Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Air Force Reserves Keeping My Husband Out of Work

So this post it completely unique to the posts I typically publish on this blog about my home buying process and subsequent rennovation. BUT I'm really mad and I feel compelled to share that anger and frustration with as many people as possible. My husband was in the Army for 4 years. After 4 years he decided to get out so our kids could grown up near ther grandparents and extended family here in the DC Maryland VA area. He found a job quickly working on a program with the Air Force and during that time he made the decision to join the Air Force National Guard. He submitted his paperwork in April. In July the program he'd been hired to work on ended somewhat unexpectantly but he was able to secure a position working another effort prior so there should have been no lapse in employement. He was offered and accepted a position sometime in June which required him to be a memeber of the Air Fource National Guard. At that time his paperwork was still pending (from April) but he was told it would be put on the "fast track" so that he could start working soon. For the next few weeks we were told "next week" and then "next week" for when the paperwork would be processed. My husband has been technically without a job for over a month now. As the primary breadwinner the absence of his paycheck is severly affecting our way of life and if it continues may impact our ability to keep our home. It is beyond my comprehesion how it can take over 4 months to obtain a few signatures for an indivudal who's already served his country and has already been hired to work a position for the organization. And it's not as if my husband has not communicated to various individuals throughtout the process the impact this delay is having on his family. We've essentially been blown off and told they are working on it. No sense of urgency on their part. The only thing I can think is that the Air Force needs to hire about 50 more employees to handle their workload, fire the unproductive employees they have working this department or amend their snail like approval process which requires about 50 signatures each taking a month to get. My husand has begun looking for other positions but in this economy we all know it can be hard. I'm just so dissapointed in this process and how little it seems the Air Force cares. I work in Governent Contracting so I know all about bureaucracy and red tape but I also know with hard work and persistance you can push anything through especaily with over 4 months time.