u/Fancy-Law-7596

I want to give some thoughts about transitioning from the military to civilian work.

I was 19 years in the military, mostly support roles (systems administration and information handling). It has been 2 years now in the civilian world. My first job in the civilian world was an administrative job, where I did a lot of the same stuff that I did in the military.

TLDR:

1. People see straightforwardness as unfriendly behavior.
2. People are incapable of making decisions.
3. Everyone has to validate your expertise.
4. Measuring and discussing impact on environment.
5. Constant evaluation of your performance and cooperation.

Here are some observations that I either never had or had very little in the military.

1. People get offended easily

One of the first things I learned was to be as unstraightforward as possible when talking to someone. People really don't like when you present your input or question as short and specific, they take it as unfriendly and offensive. Also people immediately tell my boss when they feel I wasn't friendly enough. So I have been working a lot of my personality to pretend to be more friendly. This also applies to emails. My boss said that before I send an email, I should process it through an AI filter to make it "more friendly".

2. People are afraid to make decisions

People are afraid to make decisions, even whey they are in a position to make the decision. Many times I need someone to answer a question but they are incapable of telling me. Instead they say things like "I take this on the agenda and discuss it at the department meeting next Wednesday" or "I have to check this with VP". Which means I often never hear back.

In the military this was never a problem when I asked a captain "Is it better to set this to 20 or 50 for your department?" Nobody took such questions to meetings or higher-ups.

3. Inclusion

I created some procedural documents, but as it turned out I cannot submit them to management for signing and release. Apparently there is procedure of "inclusion", where you first have to inform everyone at the company about the draft, and everyone can comment on it. Doesn't matter that you are the only expert in the company. So I had to send an email to "allcompany" and ask for unnecessary input, from people who are not experts, and most of them don't ever even need these technical procedures. For me this feels like mistrust - "we need everyone to validate your work".

4. Environmental

I got an email from management, they wanted that I calculate how much CO2 will be saved by implementing our new information management system. I have no idea how to calculate this, so I just asked ChatGPT about an estimate it and presented arbitrary numbers. Also there was a specific committe who got together and discussed how to make the office more eco-friendly. And we have to take online environmental courses.

5. Constant evaluation

An evaluative meeting with my boss two times per month about how am I doing and what is my progress with work. Also the meeting where I am being told that again someone complained I wasn't friendly enough.

Also several times a year filling out various questionnaires where we are asked to evaluate and comment on departments, cooperation, projects, etc. For example "On a scale from 1 to 10, how do you evaluate your cooperation with the financial department?". I really don't know. Is 5 considered bad? Or 7? What do you even do with this information.

I just want to tell a story that happened to me many years ago, but such things can easily define who you will become, or in my case, not become.

So about 15 years ago, after several years of working for the company, my boss and me thought that I would make a great candidate for a managerial position. But to apply for such position I had to enroll in manager's course, the duration of which was a couple of months.

So we made the application to enroll me in the course and it was denied. The official reason was that unfortunately the number of participants is limited and my line of work wasn't currently a priority. So I just continued my work as usual, without any promotion.

Several years later I happened to talk on the company parking lot to a person who was on the board who made this decision and I mentioned that several years ago I was denied the manager's course.

He said "oh yeah... I remember, another board member said we shouldn't have you on this managerial course, since you dropped out from a previous course, and others agreed".

I was astounded since no such thing had ever happened, I had never been to this previous course he was talking about and therefore didn't drop out.

So I started investigating. Turned out there was indeed a dropout, who just had a very similar name to mine. The board member had mixed up two different people with a similar name and nobody bothered to check. And because of this event that indeed had happened, but not to me, I was denied manager's course and wasn't promoted.

I have a Cisco cable modem where 5 GHz WiFi is turned on. A problem has developed with WiFi that the cable company is unable to explain - they say their diagnostics show that everything is working perfectly. They say they can send a technician but this will cost me 40 euros, which I am reluctant to pay at least for now.

Description of problem:
On some days (not every day!) the internet via WiFi drops mostly at evenings and usually at regular intervals, exactly with 1 hour gaps. Some hours are omitted. There are occasionally smaller hiccups, but this is what usually happens. Other days are perfect, no disruptions whatsoever.

The modem has been in the same spot for as long as it has been here, the distance from the main PC is about 3 meters. The disruptions only started a couple of months ago.

192.168.0.1 and modem settings can be accessed from browser normally during the disruption, but the internet cannot be accessed.

Also on some days the disruptions start with 3 or 4 drops with exactly (to the second) 15 minute intervals, followed by drops every hour interval. There is no specific time when the first drop happens, the second comes exactly 1 hour after the first one.

When the PC is connected to the modem via cable, there have been no disruptions, this happens only when connected to WiFi.

Can someone please provide a theory what could be actually wrong with the WiFi and is there something I could do? I have tried to describe this problem also to ChatGPT, but these answers are wild and so far not helpful. I have attached two screenshots, one where are the 1 hour disruptions and another one where the disruptions begin with drops with 15 minute intervals.

https://preview.redd.it/k0o94fbzi0yg1.jpg?width=1166&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=73bfa9a699252549be9a219392b3842f4eff5093

https://preview.redd.it/n8w4g6dbj0yg1.jpg?width=1315&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ce9fbed265e56a70eace4d99da175f91b7de31d