Quoted:
About 15 years ago, the Army implemented a system that sought to diminish the prevalence of bloated evaluation reports. Senior raters, who didn't have the balls to tell any of their subordinates to do a better job, gave everybody "Top Block" or "Above Center Mass" ratings...so OERs became nearly meaningless.
Now, the senior rater has a "profile" in which he can only give the top 50% of his officers a Top Block. This has led to some seriously jacked up promotion and other results.
When an officer's promotion consideration packet goes before a board of ~10 to 15 officers, they have about 1 minute per file to assess the officer in relation to his peers. So, what that means is, they look at the "Above center mass" and "center mass" ratings, make a note, and then move on. They just don't have time to read the rater or senior rater comments.
Which brings us to today. My senior rater's comments about my performance begin with "One of the top officers I rate...". These words usually indicate that the rated officer is well above his peers, or easily within the top 50%.
But, because he can't manage his profile, all the top blocks are already spoken for. So, despite his glowing comments about my performance, I get a measly "Center of Mass" rating.
Anybody have a copy of the Riot Act handy?
I hear you on this. But the boards do have time to read comments, normally the first and last lines of the SR comments.
If you are going to get an COM OER, which is not a bad thing, then look for enumeration. Numbers mean things. "one of my top officers..." does not read as well as "in the top 20% of officers I rate...", something like that. If there are not "good" numbers in your write up, ask for them.
The boards knows what his profile looks like––heck you can see it once your OER posts. I went through that with a SR that I was his first OER he SR'ed. So I got a COM, otherwise it would have been inflated. But he wrote it as a ACOM, which does help.
One last thing to remember. Just like the old OER system was inflated, so are officer's expectations to a degree. A COM OER is that––you are doing well, meeting expectations, and are an asset to retain. We have gotten to the point where the ACOM is an "expectation", and anything less than that is unsatisfactory.
Now I do not condone mediocrity in the officer corps, but the rating systems exists for a reason, and when it is done correctly, works. However, it is not always done as it should be, and hard working, deserving officers fall through the cracks.
Keep your chin up, work hard, and ride it out. There will be more OERs coming, and you will be just fine.
I hope that helps.
BP