Yet another station in Del Rio Sector has a watch commander and supervisors who do not want to follow the rules of the Physical Fitness Program (PFP).
Agents assigned to the soft-sided facility were told at the start of their muster that they would not be allowed to participate in the PFP at the end of the day, even though the watch commander had no idea what operations would look like.
The PFP requires supervisors to make individual determinations on a case-by-case basis whether an employee can be released to participate in the PFP. This watch commander took the lazy way out, and rather than evaluate each request as intended, he gave an order to cancel it for everyone.
At the end of the shift after the agents had done a great job running a new busload through intake, they were relieved and had no other pressing work to take care of. Instead of allowing the agents to work out and relieve some stress and continue to work on maintaining their own fitness, a supervisor sent them to go find busy work.
Chief Scott approved the program because the long-term physical and mental wellness of all U.S. Border Patrol personnel is the agency’s priority. However, individual supervisors and managers in the field who are not on board with the program sometimes let their own personal beliefs or laziness interfere with their requirement to follow policy.
Del Rio Sector and the rest of the U.S. Border Patrol are dealing with an unprecedented number of crossings, but some watch commanders and supervisors claim we are too busy to worry about employee physical fitness and mental wellness. That’s nonsense, of course, so we are waiting for the agency’s response to the grievance and will address it accordingly.