If someone in today's military receives a less than stellar (i.e. referred) evaluation report, is their career effectively over?

2015-12-19T22:17:35-05:00

Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Dec 19 at 2015 10:21 PM

2015-12-19T22:21:55-05:00

MAJ Rene De La Rosa I believe it's over and a 50/50 chance, you will get by-passed and sacked in due time.

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Dec 19 at 2015 10:59 PM

2015-12-19T22:59:58-05:00

Wow. How to approach this?

In theory, we're not going to see someone get "A" (singular) one if that makes sense. At least not in the way that I think you mean. Everyone is so conscious of the idea that written evals need to show progress that theoretically it's not feasible to have "one." It's far more likely to have a couple "mediocre" or "average" reports consecutively than to get slammed with a singular bad report out of the blue.

It goes back to the Peter Principle, where individuals are promoted to their level of incompetence. Take someone who is a GOOD or even GREAT Supervisor or Junior Manager and promote them to Senior Manager and watch them flail. They get pulled from the minors into the majors, and they just can't be successful. With the "up or out" philosophy/structure, it can be considered "career halting" (as opposed to ending).

That doesn't mean there aren't options, but those options may not align with the original career plan. It may mean Reserve/Guard instead of Active Duty. It may mean a different specialty track if there are limited slots.

When we are talking "less than stellar" we get into really Subjective territory, because we KNOW evaluation "inflation" exists. All branches have it. Every few years we do things to re-baseline it, but that's a stop-gap measure.

It comes down to the "thirds" of Top "third" (Good), middle third (Average), and bottom third (Below Average). You always want to be the #1 guy. Always. But Top third is best, and NOT bottom third ever on any category if you can avoid it.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 20 at 2015 2:24 AM

2015-12-20T02:24:45-05:00

On the enlisted side, this would qualify for a QMP review, but depends on the alibi that the Soldier presents. From what I'm hearing from Junior Officers, this will put you in the same boat.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 20 at 2015 2:31 AM

2015-12-20T02:31:49-05:00

The answer is... depends.
If you are an E-7 and up and get a Marginal or 4/4 or below, you will face a QMP board. Not a death sentence, but not where you want to be.
For an officer, it matters where they are in relation to getting looked at for a board. If it immediately precedes one, you're in trouble. If you have a couple of rating periods in between, you have a good chance to recover.

Response by MAJ Bryan Zeski made Dec 20 at 2015 4:58 AM

2015-12-20T04:58:17-05:00

A referred report is far from "less than stellar." A referred report is below the standard - and these days, that's 99% of the time going to end you.

Response by COL Sam Russell made Dec 20 at 2015 5:57 AM

2015-12-20T05:57:27-05:00

"Less than stellar" I would say is the norm for OERs, if you know how to read them. Most officers don't. Given that, than the answer is clearly, "no," as the majority of officers are promoted at every level up to LTC, that is promotion rates through LTC are above 50% of the in zone officers. If the question were reworded to say "adverse" rather than "less than stellar" then the answer would likely be "Yes" in this era of drawdowns, with lower than average promotion rates and officer separation boards. During an expansion like the Iraq surge, than even adverse OERs have little effect.

As an assignment officer at PERSCOM in the 90s, one of my tasks was to write a formal memo to any officer that received an adverse OER to ensure that officer was aware that the negative evaluation could/would have a negative impact on their career. Often these officers had no idea they had even received an adverse OER, which indicates they were either in denial, completely clueless, or their rating chain lacked the intestinal fortitude to look the officer in the eye and tell him/her that their substandard performance was reflected in a substandard evaluation.

My guess is that we are nearing the bottom of the drawdown as promotion rates are beginning to level off to normal peace time averages, which means we'll get back to an era where officers can in some cases survive even an adverse OER.

Response by MSgt Alex Taylor made Dec 22 at 2015 7:54 PM

2015-12-22T19:54:36-05:00

As an Air Force enlisted member, I would say no, as long as your Enlisted Performance Report (EPR) is not going to be seen by the MSgt or above board. I have received a referral for a joke gone wrong, and still managed to make it to the SNCO tier. That said, until that EPR doesn't show up at my future boards, it's harder to make a good impression, but still possible to succeed. The days of having Article 15s and making the top grade are pretty much gone though.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 23 at 2015 9:11 AM

2015-12-23T09:11:27-05:00

A "less than stellar" is a COM. I've had COMs and ACOMs and made a 60% pick up. A "referred" is a substandard, and is usually a career ender, and rightfully so.

Response by COL Robert Davies made Dec 23 at 2015 11:15 AM

2015-12-23T11:15:24-05:00

No, not necessarily.

My personal been there done that. I was a MAJ at INSCOM. I got a referred OER. Investigated ALL the inconsistencies and won. I retired 15 years later as an O-6. Because I gained a TS while at INSCOM I was called back post-9/11 and stayed 9+ years.

My feeling was you have nothing to loose by taking the gloves off and fighting for your life and career. I have also helped others fight referred OERs.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 23 at 2015 1:04 PM

2015-12-23T13:04:42-05:00

Referred reports are very close to irrecoverable.

Response by MAJ Hugh Blanchard made Dec 23 at 2015 3:24 PM

2015-12-23T15:24:40-05:00

I'm afraid we're returning to a "zero defects" mentality that happened when we slashed the Army after the alleged end of the Cold War. In a massive draw-down environment, the Army will use any perceived reason to dump people with any bad marks on their record.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 29 at 2015 10:00 AM

2015-12-29T10:00:17-05:00

As most have said its 50/50. I think if an officer works hard to remove that on eval they should be allowed to stay in. It's like the nco that recieves a needs improve. After five evals and continued improvement they can get promoted. Probably not to the level without that type of eval but not career ending.

Response by Maj Mike Sciales made Jun 2 at 2016 11:52 AM

2016-06-02T11:52:06-04:00

I never courts-martialed a single troop with less than firewall 5's. Always the best because anybody else was separated during drawdowns.

Response by Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen made Apr 17 at 2017 4:19 PM

2017-04-17T16:19:59-04:00

Some of the responses surprise me. In my time a referred evaluation report was a death knell and everyone knew it. Apparently times have changed if there is even a remote possibility now of recovering from one. Actually, if true, I think this is a good change. Everyone can have a bad experience, so being able to recover and continue a military career seems more realistic IMO.