PRIME JOB
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I am concerned about the hoo-ha surrounding the deployment of the armed forces around the globe (for whatever reason) and their kith and kin.

You are the only person inside your head. Doing any job is your choice, your responsibility. If you are coerced, that is your problem and requires a solution.

Taking any job is a question of priorities. They are your priorities, not some-one else's. If your decision to take a job is made, using the example of the armed forces in this instance, then that is what you do. The job takes precedence; everything else is secondary. It is a question of loyalty. Your first loyalty is to the job you choose.

You cannot expect there to be divided loyalties. Job first and anything else, secondary.

Your prime responsibility is to your chosen prime job. Frankly, that is the end of it.

I cannot, personally have any feelings about the secondary job (family and so forth) given that the decision was made by an individual. You cannot perform a second job if the prime job is to be done properly; this would be disloyal.

Any 'rights', such as everyone is entitled to marry, have children and so forth cannot come into the equation, unless that is your primary job. If that is your primary job, then you do that properly and little else that doesn't involve loyalty to that primary job.

Why should one feel 'sorry' for those who engage in activities represented by the armed forces? The decision was theirs to join and those whose job it is or was entered into must abide by the rules for that job. If I drive my car destructively and kill or maim myself that is my  stupidity. If a person engages in an armed conflict because that is part of the job and gets killed or maimed that is exactly the same thing.

I don't believe we can bring emotional arguments into this. Anything that humans do is down the risk management. If I undertake a job using potentially dangerous tools, then I must observe the potential risks according to that task, otherwise I end up searching for a gas leak with a lighted match.

If you don't like the job you thought you would like, then you find something else to do. If you are stuck in a situation, then that is a problem that has to be solved. No fault, no blame.

This perpetual emotional responses about armed forces wives and children is immaterial. As they say, 'you make your own bed, then you must lie in it'.

Of course, if you are forced to join the armed forces (or any other job) that is another matter. As far as I am concerned, you owe no loyalty to the job since it was not your prime choice.

Of course, both employer and employee should abide by the rules of the job. If these rules are not adhered to by both sides, or by one or either side, then one or other is being disloyal. It is therefore incumbent on both sides to maintain that loyalty and to weigh this as part of the risk management process in choosing a prime job.

Peter K. Sharpen



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