One thing I’ve always wondered about, not working in a sector that employs many reservists, is how companies deal with the loss of an employee when they’re called up for something like the Iraq War. More importantly, how do they deal with the return of said soldiers who historically have had short deployments. Phillip Cart of Intel Dump takes a look at recent AP reports and government statistics showing problems faced by reservists when they return home. While complaints are up overall, the rate of complaints is down from 1 in 54 during the first Gulf War to 1 in 69 in the Iraq War.

It’s unclear to me whether there might be other factors at work in the lower numbers. I don’t know whether more reserve and national guard units are active right now versus the first Gulf War. I also wonder how many units either haven’t returned yet or have already been reactivated:

“I don’t fault them for that and I don’t hold grudges,” said Chambers. He was among the lucky ones, finding employment with his Reserve unit, the 1013th Quartermaster Company, based in North Platte and McCook, Neb. His unit has been mobilized anew, and he is again on active duty.

I hope this isn’t a problem, but I do wonder what an employer does to mitigate the loss of an employee temporarily. It’s like maternity leave, I guess, but much longer and the employee may not be able to return at all or with the ability to perform the job he or she left behind (as in the case of the police officer in the story).