I hate it when someone says they are going to do something and then doesn’t do it. Especially when its a relatively easy task.
This past friday I became the new Squad leader for 4th squad. Great, I was looking forward to it. The Platoon sergeant needed detailed PT plans for the next few weeks for each squad. It was after 5 pm so she just wanted the squad leaders to email them to her by 1600 today (sunday). Easy. I could do that before I left the shop or just type it at home on my laptop while I watched TV.
I’m new there…SGT “Dunn” has been doing the PT plans since forever. I tell him I’ll do it, as it is ultimately my responsibility. He says “I can do it, no worries.”. I say that while I don’t mind delegating, I don’t want to dump tasks on him just so I won’t have to do it. But he is earnest. He wants to do it. So I say ok, just cc me when he emails the Platoon sergeant. I even wrote down both email addresses he’ll need to do it.
Me? If I was going to have done it at home I’d have done it Friday night or Saturday morning, so it would be way ahead of time and I would have tinme to edit any changes if need be. “Dunn” had duty friday so he said he’d probably do it in the office before his duty ended.
1600 today…the Platoon sergeant texts me asking for the plans. I call SGT “Dunn”. Get voicemail. I quickly call SGT “Thomas”, since he was the acting squad leader until my arrival. He hasn’t heard from “Dunn”. So I wrote the plan myself and sent it. I would have done it Friday before leaving work, but “Dunn” said he’d take care of it.
“Thomas” just called me. He too, gets voicemail when calling “Dunn”. I’m actually more worried than upset. I don’t know anyone that well here yet, but from what I have seen of “Dunn” he is a top notch soldier and NCO. the few times I’ve had to interact with him he’s been on the ball…he had taken care of things before I even asked about them. So now I’m worried that something might be wrong. “Thomas” said he’s going to drive to his house to see if everything is okay. I find it hard to believe that “Dunn” would forget to do the plan, or to email it to me and the platoon sergeant. Its like a 45 minute job to type it up, and thats my time…I haven’t written a PT plan in ten years…he does it all the time so he already has a template. But I can’t think of any reason he would drop the ball on this…he could maybe have the email addresses wrong, but since its an Army Knowledge Online address for the platoon sergeant, its kind of hard to miss…he can look it up in the directory.
This doesn’t seem like “Dunn”. I’m actually getting worried. Almost weekly here something happens to a soldier in Fayetteville. If “Thomas” doesn’t update me in awhile I may have to get his address and go to his house myself.