Management 14th Edition by Leslie Rue,Lloyd Byars ,Nabil Ibrahim

Exercise 21

Getting Out of the Army
Jay Abbott is confident that his future will be secure and financially rewarding if he decides to remain in the Army. He entered more than 10 years ago as a commissioned officer after completing his college education on an ROTC scholarship. At age 32, Jay has progressed to the rank of captain and is currently being considered for promotion to major. He has no reason to believe he will not be promoted. He has been successful in all of his appointments, is well liked by everyone-his peers, superiors, and subordinates-and has an unblemished record.
However, at the 10-year mark, Jay had second thoughts about staying in the Army and has been thinking about leaving ever since. He has felt more and more resentful that the Army has affected a large part of his personal life. Although he had always preferred to wear his hair shorter than most young men do, he resented the fact that even if he wanted to let it grow out or grow sideburns, he couldn't do it. It was the principle of the whole idea: the intrusion of the Army into his personal life. That this intrusion extended to his wife and children bothered him even more.
Jay's wife, Ellen, was finishing her master's thesis. This took up a large portion of her free time; yet her lack of involvement in the officers' clubs was frowned on. There was just no such thing as a private family life in Jay's position. He didn't even have much time to spend with the family. His job required long hours of work, including weekend duty, which left little time for his wife and two daughters, ages seven and nine. Another problem was that Ellen, who held a degree in design engineering, was unable to pursue any kind of real career, something that was important to both of them.
These thoughts raced through Jay's mind over and over again as he tried to decide what would be best for himself and his family. The Army had a lot of positive aspects, he kept reminding himself: He was already earning $69,000 a year, and with his nearly certain promotion, this would rise to $76,000. Also, he was being recommended for the Army's command and general staff college. There was little chance he would not be approved; completing the program would make his future even brighter. If he stayed, he would be able to retire in just 10 more years (at age 42) with a permanent retirement income of half his final salary plus free medical and dental coverage. By then, he figured, he would probably be a lieutenant colonel with a base pay of about $85,000; at worst, he would retire a major. At 42, he would have plenty of time to devote to a second career if he so desired.
On the other hand, regardless of how attractive the benefits seemed, salaries in the armed services had not kept pace with the rising rate of inflation: Congress had held the lid on raises at less than 3 percent, and no changes in this position were evident for the next few years. In fact, Jay had read several newspaper articles indicating that Congress was considering reducing benefits for the armed services, the 20-year retirement income specifically.
After doing some checking, Jay learned that the training and experience received in the Army were valuable to civilian employers. Commissioned in the signal corps, he had vast experience in the area of telecommunications. He had recently completed a tour as an instructor in a service school. He had also been in many positions of leadership during his term in the Army. At 32, he probably had more firsthand managerial experience than most civilian managers. He knew that large organizations were currently hiring young ex-military officers at salaries $10,000 to $15,000 higher than those of recent college graduates.
What should Jay do?