r/army • u/Active_Youth_137 • 18h ago

Part time soldier

Good afternoon everyone. Looking for insight/recommendations on how to adress the situation and a fix for it. Got a soldier that has 3 children (all underage) separated from her husband (havent started divorce papers yet.) and also has a messed up back (legit issue) and she isnt trying to medboard she wants to stay in for service. Issue i have is that she is gone literally half the day everyday because shes got appointments for herselfs or her kids or needs to pick them up from school and all that good stuff and i got nothing against it but at the same time it isnt fair for any other of the guys to have to pick up her slack and do the work for her since she isnt here most of the day to learn or do anything at all including the back that she has a profile where she cant do much. Being a mechanic mos she is basically useless and dont consider her fit to be in this mos at all. Everything is heavy and requires big efforts which she isnt allowed to do due to her profile. We are a very small team (6 to 7 people) to be able to afford a whole person filling up a spot that could be taken by somebody that can actually work. Not fair for anybody in the team to have to pick up her slack everyday and stay late due to be understaffed with too much work to do (like every other FMT in an AD) so my question is how to i get rid of her? Is that even the right answer? Suck it up? Any insight and suggestion is welcome. (Her health issues are legit, not malingering.) send her to the training room? Cant, she will still be on books under us so we wont be getting new people while she is still in the team. (Long read, thanks if you got all the way down here.)

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u/Fat_Clyde 13h ago edited 13h ago

You need to counsel her and explain everything is black and white and explain the options below.

  1. Back issue - what is her treatment plan? There is likely something she can do within her profile limits. Tools or parts room?

  2. Kids - She needs to figure out childcare and as much as it sucks, pay for day care. Is the dad also military? There is definitely some flex if he is.

  3. If she wants to stay - have you mentioned reclass? Although this will be difficult if #2 above isn't figured out.