TIME MAGAZINE: Why Are Army Recruiters Killing Themselves?

Submitted by knasky on

This TIME article looks at a string of suicides among Army recruiters (most of whom are veterans of OIF/OEF) who face unrelenting recruitment quotas that are increasingly hard to meet as potential enlistees become more weary of military service with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq appearing to have no end in sight.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889152,00.html

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Thanks for this post. I

Submitted by MilMedFan on

Thanks for this post. I read the article closely. The article alleges that Army recruiters were pressured to meet hard productivity numbers, forced to work long hours and berated. It's difficult to read into suicide numbers because it is so infrequent. Suicide is measured per 100,000 persons so to look at a meaningful trend you really have to look at a trend amongst millions of people. What can you read into a possible suicide outbreak in a very small number of people?

With that being said, service members especially those in the infantry are extremely tough. They need to be this way in order to kick down doors and run into combat with their bayonets drawn. I have seen cases where leaders berated service members who were struggling. Their intentions were good. Leaders thought they could strengthen their service members with tough love but it backfired. My experience has been simple education can correct this hopefully infrequent leadership mistake.