The total package including work-life balance, salary, living quarters, pension, working load etc. is deteriating and leading personnel to quit and choose jobs outside the armed forces. The consequences with this is massive and will in the end have an impact on operational ability in crises. Bearing in mind that the armed forces educate their own personnel and are unable to re-recruit from other agencies in the society.

A different aspect within this challenge is that the total amount of young people is lower than older groups leading to hard competition across all agencies in society. We are now losing this competition.

Workload in NATO structure

The effects of the NATO structure are new for both Finland and Sweden, especially for military personnel. When you’re in new situation/ playground, it makes sense to listen to experience, because not everyone has to make the same mistakes. Norway and Denmark are old NATO countries and we should base our agreements on the experience already established.

The advice of NOA representatives is that NATO assignments should always be based on volunteering, as three-year assignments abroad make a considerable burden on the professional soldier and his entire family.

A soldier is also a human being, and the terms of service of civil servants who are commanded and sent abroad in the state administration must be the same. A professional soldier serving in NATO represents his/her country at the same time and needs the same support as an official sent from the civilian sector.

The Nordic officers’ organizations see the workload to be large both at home and in the NATO structure. Even in the NATO command structure, the endurance of professional soldiers must be taken into account, and the workload must be monitored locally, and recovery must be ensured by smoothing out working time deviations.

www.nof.no
www.bfo.no
www.hod.dk
www.officersforbundet.se
https://www.upseeriliitto.fi/
https://www.paallystoliitto.fi/