PART⚡TIME HITTER Newsletter

PTH Newsletter is BACK

The team took a hiatus from the newsletter during the summer to realign our chakras. Now that Mercury is in retrograde, we are back with a vengeance.

One question.

What the f*ck happened while we were gone? We go off the grid for a couple months to free climb Mount Vesuvius and suddenly the National Guard is deployed CONUS all over the place and now we’re the Department of War?

I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been smoking Peyote for six straight weeks. We’ve never even been to Mount Vesuvius.

Anyway, since we’ve been gone for a minute and we have a number of new subscribers, we thought we’d do a little reintroduction of this sacred publication.

The PART ⚡TIME Hitter Newsletter is a joint production between the Friendly Forces team and Meme God The Fratty Guard where we bring (or aspire to bring) helpful news and information, career/professional development advice, and other resources to the Reservist community.

Why?

There’s a billion and one resources out there for active duty and transitioning veterans. Very few organizations give two shits about Reservists, even though we comprise about 40% of the total force while holding down full time jobs and being mobilized to pick up drug needles in Washington, DC.

We’re here for the PART⚡TIME hitters—past, present, and future.

USERRA Issues at Your Job? Get Help.

Since joining the Guard and Reserve, our team has seen countless instances of workplace discrimination and USERRA noncompliance. This is not always malicious, in fact, it’s usually just because HR and manager types are naive to the law and have never dealt with service members in their workplace before.

However, that’s not an excuse. The Guard and Reserve can only function if our civilian jobs are protected. That’s why USERRA—the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act—exists.

We see WAY too many servicemembers think that the best, or only, option when having trouble with work is to go to ESGR. It’s not. They are volunteers with EXTREMELY limited scope and capabilities.

I won’t mention how many times I’ve heard people say they contacted their unit JAG for support. I’ll say this one time. YOUR JAG HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR EMPLOYER. THEY SUPPORT YOUR UNIT. DO NOT GO TO YOUR JAG AND THINK THEY WILL HELP YOU.

If you are experiencing (or think you are experiencing) blatant USERRA violations at work, contact an actual USERRA attorney like Brian Lawler of Pilot Law.

Brian recently argued (and won) before the US Supreme Court on behalf of differential pay for federal employees. He is a former Marine Reservist and expert in USERRA Law.

We even had him on the podcast last spring.

Contact Brian through his website to set up a free consultation. You’ll walk him through what’s going on and he’ll let you know if you have a case.

If he takes the case, the fee arrangement is entirely contingent. They don’t get paid unless you get paid.

Seriously, he will help. Get in touch if you need legal advice about how your job is treating you due to military obligations. Contact him here and mention that Friendly Forces or the Fratty Guard sent you.

New Website for Unit Collabs

You asked. We delivered.

What I mean by that is you all are annoying as shit with your custom requests, so we built a webform where you can create unit merch with your unit emblems and our logos—tees, silkies, condoms, you name it.

You design the merch with the help of our designers and then a storefront gets created so individuals from your specific unit can go in and purchase the gear themselves. Or you can do a bulk order.

Check the shit out here: https://exray.cc/pages/get-started-x-fratty-guard

-thx, CPT Chadwick

If you support the work that Friendly Forces does, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help keep the lights on. Every bit helps. Turns out stuff is expensive and we put countless man hours into the work.

That’s all for now. BIG THINGS COMING.