Deployment Toolkit
Day to Day Operations
Your new living and working surroundings may take some time to get used to. You may have to share accommodation so personal space can be a little precious. Your new working environment may be cramped, or just plain strange to you. The equipment may seem somewhat foreign. Getting used to another organisations working practices can also be difficult. It may take time for you to understand your role and the working systems of your new unit.
We all like to be 'kept in the picture'. On Ops it is not always possible to get information out to personnel immediately and there are various reasons for this. This can result in you feeling left out or confused about what you are doing. It's nothing personal, we need to remember that often there is a perfectly good reason behind delays in information distribution.
One of the biggest problems on Ops can be boredom. There you are trained up and ready to go, but all you seem to do is 'wait out' in the crew room or at home. Sitting ready and waiting makes a minute feel like an hour! It may seem to you that a simple 6 hour shift is an Everest to climb in putting the time in. Although some of your time will probably be taken up with training, that book you wanted to read or catching up on your OU or other coursework can come in very handy.
You must also consider the reactions of certain people to your role. Not everybody will be happy about a British presence in their country. Your role may draw unwelcome attention from the media.
More often than not, the Ops we get involved in are in other countries. You will be exposed to different cultures, societies and degrees of poverty. As a professional Service, we must respect the cultural norms of the society, however unfamiliar they may appear to us. Seeing people who live in extreme poverty can be quite difficult to deal with, especially when children are involved. Such scenes and experiences can cause us to react emotionally.
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