From War To Work

National Guard Soldier Felt Like "Rip Van Winkle" After Coming Home From Iraq

(AP)  When Flor returned from Iraq on May 23, Gunderson called to welcome him back and told him to take as much time as he needed before returning to work. Flor said Nicole was the one who ultimately decided it was time for him to return.

"Imagine turning off the spigot of your life for two years, then coming back to the office, the relationships, the people. It's good to get spooled up on where things are at," he said.

He had a new team to manage and he had new peers, as a number of his colleagues had moved on to other jobs. Part of his reorientation was finding out where people sat in the office, since so many had changed roles.Also, the company was offering new products that his team had to support and there was a new chief distribution officer.

Flor credits Gunderson with taking the time to help him adjust. After the big welcome, Gunderson said she spent a couple hours each week with him going over the previous four months of leadership meeting notes. About a month into his time back, he went through a new manager training program, which went over new procedures and new systems.

But that wasn't enough, Gunderson said. She said she also should have immediately put him through new employee training, since so much at the company had changed, she said, including new benchmarks measuring the call center's work.

"I would have talked more with our HR department, with our training department," she said. "I wish I had had an outlined return process for re-employment."

Having such a plan is vital, said Andrew Hollitt, team leader for military recruiting at the Lucas Group, a Dallas-based recruiting company that specializes in military transition placement.

"That plan mitigates so many of the problems. not because it's a magical fix, but ... because it demonstrates to employee that they matter and that they're so damn important, the company has thought about how they can succeed when they return," he said.

Flor said, "Having lived through it, I think Allianz did as good a job as they could have."

---

Flor came back to 3,200 e-mails, including plenty of the "cake in the conference room" variety.

But reading the pertinent e-mails and the company's Intranet entries on new products helped him catch up on what had changed.

Asked if he's changed personally, Flor said he has, but isn't interested in talking about details.

"Any life-changing event has an impact on how we view the world," he said.

From his first day back, he said he focused on moving forward, talking about his emotions with only his family and close friends.

Since Flor's return, Gunderson said the one change she's seen in Flor is that he's "a little bit more mellow." Compared to the situations he handled in Iraq, workplace predicaments seem tame.

"He's coming from such a high-energy setting," Gunderson said. "Our emergency is a communication went out to the sales force that maybe our department wasn't familiar with. In the grand scheme of things, that isn't the end of the world."

Flor said the company goes above and beyond for its soldier-employees and nominated both Gunderson and the company for the National Guard's Patriot award, for employer support to the guard or reserve. Gunderson won the award. (The company won the award at the state level in May 2006 and is waiting to see if his nomination results in another award.)

"If I were going to offer advice to any company that even cared to listen, I'd say, maintain a dialogue with the employee during deployment," he said. "That has an indirect affect on morale."

---

By AP national business reporter Ellen Simon

[Con Mohrat]

Very good story. There are probaly many like this

[Krazcarl]

Likeitis5050...I agree they deserve it The local paper mill in my hometown tried not to hire my brother back after his military service but the feds made them and they should but the personal manager was so peeved refused to hire me in the long run she did me a favor. This was 25 years ago bub is still there.

[likeitis5050]

This should be the standard operating procedure in every business/industry. This is rewarding to know the human element exists out there, and it''s not because it''s part of the ''job description'' or ''mandated policy''. This is because one person decided to make it a priority. This story should go all the way to the top and stay there for months, or until it becomes the valued mentality within the work place for all personnel.

[jetranger7]

Good thing he''s not in the Trucking Business, they wouldn''t treat you like this, they leave you out to suffer even more, and your family, they''d have you immediately out on the road, for weeks at a time, never seeing your family, and giving you loads or runs that don''t pay, essentially causing you to go broke, and causing you more grief and hardship ! Be glad theres companys like this one, they''re few and far between !