Why Staffing Agencies Should Consider Boot Camp Part of Their Training

As a starting point, I want to put it out there that I work part-time as a Food and Beverage Attendant a few nights per week for two staffing agencies. I was also a Girl Scout for nine years (an officer for the last three) and attended one year military training as part of our high school program. There came too many occasions at work to which I think some military discipline would help with efficiency. Here's why!

1. Cooount OFF!

There are events where clients grab 50-100 from an agency(football games, graduation formals) and during on location, would separate staff into teams for section allocations. I've seen it too many times when the manager has to recount everyone over and over again from the moment we all clock-in to when we've separated into teams. People just won't stay still and the manager keeps losing count. 

In military / scouting, members can "count off" by saying the number out loud.

2. Assembly

Just a whistle signal and in 10 seconds, everyone in the radius sitting, standing, drinking and doing-what-so-ever will be assembled in front of the commanding officer in neat appropriate lines - with equal spacing. No more snail-walking to the call point like zombies. 

3. Lines

This is one thing I don't understand. Did we not all learn to line up since kindergarten? And if you didn't learn it at school, you surely would've learned it in real life. (Hello, fast food chains and cinemas?) A line is a line. No random circles popping. You don't sit down while the line is moving. You don't cut the line because you saw your friend in the middle of it. You just don't. It's moving, don't push because it doesn't make it any faster. *sigh*

4. Uniform

I do not understand how people keep getting their uniforms wrong or with something missing. I remember how we made sure of our polished shoes and gravely panicked if someone forgot the standard black belt or a pin. A little disciplinary training goes a long way. We were never physically tormented as some cliche shows might present,  it was just a matter of installing a state of mentality.

5. Posture

Plenty of times, we'd be on our feet running around doing this and that and sometimes there's simply nothing left to do but stand and wait for orders. "Stand" as they might call it but it seems to look a bit too much like a sad bunch of prank-shop-slime where its structure basically goes where gravity takes it. Leaning here and there, crowding kitchen halls and slouching while sneakily going on mobile phones. Back in the days, we had "At Ease" or "Parade Rest" position(both are similar but has minimal differences and varies worldwide in details of what is allowed or not) where we crossed our hands at the back, sometimes front, feet apart for relaxed balance and head to the front. It's a comfortable position and looks so much nicer and way less awkward. 


I'm not saying our managers should come in with a thorny whip nor am I pro-closed minded work environments. For me, it's not much about being running a tight ship, but more about being in a ship and actually knowing nobody will accidentally put a huge hole through it because they were playing with the cannon ball launcher. 



For my few, if not inexistent, return readers: Sorry for the long gap in posting! I have lots of finished written posts but I do like to add personal images and wanted to wait until I have some to throw in before posting. =\ I shall try to schedule my posts now for more consistency!