Why_Leave

Why leave' – Psychology of a Recruit I have been an instructor within the Royal Marines since I was promoted to Corporal in 1989. The majority of this time has been teaching Royal Marine recruits during their basic and initial training. The lessons involved drill, personal administration, discipline and husbandry. There is currently an under bearing within the armed services and especially in the Royal Marines. Although the Corps does not have a problem recruiting individuals there is a problem with retention or ‘keeping them in’. The training of a marine takes 30 weeks and is an expensive business. Unfortunately a number of recruits leave for various reasons and especially very early on. Within this essay I wish to explore the possible reasons of why recruits leave (especially within the first few days), what motivated them to join and then the sudden change of heart. Potential recruits attend an interview, medical and fitness test within the career offices throughout the country and if successful they attend a 3-day potential recruit course at Lympstone. This course gives the individual the opportunity to view the centre and the facilities and get a taste of what is to come. In addition it gives the selection team the chance to further test, evaluate and gauge the potential of individuals. On successful completion of the 3 days the potential recruit will be given an entry date which could be as much as 6 months later. On joining the Commando Training Centre the new recruits will undergo a foundation phase of training (my area of expertise). This will include further medicals, interviews and paperwork. They will also swear allegiance to the Queen on the first night. Although they have done nothing strenuous or difficult at this stage a number of recruits wish to leave saying ‘its not for them’. Some times as many as 3 in an entry wish to leave and over a training year this could be as many as 80 recruits. So why do they want to leave' Admittedly the biggest reason is the realisation of what they are about to undertake and homesickness. A vast majority of the young 16-year-olds have never been away from home, travelled by themselves or lived in a room with 50 other men. It is a daunting prospect. It is also worthy of note that trained marines often leave after 5 years quoting they wish to pursue another challenge. After 21 years since I joined only 5 out of 26 of my recruit squad still remain. Does the situation or event dictate the psychology of an individual’s perception' Do they have preconceived ideas of what is to come or do they make a split second decision to leave. The self–esteem can make a difference to how a potential recruit starts his new career in the Royal Marines. A person with high self- esteem believes himself fundamentally good, capable and worthy; low self esteem is a view of oneself as useless, inept and unworthy. Although the Potential recruit’s course is a good method of selection it does have the drawback of highlighting an individuals personal standard of fitness and motivation. For an example all potential recruits have high self-esteem when they have passed and are selected for training. They have beaten others and feel justly proud when they arrive at Lympstone, however they join and are amongst equals and their self-esteem drops. They may consider that they are not good enough. ‘At any given time, of course, self esteem refers to one’s own evaluations of oneself rather than to the reactions or characteristics of others. A large body of research has concentrated on this concept, because it is a central and pervasive aspect of the self, influencing behaviour even when esteem does not seem to be especially relevant to what is going on at the time’ (Greenwald, Bellazza, & Banaji, 1998). An individual may use homesickness as an excuse to leave and the instructor and indeed the stronger recruits within the squad should be aware and act to motivate the individual. A person that has done well in a certain element of training (i.e. ironing a shirt) will be extremely pleased and confident when the instructor inspects it. An individual who cannot iron a shirt correctly may look elsewhere for an excuse instead of admitting that he can’t iron a shirt yet and that with practice the shirt will be immaculate. The United States Marine Corps have a fascinating method of dealing with self-esteem, motivating individuals and even homesickness. A recruit is picked up from a train station and delivered to the recruit camp generally arriving at night. On arrival they are ordered to de-bus, fall in and stand still on a set of yellow painted footprints. They are constantly being shouted at from about 6 inches with up to 3 instructors on any one recruit. The slow individuals are given additional ‘encouragement’. The basic training last 12 weeks, they phone home when they arrive and at week 10. They are constantly verbally abused all day and all night. The individual is never given an opportunity to think or act for him or her self and are instructed to do things exactly the same and in a certain way. All meals are controlled and the drill instructors continually harass throughout the meal times. Even the toilet doors are removed so that the recruits cannot relax. They do not have the opportunity to leave the camp until they have passed basic training. I was intrigued as to the attrition rate throughout training especially during the first week. I was shocked to hear it was zero other than for serious injuries. Why was this so' I believe there are three basic reasons for this statistic. a. The standard of recruit is poorer than that of the Royal Marines. b. The recruits’ self-esteem is broken and rebuilt to suit the product. c. A form of physiological warfare or brain washing is introduced. The first reason is possibly true but the second and third is worth investigating to see if Royal Marine recruits could benefit from this style and approach. The concept of brainwashing has always had its place in the military environment mainly with the enemy and not necessarily with your own troops! Tavris and Wade (1995) outlined some of the principles and applied them to the brainwashing of cult members. The following extract applies to Armies: | |Armies | |The aim of brainwashing |To establish unquestioning obedience to authority-thus following orders that may result in | | |damage or death. | |Techniques |Army routines