Employers Ready to Welcome GIs Returning to Prewar Jobs

When the 10 military reservists who usually work at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center return from Gulf War duty, they will be met with a warm welcome--and a bit of uncertainty.

“We are all very new to this,” said Tom Miller, the hospital’s compensation and benefits director. “We have not sat down to strategize what to do when they get back from the war environment.”

With the end of the war, the eventual return of tens of thousands of reservists from military duty poses some unique problems for employers and employees alike. However, only a few companies--among them Hughes Aircraft and its parent company, General Motors--say they have begun looking at the special needs of reservists returning to the civilian work force.

Experts say reservists may need counseling. As a practical matter, their return will often displace the workers who filled in for them. But most companies say the relatively small numbers of employees who were called up means workplace disruptions should be minimal.

“We are prepared . . . to accommodate their special needs,” said American Express spokeswoman Gail Wasserman. “It’s still premature to say what the need will be. We expect that they will be greeted very warmly and that will ease their transition.”

Still, many employee counselors have never worked with the emotional problems of returning veterans. Karen Dickason, who counsels Pacific Bell employees in San Diego, said she will rely on the experience she gained treating anxious workers after the 1989 Bay Area quake.

Already, Dickason has counseled the family and friends of Pacific Bell employees called to active duty. “We have worked with people who have been traumatized or have had their lives disrupted,” she said.

Reservists will need time to work out the tensions and stress built up over the war--as will their families. Even the vast majority of active reservists who never saw combat--about two-thirds of those called up remained in the United States--might need help as well.

“There are people were who prepared to face action and didn’t,” said Joan McCrea, manager of employee counseling programs at Hughes. “All of these tensions and stresses built up, and there wasn’t an actual release.”

Adjustment problems also loom for the workers who remained at home and watched the war on television.

Employees who filled in for reservists will be forced to return to their old jobs; that could be upsetting. And they might have trouble understanding the emotional toll on some veterans.

“Most of the public will still misinterpret the (reservists’) anger and anxiety and depression,” said Thom Larson, counseling center supervisor at Control Data’s employee assistance program.

Of the reservists, some will be upset to find that the jobs they return to might not be the ones they left behind. Federal law requires employers to offer reservists jobs and salaries equivalent to their old positions but not the exact same jobs. Reservist may also lose their jobs if they were eliminated in a layoff.

“If their job is open, they’ll get it,” said Bob Goodlow, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. “If not, they will get the equivalent, in terms of pay, status and benefits.”

But many companies say the relatively small numbers of called-up reservists and the short duration of the war will make it possible for most weekend warriors to return to their old jobs.

“As far as we know, that’s going to be the case,” said Jim Ruderman, a spokesman for IBM, which saw 161 of its 205,500 workers called to active duty. “There might be an occasion where the job doesn’t exist anymore. But no one will ever be left out in the street.”