Sort of. Your base pay won’t change based on dependents, but your allowances would. (see this PDF here: http://www.dfas.mil/militarypay/2006militarypaytables/2007MilitaryPayCharts-1.pdf) So the total amount you’d get paid would change based on your family size. Technically it’s not your “pay” but I guarantee you that as the individual, you’re looking at the total amount of your check, regardless of what the military actually calls it.
I’ve been out of the military since June of '01. I still do this as well.
Also, If I’m am walking with someone who is/was also in the military, we will be in perfect step withing the first 10’ without thinking about it.
After 23 years on active duty I was amazed at all these people running around with no one in charge!
Well, that’s certainly a big part of why the government tolerates problem employees, and a part of why civilian employers do as well–but some of the cases I’ve seen would not have lasted 15 minutes in any court. The worst case, in particular, was tolerated because nobody at that location had the authority to fire anyone, and since there was no workable system to keep track of and report on the problems he caused for the rest of the employees, we couldn’t convince anyone who did have that authority to do anything. That man alone caused 100% turnover in his department single-handedly as each person who was there when he started, got sick of his shit and left. Several of these seemed to be the direct result of sexual harrassment; before he came on board, I heard stories of another guy in the same department who generated lots of sexual harrassment complaints which were never taken seriously, and he was gently asked to leave only when the company finally received a legal threat.
I got out of the Marines in 2004.
I worked the mid shift for a while with two AF guys and a soldier. One black guy, one Latino, one Mormon, and me (white as all hell). We gave each other grief constantly. We made the black guy sweep the shop during February (Black History Month), conjectured endlessly about the real reasons Joseph Smith had been kicked out of Missouri (usually bestiality or pedophilia, or both), etc. It was all good-natured, and we were good friends. What What Exit? said about friendships among the people you work with is very true as well. There just isn’t as much camaraderie in the civilian world.
Hats indoors still gets me. It just feels wrong. I also have a weird hangup about umbrellas. I don’t know if the other services have similar regs, but carrying of umbrellas(close to the bottom, section 3035) is restricted to female marines. I have no idea what the purpose is behind this kind of rule, but I still don’t carry one, and I find myself snickering inwardly at men who do. Pansies. I’m amphibious!
It’s been a long time, but the biggest thing for me to get used to was not having to wait 4 hours to do something (like have a smoke, or use the restroom). Other things included:
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Looking at all of the American cars. (last duty station was in Japan)
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No more leaded gasoline.
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Everybody on a motorcycle wore a helmet.
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You could use an ATM card to buy things (like, you no longer needed money).
I still:
Say zero instead of Oh, when saying phone numbers. Oh is a letter.
Use pens that have black ink only. Other colors look funny.
One really, really nice difference is that in the civilian work force your weight and ability to do situps are not factored into your performance evaluation. There is no tape test!
I hate having to decide what to wear to work. For seven years I’ve been trying to simplify my wardrobe so that it’s a no-brainer, but nothing takes the place of wearing a uniform.
Exactly.
I hate having to negotiate every single thing with a group of people instead of just saying, “Do this now.” No, instead it’s “Well, I want to go to the left.” “I want to stop right here and rest.” “No, I want to go left and then go right,” and so on. sigh
I’ve been out 18 years now and I still use black pens. Blue looks odd to me. I guess that change was permanent.
Jim
On the other hand my dad was shocked to find that civilian doctors actually wanted to fix his problems.
“Oh, that heartburn you have been popping multiple Tums a night for twenty years for? We’ve got a little purple pill for that now.”
I very briefly worked in an office job for an ex-Army guy like this once. Due to some higher-up deciding we needed a new boss, this guy was dropped in as ours. He freely admitted he didn’t know that much about what our department did and he didn’t care what we had to say; because dad-gum-it, he was in charge and we were going to do things his way from here on in.
