with would have a job with me, the other 3/4 might as well be on welfare. If the Air Force could find some way of rewarding and promoting individuals in a way that held any integrity other than just book tests, maybe rank and awards would mean something. But, they rarely do. They just mean that you're good at fill in the blank tests (rank), been around a long time (also rank), or it was your turn to win (awards).
Okay, enough ranting. I don't even know where I would go with this next anyways. I'm just hoping that in three years, when my enlistment is up, that I have good opportunities on the outside to work hard at something that actually makes a difference.
posted by Scottie at
10:39 AM
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