Field test: PLP manager gets opportunity to use program herself Story by Anastasia Devlin, Reservist Magazine Senior Chief Petty Officer Theresa Joyce, the PLP manager since June 2019, recently met her new boss last summer. He’s got a lot to learn, and he’s pretty demanding, but she’s willing to spend months of her personal time, night and day, to get him off to the best start. Joyce and her husband Eric welcomed their baby, Elijah Ryan, July 6, and thanks to the very program she manages, she’s been able to spend the last few months concentrating solely on getting to know their new son. The PLP gave Joyce the same opportunity (and peace of mind) she’s coordinated for more than 400 other Coast Guardsmen in the last three years. Like many members who want to spend time with their newest addition, she said there’s a lot of guilt about leaving the command in the lurch for several months. “When you’ve got three coxswains in a duty section at a unit, and one of them goes out, that means a lot more coxswain duty or OOD [officer-of-the-day] duty or boarding officer duty for the other coxswains,” Joyce said. “Knowing someone is there to come in and take their spot makes everyone rest a lot easier.” As a boatswain’s mate from a Florida small boat station, a reservist, a civilian HR manager, and a senior enlisted member, Joyce’s background has made her an ideal manager for the program. She was glad to know the program would continue in her absence. “Everybody kind of jokes that this program is kind of like my first child,” she said with a laugh. “It’s my baby, and it’s super important to me, so it’s nice to know that it’s still running—that someone’s taking care of the day-to-day stuff.” She worked with Master Chief Petty Officer Kirstin MacLean, a reserve boatswain’s mate in Surge Staffing, to ensure that the PLP continued to function in her absence. Joyce, MacLean, and the command know the personnel swap is not perfect one-for- one match in all areas (they communicated through calls and texts occasionally as needed), but Joyce said the program was never designed to find an equal replacement. “[When we get PLP requests,] I don’t try to find someone to replace an active duty member,” she said. “People are irreplaceable; you can’t find someone who has the exact combination of experience for every single Coastie. I try to find someone who can alleviate the gap, so the active duty unit doesn’t feel as much burden and so the active duty member doesn’t have the lingering anxiety that they’re going to be walking back into an avalanche of work.” In some cases, (depending on the command’s flexibility), she’s had to get a little more creative. Prior to the Reserve Aviation Program, the PLP got a request for a pilot. Though reservist aviators weren’t possible (at the time), Joyce was able to provide a chief boatswain’s mate who stood in for a pilot serving in the rotation as a command duty officer, freeing up the pilot to be an aviator. As another example: “We get a unit who requests an XPO, but we don’t have an XPO. So we say, “How about you take your seasoned BM1 active duty coxswain and roll them into the XPO job—make it job training in a position they’re working toward anyway—and we’ll bring in a reserve coxswain to fill the BM1’s spot,’” said Joyce. “We’re filling the easier fill.” Joyce had a litany of imperfect swaps based on a reservist’s full resume: A chief marine science technician who did admin Senior Chief Petty Officer Theresa Joyce, the Parental Leave Program manager, and her husband Eric welcomed Elijah Ryan in July. work as a Coast Guard civilian swapped with a chief yeoman. A first class petty officer who managed an emergency operations center in a major metropolitan area stood in for a lieutenant commander. A third class maritime enforcement specialist in a civilian job as a chef became his station’s cook for a few months. Commands sent back glowing reviews of the reservists they’ve received, in many cases trying to hold onto them longer. Joyce herself is unsurprised: as a reservist, she knows that members’ civilian backgrounds make them much more valuable and employable than their ranks and ratings belie. Until her return in October, the senior chief is thrilled to relax with her infant, dedicating her mornings (and the good part of the nights, still) to his every need. “It’s nice knowing I’ll walk back in and roll into my job without a few hundred emails and three to four months of catch up,” she said. “It’s so cliché because people say it goes by so fast, but when I look through pictures, I think, “Wait, he’s already smiling? Getting to see those changes where, all of a sudden, he’s starting to hold his head up… I can’t imagine missing it.” � Issue 3 • 2022 � RESERVIST 29
