FA+
Shop
Major Air Force Overhaul
12 years ago
So. As some of you may or may not know, based on how well information is disseminated within your unit, there are major changes coming down the pipeline regarding promotions and EPRs.
Anybody that has been in more than a year can attest to the fact that the Enlisted Performance Report system is stupidly inflated where best of the best has become the norm and you have to be a fuck-up to get an average rating. Not to mention supervisors seem to have this inability to give out less than 5s because they don't want to the the bad guy or whatever.
Well. Once again the AF is working to correct this jacked up system. Setting percentage limits on ratings (Only the top 5% in any unit will 5s, top 20% get 4s, and everyone else gets 3s, etc). Supposedly this will fix the inflated system my making 3 the average standard rather than 5 being the average standard. How this all plays out remains to be seen. You can change a policy overnight but you can't change a mindset. To those of us that have been in 7+ years or so, a 3 will still be looked at as a negative because we're so accustomed to anything less than 5 being a fuck up. Supposedly there will also be nothing but work as the emphasis and none of this extracurricular shit that's been cluttering up page 1 of the report.
Promotion testing is also changing. First off the dock will be Boards for Master. I always wondered why they didn't have this before since its a SNCO position and thus should require a board on top of your test scores. It will go into affect on the 2015 cycle so if you're in a position to make Master, I'd suggest you do it now if you don't want to face a board. Consequently, this could also fuck people over if the person writing your board package sucks dicks at writing. But of course no system is perfect and we'll just have to make do as is.
Another key change is the removal of points for time in grade/time in service. Now the scores will be based entirely on how well you study and know your shit. So if you've been trying to make rank for 5 or 6 cycles and you're hoping time and experience alone will get you in, no longer going to work. You'll actually have to crack a PDG and get to work.
I do see this upsetting some folks. I also see this as a force shaping method designed to weed out the force even more and restrict people from getting promoted that do not deserve it. But we'll see how this all plays out.
As with all things, we just have to grin and bear it, shut up and color, and press on. Same goes for the Govt shut down. You might not get paid on the 15th if the Govt doesn't get its shit together and approve a budget. I've heard rumors that USAA will pay their customers regardless but I haven't confirmed that yet. Either way, be on your toes and be conscious of what's going on around you. If you think not getting paid will fuck your world up financially, consider the Aid Society. If your command hasn't put out helpful links and tips yet, get on their asses.
So that's the updates for now. More to come as any information develops.
~The NCOIC
Anybody that has been in more than a year can attest to the fact that the Enlisted Performance Report system is stupidly inflated where best of the best has become the norm and you have to be a fuck-up to get an average rating. Not to mention supervisors seem to have this inability to give out less than 5s because they don't want to the the bad guy or whatever.
Well. Once again the AF is working to correct this jacked up system. Setting percentage limits on ratings (Only the top 5% in any unit will 5s, top 20% get 4s, and everyone else gets 3s, etc). Supposedly this will fix the inflated system my making 3 the average standard rather than 5 being the average standard. How this all plays out remains to be seen. You can change a policy overnight but you can't change a mindset. To those of us that have been in 7+ years or so, a 3 will still be looked at as a negative because we're so accustomed to anything less than 5 being a fuck up. Supposedly there will also be nothing but work as the emphasis and none of this extracurricular shit that's been cluttering up page 1 of the report.
Promotion testing is also changing. First off the dock will be Boards for Master. I always wondered why they didn't have this before since its a SNCO position and thus should require a board on top of your test scores. It will go into affect on the 2015 cycle so if you're in a position to make Master, I'd suggest you do it now if you don't want to face a board. Consequently, this could also fuck people over if the person writing your board package sucks dicks at writing. But of course no system is perfect and we'll just have to make do as is.
Another key change is the removal of points for time in grade/time in service. Now the scores will be based entirely on how well you study and know your shit. So if you've been trying to make rank for 5 or 6 cycles and you're hoping time and experience alone will get you in, no longer going to work. You'll actually have to crack a PDG and get to work.
I do see this upsetting some folks. I also see this as a force shaping method designed to weed out the force even more and restrict people from getting promoted that do not deserve it. But we'll see how this all plays out.
