Sep 13, 2007

You Buy a Pump Because You Expect a Flood

by Cliopatria

I'd sure like to know the whole story behind this remarkable job listing (edited here for formatting, and minus extraneous information) on the website of the Serco corporation, a contractor that does substantial business with the U.S. military:

NEW! 67 Temp Positions: Personal Effects Specialist

Job Description

Participates as temporary full-time member (Personal Effects Specialist, or Photographer, or Administrative Speciaialist) on a Serco, Inc. team of 96 contract employees working on-site in a fast-paced operational/warehouse environment for the US Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at the Joint Personal Effects Depot (JPED). Receives, inventories, sorts, cleans, photographs, packages, and ships to family members (next of kin) all personal effects belonging to military service members and others, including defense contractors, who are killed or severely injured worldwide, especially incident to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Performs other relevant administrative and logistics duties as assigned which may include data entry (Defense Casualty Information Processing System) and reports and correspondence management functions, as necessary.

Required Skills

Detail oriented. Ability to remain calm during highly emotional or crisis situations. Ability to work well with others in a team environment. Mature self-starter with compassion for members of the US Armed Forces and the families of those killed or severely injured. Must be stable, dependable, and available for shift-work, overtime, and occasional weekend/holiday work consistent with the mission/operational environment. Must be able obtain and maintain a SECRET security clearance (Serco, Inc. will process the required application). Current or prior SECRET or higher security clearance is a strong plus.

But the closing date for applications is September 14, so hurry.

Fast-paced operation. Must be available for overtime.

If you find anything more depressing and macabre this week, please don't let me know.

More Comments:

Jonathan Dresner - 9/17/2007

Plausible. But a guess isn't an answer, I'm afraid: the other possibilities are also plausible.

Marie E Hooper - 9/16/2007

I'd guess that it used to be a function filled by military personnel; like so much else, it's been outsourced.

Chris Bray - 9/14/2007

Steve,

All fair points, but I don't care about Serco and am not interested in criticizing the company. Or noticing its existence, really. My reaction has to do with the need for dozens more people to process the bodies of dead American men and women coming home from a botched war. I'd rather see those people coming home alive. That's the whole story.

Steve McCarney - 9/14/2007

Chris, I certainly appreciate your comment about what you consider to be a "depressing and macabre" job posting. However, to be fair in analyzing what you read, I encourage you to take a look at it from a perspective other than introspectively. Since 9/11, Serco is the only company to do this work for all branches of the military--that says a lot about who Serco people are. We understand what it really means to be military family. Despite the often-times grueling work we do, there is arguably no greater feeling than to know you're doing everything you can to support wounded and fallen soldiers and their families. This is just one small part of a wide array of exceptional service that Serco provides to the brave soldiers and families who unselfishly serve our country.

Jonathan Dresner - 9/13/2007

There's gotta be a story behind you finding this, but do we want to know what it is?

My question about context would be this: Is this a function which used to be handled by the military, a change in contractors, or additional contractor resources being brought on board?