involve vigorous and constant activity schedules with little sleep and constant | |Or the use of physical and emotional distress |commands to carry out in order to encourage uncritical, automatic acceptance of command and | | |obedience to orders. | |The offering of simple solutions |Encourage potential recruits to think that the problems of life are removed, e.g. no need to | | |search for employment, housing, excitement. | |The creation and enforcement of a new social |Service numbers, ranks and uniform remove individual identity and promote the change to an | |identity, through: |army identity. Disobedience is punished. Location of residence is controlled and operational| |Attire |information is given on a need to know basis. Distinctions from civilians are emphasised and | |Conditional ingroup acceptance |dislike/dehumanisation of the enemy encourage to promote in-group identity and consolidation. | |Physical and informational entrapment | | |Out-group denigration | | The term ‘brainwashing’ in the context of recruit training is probably not accurate. Yes, there is a requirement to change an individuals attitude from being a civilian and transforming him into a serviceman or woman but a lot of emphasis is placed on the development of individual, instilling discipline and pride in the organisation they have joined. They are not brainwashed into reacting to orders but given the opportunity to learn through realisation of exactly what they have joined up to do (i.e. to become a soldier and possibly fight the enemy). The Royal Marines considers itself a family with a long and distinguished history and I believe young men join the Corps because they want adventure and a challenge. The self-esteem of a recruit in training is of great importance and I believe The Royal Marines have always thought themselves a thinking mans army. To follow orders is without doubt an important element when in a war situation but a soldier who can think for himself and see the wider picture when in combat can be an asset. For example great importance is placed on individual skills including map reading and the marine’s ability to navigate out of trouble when separated from his fellow troops. It could be argued that 30 weeks of Basic training is too much but the product or individual is a far more effective soldier and citizen. Royal Marine recruit training is testing to all who undertake it and all recruits suffer during the syllabus but the majority strive to do better and pass out. However some individuals find certain elements of training harder than others do and it is not necessarily the physical or academic areas. Great importance is attached to bearing & self-discipline of the individual and these remain a fundamental requirement of any fighting service. This is no more so than a recruit in the early days of training who cannot iron a shirt or shine their boots to a high standard and after additional instruction still cannot iron it to the specific requirement. He may well suffer from self-efficacy in that he believes himself now unable to iron clothing correctly. The individual himself may be extremely strong with the physical or classroom elements but merely struggles on this one subject area. Burger and Palmer (1992) studied students after the Californian earthquake in 1989 and wrote: ‘Immediately after the event, students reported feeling vulnerable to natural disasters and unable to cope with them. That is their self-efficacy was low in this specific context. In other aspects of their lives (such as school performance), feelings of vulnerability and inability to cope were unaffected’. Burger and Palmer (1992) Although ironing a shirt or boot polishing is not comparable with an earthquake within the training environment failure on menial tasks and constant poor performances does affect the morale of the individual. Statistics of recruits leaving early in recruit training do not highlight poor ironing as a reason to leave but I do believe a culmination of small almost insignificant personal administrative problems result in self-efficacy and ultimately low self-esteem. Figures taken between April 03 and June 03 show statistically the number of recruits that left during their first 2 weeks of training are below: RM RECRUIT LEAVERS INITIAL 2 WEEKS |REASON |% |REMARKS | |RM NOT FOR ME |28 | | |IMMATURITY/AGE |20 |Mainly 16/17 yr olds | |MISSING PARTNER/FRIENDS |20 |Mainly 16/17 yr olds | |HOMESICKNESS |12 |Mainly 16/17 yr olds | |UNFIT |6 | | |INJURY |6 | | |OTHER EMPLOYMENT OFFER |4 | | |PRESSURE FROM PARTNER |4 | | Although the above statistic is a snap shot it does reveal that the more younger recruits do suffer when amongst older recruits. Their self-esteem suffers dramatically if they feel unable to cope. In the early 1980’s recruit squads consisted of both adult (17 and half yrs plus) and junior squads of 16 – 17 and half yrs. There training ran parallel but the junior squads were given an extra 2 weeks training so as to alleviate their immaturity. Although not practical now due to recruit numbers, accommodation and facilities it is interesting that the majority of early leavers are 16 year olds. In conclusion, recruit training is deliberately hard, sometimes boring and not the ‘full blown commando raids’ seen at the cinema. A lot of emphasis is placed on developing the individual, slowly making him a fit, smart and effective soldier. The first two weeks are extremely tedious, new and confusing with the unknown for the future dominant in all the recruit’s minds. All have passed the selection process and all are capable of doing well. A few well-chosen words of encouragement from the trainers and the recruit who feels vulnerable may have better self-esteem not worry about the minor incidental problems of day to day life within the barrack room and enjoy the challenge and the adventure which will come in their futures. The 30 weeks is long but progressive and the high self-esteem is brought to the forefront when passing out of training and the recruit becomes a marine. He has become a more confident, diligent and trustworthy person and many of the their family and friends have commented on this. I asked a recently passed out marine if he ever had doubts, he replied ‘ only on the first night after my head was shaved and I laid on my bed and though what the hell was I doing here’ Interesting statement I though, I felt exactly the same!