The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

Both employees and family members rely heavily on their spouse/partner/MOH for support, followed by close friends and parents. On a positive note, the majority of family members rated their support system good or excellent. Nearly half of the family members said they would like to meet other families of unaccompanied per- sonnel. Yet of those few who were aware of the listserv dedicated to families affected by an unaccompanied tour, only two in five belonged. We hope that since participat- ing in the survey they will now join this group, and that readers of this article who are dealing with an unaccom- panied tour will, too. (To maintain the privacy of mem- bers, the listserv, HomeFrontUS, is by invitation only — to sign up see the program specialist in FLO, whose con- tact information is on p. 32.) The vast majority of both employees and family mem- bers report that communicating with family and friends occupies the lion’s share of whatever leisure time they have. Other popular pursuits were reading for pleasure, watching TV or movies, exercising and socializing. Money and Morale Perceptions varied when the subject was money. Among those currently serving on an unaccompanied tour, a slight majority felt that the regulations and allowances were adequate for their needs. However, those who served in the past did not rate the regulations and allowances quite as positively. This may reflect some changes in recent years, such as the 18-percent increase in the involuntary separate maintenance allowance and the granting of 10 days of home leave after a 12-month, high-risk tour. Family members, on the other hand, were less satis- fied: only 28 percent felt the regulations and allowances were adequate. A persistent misconception held by many employees and family members is that the family should be able to subsist wholly on the ISMA, without recourse to the regular salary of the State employee. The most distressed family members were those who were or had been at an alternate foreign location during the unac- companied tour. Those who were living “on the econo- F O C U S M A Y 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29