I n t h e W o r k p l a c e
A Day in the Life of a Desk Officer by Squadron Leader Georgia Barnes
I
remember very clearly the day my then Desk Officer phoned me to discuss my next move. Technology means you can now see who is trying to get hold of
you. In three rings my life flashed before me and I resorted to my usual chant when called by the Desk Officer ‘just sound pleased, just sound pleased, just sound pleased...’
And thankfully I was pleased. Daunted, but pleased. So, what is it like being a Desk Officer? Well, it’s the only job I’ve had where you can say to anyone of any rank, ‘Hi it’s Georgia from THE DESK’ and they know exactly where you are calling from. I probably need to say here that I can’t see who is ringing me in this job!
When I started in post I put my house on the market, and I guess that’s what it’s like, managing housing chains. Every posting plot is like a housing chain; everyone in the chain is hoping to complete on time, some are moving up within the market, others are downsizing and moving down, some are taking risks with a development opportunity and some just want the safe option to meet the family needs. Add to this an ever changing backdrop of economic rise and fall and your chain may not necessarily move onwards as you had hoped. Given the reputation of estate agents however, I wouldn’t want to be directly compared, but the comparison at least starts to describe what my job is like!
In accordance with Manning’s objectives my role is to distribute RAF trained manpower to ensure the RAF can meet its military tasks and manage individual careers, encourage maximum personal development and meet personal aspirations. I have at my disposal one tool, JPA. If we only used JPA to post people it would be very simple: post available + person available = posting plot. Of course, we aren’t so automated, and the reason we have Desk Officers is to try, quite rightly, to
38 Summer 2010
incorporate the people factor into the decision process. And we do endeavour to do this. So many times I have been offered the re- assurance ‘Don’t worry you’ll never please all the people all the time.’ That’s all well and good until it’s you that has to enforce a gap or post someone to a negative area of choice.
Many factors are taken into account when arranging an appointment. First and foremost is the need to support operations and the overall Service need. We will then take personal factors into account and try to balance both. That’s why it’s so important for individuals to understand the need to tell the Desk their priorities, recognising that they can change, even for a tour. Not everyone can have career and domestic balance each and every time.
The main tool I have is JPA, but an individual’s e-dossier and my JPA-generated spreadsheet also play a vital role. JPA is only as accurate as the information on it. I can use it to search for the Preferences and Career Aspirations individuals have recorded and also look at personal details, but these must be up-to-date to enable me to do my job effectively for the person concerned. JPA will tell me the individual’s Future Availability Date (FAD) which indicates when a move is likely to take place, but which can be amended should we lengthen or shorten a tour. I can access all the completed Assessment Reports and see who owns the incomplete ones (so please don’t try to claim you no longer own it!).
JPA also tells me where the post is and which Branch should fill it. JPA is much criticised, but we really need to work harder at using it better, and take control of areas we can influence, ensuring that we keep the simple things up to date (Contact Details, Preferences, Emergency Contacts).The Desk Officers can access JPA to read all reports on an individual when pre-boarding, and we are now making a move to e-Dossier to store information required for the long
term. However, we also make notes on JPA recording open door telephone calls we have had about someone’s career.
Nevertheless, my spreadsheet is my day-to-day reference tool, showing me instantly which posts are available and when, who is where and when they are available to move. The spreadsheet is simply an Excel worksheet, taken from JPA, which provides Desk Officers with a tool to interrogate information. It acts as a work- in-progress tool until actions are finalised on JPA. JPA contains all the information, and is the over-riding authority, but the spreadsheet enables me to look at everyone at once, and filter what I want to see in order, by location, by gapped posts and so on.
I’m now entering a really busy period (although a Desk Officer’s job is never quiet). I’m in the process of pre-boarding for the sqn ldr to wg cdr Promotion Selection Board. During this period, I will have to assess the competitiveness of all eligible sqn ldrs I have for promotion and agree this with my boss. I do this by reading all the relevant appraisals and so spend a lot of time not only reading, but also chasing chains of command for late appraisals; a sometimes frustrating job. Once I have completed this, I will be involved in presenting all the most competitive officers to the Promotion Board for consideration. After that, it will be back into the cycle of finding people to replace those being promoted.
Being a Desk Officer is challenging but it can be extremely rewarding, especially when you are able to meet an officers’ aspirations for posting or pass on the good news of promotion. The posting chain never closes completely because every time a move is agreed for one, it triggers a move for someone else to replace them. As for my housing chain, that is now complete and I have moved into my new house; although, like many posting chains I took a short gap between house sales to move into temporary accommodation for it to work!
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