As with all things, we just have to grin and bear it, shut up and color, and press on. Same goes for the Govt shut down. You might not get paid on the 15th if the Govt doesn't get its shit together and approve a budget. I've heard rumors that USAA will pay their customers regardless but I haven't confirmed that yet. Either way, be on your toes and be conscious of what's going on around you. If you think not getting paid will fuck your world up financially, consider the Aid Society. If your command hasn't put out helpful links and tips yet, get on their asses.
So that's the updates for now. More to come as any information develops.
~The NCOIC
It's an overhaul of the performance reporting system for those already on active duty.
Best of luck, and thank you for choosing to serve.
But that happens any time anybody changes anything about anything anywhere.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p.....edItNowItSucks
But thanks :)
The system wont be perfect. But its up to us to make it the best way possible.
If you have your payments direct deposited into any of the Govt Federal Credit Unions (USAA, Navy Federal, etc), you will still get your money on the 15th. These banks will provide account holders with a zero interest advance loan to cover your income and in the event of a shutdown where you get back pay, once the government does pay you, these banks will go back in and take back the money they forwarded, so its a 1 for 1 swap. You will get paid, so that is no worry. They are also being flexible with debt collection, etc.
Anybody else...not sure how it's going to work for you. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Certain groups will become exempt from poor ratings because their social status will require their praise. I saw this a lot in the last five years, particularly in the treatment of white women. It's no secret that women are treated differently than men, MUCH more favorably in most cases. But when I did the last quarter of my enlistment in the legal office it was so obvious that it was simply disgusting.
For instance: in the Spring of 2008, I processed a discharge for a black male who was openly hostile, a screw-up, didn't even bother with his job and made a fool out of his co-workers. He was getting into trouble so often that I gave the shirt a cutoff of 1600 on Thursday, since we already had enough to boot him and each new LOR/LOC/15 was just extending the process. He was booted in ten days (counting three days each for rebuttals, etc.)
Immediately after that, a white female who was openly hostile, a screw-up, didn't bother to do her job and made fools of her co-workers. I gave the shirt a 1600 Thursday cutoff and began processing her discharge just like the black male. Then suddenly it got pulled and put on hold. Turns out the white woman already had a discharge action against her the previous year, and had been on probation & rehabilitation (P&R) when she started to mess up again. Legally, they should have booted her long before her discharge package landed on my desk. But they kept giving her chance after chance. By the Fall of 2008, she was still in and I'd moved to a different part of the office. My successor tried to push her discharge, but the SJA wouldn't let it go forward. More chances. More paperwork. At least two more 15s (that I remember). By the end of 2008, she was up for medical review board because the stress of being constantly threatened with discharge was affecting her mental health. More LORs, more LOCs, and she openly threatened to kill her shirt outside a courthouse. More LORs, more LOCs, until in the middle of 2009 she was finally, medically retired & is now sucking down a government check for life.
And that's just one example. I learned quickly that women in general and white women in particular enjoyed a level of coddling hard to believe. And they're not subtle about it; the paper trail I began to amass on the prejudice got quite large before official documents started disappearing from file cabinets, and records began changing numbers to hide the pattern.
I have no reason to believe this is not continuing, and will forever continue.
a) That’s not true (I provide physical evidence that it is).
b) Okay, but it only happened once (I prove that it happened several times).
c) But those are all ancient history (then it happened right in front of ‘em).
d) Why are you causing all this trouble with your complaints?
e) We all need to recognize that nobody is innocent here, look for peace, common ground, and healing. Now let's go back to what we were doing before and pretend this didn't happen.
It happens. I get it. People slip through, the system isn't perfect and it never will be 100% fool proof. Most swingin dick NCOs out there are afraid to get their hands dirty, don't want to deal with an MEO complaint or any of that shit so they shuffle the fuck ups around that keep cluttering up my Air Force. It always happens. It happens in every branch of service.
I'm not saying this new system will fix it any more than anything else has before. I give them A for effort but time will tell and it, in the long run, will probably be the same. We try our best to make it the best service we can. Doesn't always work out that way, but there are those of us out there that TRY to make it right. I'm just reporting the change and hoping for the best.
Having said all that, I'm extremely pessimistic that this will accomplish anything. But its the system we're being given and it's my job to make it work to the best of my ability. Won't be perfect, but nothing ever is.
It's good to see maybe some sense might be being injected into the process.