I won’t go into details about the next little while, but before six months had passed, he had no employees left. We all quit for better jobs. I think he was stunned. I later heard that the company quietly reassigned him to some job where he couldn’t do so much personnel damage (to his credit, he was pretty good with his knowledge of the company’s product), and it then restaffed the department.
Hmph…living that now!
On the plus side, now you can get as tattooed as you wanna be!
Actually, no. Their are rules about tattoos.
As an AF dependent for 20 years or so…
[ul]
[li]When you pay for an item in the civilian world, you have to calculate in your head the tax as well. You don’t pay tax at the BX or commissary, and in the UK they had VAT. I still have trouble figuring out tax, but debit cards make it easier.[/li][li]Everyone not living in one of three different styles of home.[/li][li]Not having the threat of having your dad’s (or mom’s) commander getting called for something you did as the world’s greatest deterrent. For anything.[/li][li]Not having to spit out your sponsor’s SSAN on every document.[/li][li]Revielle. (However the hell you say it.) Not trying to subtly head for shelter at 4:55 pm when it’s raining.[/li][li]Nobody under the age of 20 having a car.[/li][li]People not knowing basic military slang (PCS-ing, TDY, MOS, FIGMO)[/li][li]Feeling pretty safe for the most part wherever you were… at least, not fearing people breaking into your house, or mugging you on base (though it does happen).[/li]Not needing your ID card at all time (I suppose the drivers license has the same purpose).[/ul]
In the AF right now, training status. I keep a blue pen squirreled away somewhere as a quiet act of rebellion, ready to be unleashed on some unsuspecting piece of paper.
The OP is about adjusting to civilian life. I know of no rules for civilians about tattoos.
As long as they’re covered by whatever clothing one wears at work employers don’t care (or even know about them).
What was surprising was what I kept and what I discarded:
I kept the standard of self-discipline, maintaining my personal appearance and living quarters as a measure of self-respect (and to all the guys who were in the USMC who chirp in with “there are no ex-Marines, only former Marines,” if you let your gut get fat, dress like a slob and lost interest in your marksmanship, that makes you an ex-Marine)
I kept the planning method of visualizing my objectives and working backwards. That bit about “authority can be delegated but responsibility cannot” is screwed down pretty tight, too.
Stuff I was glad to leave, considering how the civillain world has its variants of these:
“I outrank you so I can pretty much talk to you however I want and I want to talk to you like you’re shit.” (for guys who never mentally progressed beyond bootcamp)
“Poor me, I joined the US armed forces where we sacrifice so much more than civilians so if I’m a superior I’ll make up for it by abusing my subordinates; and if I’m a subordinate I’ll make up for it by dragging my feet.” (this was rampant when I was in with a lot of Vietanam-era guys and the self-pity was as thick as the hippie-chick mucus all of them swore they’d had spit on them)
And I happily left the world where they addressed people by their last name only. Even if he’s only an E-1, he’s earned the right to be called “Private Smith,” not “Smith.”
20+ years in the Navy. Out since '03.
I’ve come to find that simple competancy is in short supply in the civilian work world. Give me a competant person, and I can make a good employee.
“You’ll do it. And you’ll like doing it. When you’re done doing it, you’ll send me an e-mail thanking me for allowing you to do it,” doesn’t go over too well.
Calling the boss “Sir.”
Getting called “Sir,” without responding "Don’t call me ‘sir,’ I work for a living/haven’t had a frontal lobotomy/know who my parents are/etc.
Still call cleaning “field day.”
Still call dinner “chow.”
Still tell my son he eats too much “geedunk.”
Still can’t sleep past 0630 on weekends.
Still tell time in military time.
Plan family outings using POA&Ms down to the minute.
Still spell phonetically.
Watching the Travel Channel, always say “I was there” if I was there.
My wife could probably add another dozen…
One that bewildered my uncle when he got out and into the corporate world was when you got on an elevator there was nothing, not one single thing that told you who was more important or less important than you were. Sure, the boss tends to wear nicer suits and all, but the goofy looking schmuck in the corner could “outrank” you and you’d have no idea.