The Army Reserves is “Not your everyday job!” according to some recruiting slogans for awhile. Unfortunately, with the increasing ability of the Army to reach out into the “real world” beyond Drill Weekends for constant classes and “informative” updates, the typical Reservist or Guard soldier will find that a lot of what used to be personal time is now filled with online classes.

The classes listed in the comic are actual classes that I pretty much remember by name– now, some of them have been replaced by classes with different names (this comic takes place in 2006) but no less intrusive. In fact, there’s now something called “structured self-development”, an entirely new bank of online courses that has been added since then.

Now, it can be argued that “you signed the paperwork!” and a good point can be made. But Reserve and Guard soldiers sign on for part-time duty for a reason. Do we get paid for completing these online courses, as if we were on duty hours? Yes, as a matter of fact, most of these classes are paid. And yes, we can do them in our pajamas and bunny slippers while sipping a beer if we want to (just don’t tell anyone about the beer). But the point is, we can’t be paid in the one currency we were expecting to have– time.

It’s now your everyday job.