Quote Originally Posted by Massengale View Post
BTW, I agree that the Army does a good job advertising its leave policies. It's effective propaganda. Too bad it's pretty misleading. Since weekend days count toward the 30 days of leave we're really just talking about 3 weeks of vacation. No different from other jobs. On the other hand, many units do get a fair amount of three and four day weekends in a garrison environment. But then plenty of private sector jobs are on a four day work week or offer the opportunity to work from home part of the time.
Then throw in the hassle that is involved in actually traveling somewhere (redundant, pro forma safety briefings, POV inspections and having to plan everything way in advance) and I can't say that military vacation policies are actually better than the civilian sector. It's worth it for other reasons, not the vacations.
And how much private sector experience do you have? There aren't that many regular jobs that offer work from home, and the 4/10 schedule is still limited to a few sectors. And if you're in a company or environment that uses a time bank you have to balance any vacation against a possible need for sick leave (since time banks tend to lump all accrued "off hours" into a single pool that's used for both) and possibly any holidays in the bargain (yes...there are some places that make you take your earned hours to get paid for holidays). And if your job requires you to flex out, you have to use those hours to get paid. Last time I checked the military didn't require you to burn leave on a command-designated "down day."

Not saying that the military's policy is necessarily better, but what you read in the "Army Times" about private sector opportunities often doesn't square with the reality. Nor does elite coastal job experience. That's not the norm for folks out here...a point that is often missed.

And as for monoculture...if you think the Army's bad you should try academia sometime.