I came across a story which I am sure has been repeated many times. An Army reservist who has been deployed not to long ago and now is back in his civilian job was offered a federal job which he wanted. The problem? Not salary but a key benefit which will surprise you. His private sector employer has agreed to make up the difference between his private sector pay and his Army Reserve pay if he is called up to active duty. This saved him from financial disaster in recent deployments. BUT if he were to leave the private sector job and work for the FEDERAL government, then be called up to active duty, he would take a significant pay cut by transitioning from his federal job’s salary to his Army full time pay.
By the way, his private sector job is being a contractor supporting a federal agency. This is the irony, that the government is spending more on him as a contractor than they would as a fed doing almost the same job. They can attract him based on the federal salary plus benefits but come short because he wants to remain in the military reserve and can’t because the federal government would significantly cut his salary if he is deployed. (What would he do is deployed? Almost the same job as he would be doing in his federal job.)
There have been many stories of Army Reservists and their families suffering financially because of long and unplanned full time deployments since 911. A lot of people have pointed out that Reservists take the part time pay and then need to be prepared for full time deployment if it comes up. Well here is a story of someone who has planned for that in his private sector job and a private sector employer who has stepped up to help the military retain a valued Reservist.
The surprise is that this person, who loves his country cannot transition to a federal job because the FEDERAL government will not compensate him the at the same rate if they need him more in active duty in the Army, than in his civilian job.
This means that federal employees have an incentive NOT to be in a military Reserve or guard unit. Thus the federal government does not give Reservists whose military experience would often be a benefit to their civilian job and the military reserves could lose valuable people whose federal experience would be a value to the reserves.
It also means that the federal government is missing an opportunity to be a model employer for large companies to support their Reservists and National Guardsmen.
The advantages to changing this policy to guaranteeing the same salary to a federal employee who is also a Reservist regardless of if he or she is called up seems obvious and 3 fold:
- More experienced federal employees.
- More experienced Reservists and Guardsmen
- Being a model for employers in the nation to support our Reservists and Guardsman.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think…
(Yes I know this brings up the whole poaching issue. I am not taking a stand on poaching but just approaching this from whether adding the benefit of compensation for any loss of pay during a deployment would be a good benefit for the federal government to include for military reservists/guardsmen.)
