Work Environment

I work for the Joint Programs Integration Office (JPIO) which is a department under Joint Engineering (JENG). As of now JPIO has about 25 employees but with the plan to withdraw of troops that number is expected to jump quite significantly. Many of the positions within JENG will be replaced with Civilians too. Part of my job is to track the status of hiring within each division of our department. We get our employees from two places the Army Corps through the USACE Deployment Center or the DOD through the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce (CEW). We would prefer USACE because the process is about 60 days as with CEW the average time is 4 to 6 months!!!  I’m still trying to understand why we have to go through CEW and I’m not sure if I will find out the answer. In my opinion some kind of crazy deal was made and now we must work through DOD. Sounds like the typical government to me.

The next part of my day is processing all movements of our people. I have to keep track of where everyone is at all times in case of an attack we have 100% accountability at all times. Now in order to go ANYWHERE people have to take a ‘movement’. The movement consists of a bullet proof SUV and two armed soldiers. I process all movement requests and work with the drive teams to arrange movements. I wrap up my day with personnel paperwork such as everyone’s timecards, travel logistics/paperwork, and pay problems.

As for my working space you could call it miniscule. JPIO has about 8 offices. Each office has at least 3 people working in them. Except our director, who is equivalent to a general so duh she gets her own office. But the other two who have their own office think they are that important.  I sit outside the offices in an open area with 5 other people. Everyone has either a desk with a couple of drawers or what most of us have, me included, is a tall hutch without the doors. It has a surface for your computer and keyboard, a small drawer, and two cabinets above your head. I don’t really like it because the workspace is so small. I love to spread all my papers and files out but here you can’t do that. So my desk looks like a big mess.  The other problem with space is that I have three phones and four computers at my desk too! We have to have a phone and computer for the Army Corps, JENG unclassified, JENG classified, and a computer for movements. The amount of heat coming from my desk could warm a small Afghan family!

Alright after reading this back through I’m bored with it!

Let me try and come up with something more entertaining.

Our office decided to have a Dari (local language) word of the day. We are suppose to use this word as often as possible throughout the day. Well one co-worker, who has been here two weeks and every day he tells us he has to lower his expectations (I think he thought he was coming to the Hilton), gave us a Dari phrase to learn.  It was “tabyah shewai bam chayrtah dai?” Of course we all asked what does that mean and come to find out it means “do wires come from the IED?”

Really?!? That’s the phrase he teaches us. Can you picture me walking up to the dude who serves ice cream and asking him wires come from the IED?  Needless to say that was the end of Dari phrase of the day!

This is a picture from our compound. These are the overflow tents that some people have to stay in if they can find them a room in the dorms. Behind the tents is a local Kabul neighborhood. When I first saw this view I was a little discomforted by how close and vulnerable we are. But we constantly have soldiers patrolling the neighborhood.