Air University Review, September-October 1976

I am a Three

or how I learned to stop worrying 
and love the new OER System

I am a three. I had never thought that way I before--not until I got the copy of my latest Officer Efficiency Report.

How many times had I made that trip to the Personnel Officer Records Section? At least once for each of my 14 years in the Air Force. As a major who had gained a good reputation in my career field, I had a string of OER’s to be proud of. A couple times I had hopes of a secondary zone promotion. Most of my Xs were on the far right side.

I should have known when the sergeant who brought me my records avoided looking me in the eye. That had never happened before.

A three! I had plummeted from excellent to average in one year. I was doing the same job--better--for the same people who had said I was wonderful last report under the previous OER system.

The Personnel people had been briefing us for a long time that the new system meant business. Everyone knew that the old system was inflated. We excellent types knew there were average officers disguised with excellent OER's from raters who couldn't bring themselves to tell them what they were really worth.

But me? How could Wonderful Me get the shaft?

I accepted my fate stoically. I don't suppose I thought about it more than every five minutes for the next week or so.

I didn't discuss it with anyone except my wife, my rater, my reviewer, my Personnel people, the major command chief of my career field, and my immediate coworkers.

I have not told my kids. After holding my OER's up to them as an example of Daddy's report card, I haven't figured out how to explain Daddy isn't so hot after all.

As one of the most experienced and--so I have been told-- successful people in my career field, I can't describe my feelings at having a worse performance report than any of the 12 people who work for me.

We all know the rating systems are different for civilians, enlisted personnel, and officers, but that is not much consolation. It sounds awfully much like an excuse.

All of us also know that the strict new OER system is not the most severe in the world. What are ten Air Force offices-- limited to two One ratings, three Twos, and live Threes--compared to ten people in a lifeboat when the food runs out?

Just about everyone I bled on said what I expected to hear. My rater had only four officers to rate so he could not very well give more than a single One rating, and he and I both knew it belonged to this other really swell guy.

My reviewer had the impossible chore of ranking ten officers in such specialties as commander, services, information, logistics, operations, safety, security police, and several others.

When talking with my rater and reviewer, I assured them I understood that the Ones had to be the base and wing commanders of tomorrow, that the Twos had to be in the primary support areas of logistics, engineering, and the like, and that the Threes were for the soft-core areas like personnel, information, and others.

Neither rater nor reviewer would buy that. They said the usual things about tough system, hard choices, tight competition, overall record, potential, responsibilities, and hard work. Both spared me the single searing conclusion: "You are not as good as these other officers."

Maybe they don't think that. I'll never know. They are good commanders who said that they and many other people also were not rated up to their expectations by their raters and reviewers.

There is one difference: they are colonels near retirement. With my new rating, I'll be lucky to ever get silver leaves.

The Personnel people say, "No, that's not necessarily true. Promotion boards will continue to consider the whole man." I hope so.

One thing the previous system had was illusion. Many of us really did believe we could win eagles. A few hopeless cases even believed in stars.

Whatever the reality, the inflatable OER system let local commanders sustain their officers' dreams. Particularly when they had any doubt about which square deserved the X. An anonymous "they" was the cause of promotion failures.

Now local reviewers must make the rankings. Now local people have a local face to match with that lost promotion. More accurately, local people may think they have a scapegoat, but still only the promotion boards will know what ultimately happens in their sessions.

Unable to accept my Three without better perspective, I talked with people at the major command level of my career field. I learned that some of my headquarters contemporaries, in less demanding jobs than running a base shop like mine, surpassed me in their ratings. (It was not easy to congratulate them convincingly.)

That is not surprising, however, when you think about it. Who best appreciates the achievements of a particular career field: the leaders of that career field or the base-level reviewers and raters who must judge many diverse jobs?

My biggest surprise came through the grapevine, which has almost completed piecing together who got what in the ten officers of my group. I correctly guessed the identity of only one of the two Ones. I am not sure who got the third Two, but I missed on one of the other Twos. And I thought one of my fellow Threes was a top contender for the One spot I sort of expected.

This same trauma is occurring for just about half the officers in the entire United States Air Force. Like me, most of them will be doing great if they can guess even half the winners in their peer groups.

Faced with this newly delegated power, the raters--particularly the reviewers--probably won't ever be able to totally articulate their reasons for making the rankings they do. At first I thought that certain career fields had an edge, but I learned that was wrong. Then I thought that being in a so-called soft-core support field was a handicap, but that was wrong, too.

Can it be that how each officer fares depends essentially on how well his rater and reviewer like him? It could be, if you define "like" in a broader context than friendship. It could be the same kind of "like" that determines at the track which horse you put your money on.

It may be a reward for past performance; it may be an inducement for future achievement; it certainly embraces both merit and potential. "Like" depends a lot on how much you know about your horse. It also depends a great deal on what you don't know about him. Ultimately it may simply be that gut intuition that triggers the yes or no decision in time of stress.

So there is little use trying to psych the competition. The problem is within each of us. Mine may be keeping too much of my work to myself. I take the absolute minimum of my rater's and reviewer's time, figuring they can better use their time to help people who need them more than I do. I think in the future I will include them in more things I am doing.

But what do I do now? There's no sense in pretending I didn't consider many alternatives, not all of them mature:

--I'll switch career fields.

--I'll resign.

--I'll transfer to another base or job where I am appreciated.

--I'll relax and show them what a real Three job looks like!

It didn't take long to conclude that those possibilities were stupid. Because the overriding facts are that I like the Air Force and I like my job. I believe the Air Force is vital to the United States, that it has demonstrated good management and genuine concern for its people. Certainly it has given me every opportunity to excel in my profession.

Knowing what I know now and realizing that I may get only Threes from here out no matter how well I perform, would I again sign up for the blue suit? Yes, I would. And I think after the dust settles, if the promotion system keeps the faith with those of us in the multitude of Threes, then most Threes probably will feel the same way.

True, only a few officers may be Number One. And the fortunate Twos may try harder. But, remember, Good Things come in Threes. The Ones and Twos also have their problems. Not the least of which is that, if they pause to look back, they just might find a whole bunch of Good Things gaining on them!