Weather Channel Anchor Says Fired Over Military Service

[hindsight2020]

"I'd hit it" discourse aside, this is exactly the ugly little baby that nobody in the NGB/AFRC wants to talk about. That is, that the civilian sector WIPES THEIR ASS with USERRA. She may get some traction due to the visibility of her job, but every other joe blow reservist has a fat chance keeping their fokin banker's hour job when it comes to bullshit like this.

My experience in attempting to fit the idiosyncrasies of a 9-5 job and the ever-expanding participation requirements of the new AD Lite left me with the clear and distinct conviction that unless you're an airline pilot, this shit ain't workable. Had I not spent the better part of a decade chasing after a full time gig in the Reserves I would have been forced upon the recognition that absent an interest in the airlines, I'd be better off saying sayonara to the Reserves.

Civilians are hostile towards citizen airmen. I remember getting on arguments about it with my own exwife (then wife). As a civilian employee herself, she sided completely with the employer's stated need to have that person on call 24/7 and the further suggestion said military service was a form of scam where the reservist was essentially gaining one up on the civilian boss and his/her coworkers by massaging the priority of military commitments in order to double dip while not really performing military duty of equivalency to that of an active duty member...that conversation was about as close I've gotten to shaking a bitch up.

Similar rhetoric has been espoused by civi-only airline pilots and their perspective on Reservists' "ability to ghost the job" during the shit years, which is not a hard accusation to throw in when both military and civilian pilots alike verbally admit the crappy nature of the first 10 years of seniority at a 121 gig. All this is not even the cherry; to top it off, the suggestion one would want to work for an employer you'd have to sue in order to retain parity is beyond disingenuous as a bona fide career plan.

We may laugh at the implication such impasses were reached over a fucking hair appointment, but the real ugly baby is the way in which the civilian employer rebuked the relevancy of her military service. "NOT GOOD ENOUGH OF A REASON. GET YOUR ASS IN HERE RIGHT NOW OR YOU RE FIRED". Real moral hazard that one. Imagine if such were the angles imposed by merchants and landlords across the land over your Active duty military service. It would be a fokin ''take your discriminatory hands off my entitlements'' military welfare riot up in here.... but a non-airline part-timer gets shit canned and it's par for the course?

Not quite suggesting this is a Vietnam-era spitting on a returning vet, but we're getting pretty fucking close to that kind of disdain for the citizen airman these days. It's quite fucking disheartening. Pick your job carefully as you all transition to the Guard/Reserves is all I got to say about that one..

EDIT to Add

Excellent interview. The dude is kind of a douche and somewhat uninformed of the difference between army air force, enlisted and officer, but she did a decent job of conveying the heart of the message as objectively as anyone could be expected to.

Edited June 13, 2012 by hindsight2020

[alwyn2d]

And you guys piss, moan and groan about SOS and a Masters. Have you known any active duty people get fired over a haircut?

[guineapigfury]

And you guys piss, moan and groan about SOS and a Masters. Have you known any active duty people get fired over a haircut?

Not, but that thread is probably on the way.

[Guest]

You mean the ARC isn't all milk and cookies?

WTFO?