Can I let Soldiers go to the gym during Duty Hours?

You can autho­rize your Soldiers to go the gym as long as it does not vio­late any orders you have been given by your supe­ri­ors. If you allow a Soldier to go to the gym because your mis­sion is com­plete, that is your call.

It is impor­tant to under­stand that you are respon­si­ble for your decisions. If a supe­rior wants to know where some­one is and you tell them you sent them to the gym, be pre­pared for their response. It could be okay or it could be a sig­nif­i­cant emo­tional event. Either way, you made the call, you keep the respon­si­bil­ity. If you want to be proac­tive (and I sug­gest you do), con­tact your super­vi­sor prior to mak­ing your deci­sion on the gym trip.

You should also be pre­pared to tie up loose ends within your squad. If you have other Soldiers who do not want to go to the gym, what will you tell them when they ask to go down­town for a few hours or close up shop early and head home for the night? How will you han­dle their request?

My rec­om­men­da­tion would be to have hip-pocket train­ing sched­uled and use this time to train Soldiers on skills they need prac­tice on. With that stated there may be a time when it would be appro­pri­ate to give a Soldier some down­time as a reward for a job-well-done. Just make sure your Soldiers under­stand it is impor­tant to stay out of trou­ble. Soldiers with time on their hands have been known to make poor decisions.