Day 2 of Reservist.
Today was a short day, reported to camp at 8.45 am (actual reporting time is 9.00 am) and I was surprisingly the 4th person to arrive, our commander was one of the 3 who had arrived earlier than me and they were essentially talking about the negotiation that happened last evening, I wasn't actively participating in that conversation so I was just eavesdropping until my friend arrive, then I asked him how the negotiation went because I saw him talking to the other Reservist Commander on my way out yesterday evening.
As expected, the Active Commanders did not want to give in and still expects us to work at maximum capacity, bringing this issue up to the next person in the command chain was also useless because that guy just said there is nothing he can do about it, which makes me wonder if he really cannot do anything or if he just cannot be bothered to.
There is clearly an imbalance happening and the ICTs are being taken advantage of by the active soldiers, when my Reservist commanders requested to see the schedule of the Active Soldiers, the schedule reflects that they are also working at maximum capacity, but when one of our ICTs went to ask the active soldier who is doing his duty how many shift they are doing, it does not tally at all because they are doing only half of what is reported in the duty sheet.
Nobody is happy with the arrangement, apparently ICTs from the previous batch who also had to take on the same number of duties as us went to complaint to Mindef, and from the looks of it, no action was taken to rectify this issue because we are now currently in the same situation.
Anyways, today was focused on doing Rifle Training, it was quick and brief, we completed the whole thing in less than 20 minutes, I went to use the toilet in the middle of the training and was wondering why the toilet was so small and there were no urinals around, realized I had use the female toilet, that's why it also smelled so clean and fresh.
After our rifle training, we went back to the training room and pretty much just stayed there until our commanders came back with our duty schedule, no change, all of us are clearly being taken advantage of by the active soldiers. We really couldn't do much except complaint to our commanders about how ridiculous this whole situation is and the fact that none of the higher ups are bothering to do anything despite everyones' complaint really just goes to show how much fuck is being given, no action is being taken despite them also being aware of the complaints from previous batch before us, complaints that were send to Mindef and forwarded to them.
At this point, I don't really think we have any other options but to just suck it up, it seems like our welfare as ICTs just keeps worsening every cycle.
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Early Cycles - Always doing Sentry Duty, but it's evenly spread out across different locations, so certain locations are better because it's more secluded and we can usually be in a much more relaxed state. The ICT Commander then was also a lot better at trying to fight for our welfare, so things were much better.
We were doing an average of 6 - 7 Duties per cycle, the active soldiers were doing 10 Duties per cycle.
Mid Cycles - Always doing Sentry, but we are not only doing the Sentry Duty at the main gate whilst the Active gets all the one in the more secluded zones.
We were doing an average of 6 - 7 Duties per cycle, the active soldiers were doing roughly the same as us per cycle if not slightly more.
Previous Cycle - All Sentry duty, only at the main gate
We were doing an average of 8 - 9 Duties, I believe only the newbies were doing the same amount or more, the senior ones are only averaging at 3 - 4.
Current Cycle - All Sentry duty, only at the Main Gate.
We are doing the maximum of 10 Duties, I believe only the newbies are doing the same amount, the senior ones are only averaging at 3 - 4.
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There was always compromises being made during the early cycles, but right now, no compromise is being made, the active commanders are adamant about us taking on the duties despite our lack of manpower, the higher ups are claiming they cannot do anything about it.
Ummm, that's not true, you can do something about it, you can use your status to get the active commanders to assign the active soldiers to support our lack of manpower, that's what you can do, but you are choosing not to do anything about it because you cannot be bothered. You are being complicit in the abuse of power that is happening.
I don't believe ICTs should be doing more than the Full Time NSMen, why should we? This is their full time job, not ours, we have already done our part 10 years ago, so why are we now also doing their part for them 10 years later?
The active soldiers might be enjoying this abuse right now, but they forget that they will eventually become ICTs in the future, and their situation could become a lot worst than ours right now if this goes on.
We were really just complaining to the wind at this point because our own commanders really can't do much if the higher ups are not willing to step in and assist.
By around 11.15am, we were all dismissed to prepare for our upcoming duty for the next 10 days.
The only upside to this schedule is that all my duties are during regular-ish hours, so I don't have to worry about having to readjust my body clock, treating it like going to work everyday for 6 hours might make the whole ordeal maybe a little more bearable.
One guy was complaining about how unfair this system was yesterday, brought up how he is expected to do more than he is getting paid for (because we are expected to come to came every single day for the next 10 days and he was expecting to get at least 4 days off in lieu of his weekends) so he went to talk to the higher up and he just went missing today.
Update :
That ICT who spoke to the higher up has returned in the group chat and apparently the higher up told him that once again, there is nothing he can do about the situation and everyone should just suck it up and accept this as the new normal.
And you can prepare to suck on the multiple complaints that Mindef will be receiving from us about the way this is being handled.
I am loving how vocal that guy is right now in the group chat, this is exactly the kind of person that we need to make change happen, although I am afraid that by the time any change is made, we would have already been taken advantage of and completed our cycle fulfilling the ridiculous amount of duty they have thrown to us.
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