Writing your own evaluation (NCOER/OER)? Is it really THAT bad?

I review all of my bullets before my NCOER gets sent off to the senior rater. I want to make sure all of my accomplishments are annotated properly, grammar is correct, etc. You can sit back and take a hands off approach if you want to, but don't come back crying about how poorly your NCOER was written after the fact.

I think keeping a running record of what happens in your rating period helps the rater and the rated NCO or Officer to better capture an honest picture of what truly happened. I do this for myself because nobody else is going to be my best advocate except for myself. Plus, I think it shows your rater that you really care about what goes on your OER/NCOER.

I've actually found writing one's own NCOER a useful tool in comparing what YOU think you did vs what your Cdr thinks you did.  I've used this tool a couple times on my subordinates and found they're harder on themselves than I would have been (I'm the bark, but I will bite to keep people honest). 

I don't mind writing mine at all! Like CW2 Evans said in his comments, you might not even WANT your rater to do it. I've had raters who misspell everything and used street lingo. I've also had raters who didn't counsel me throughout the year and left stuff off the NCOER that I wanted on there. I wouldn't worry about the integrity check as much as I would the "Look in the Mirror" check. If you can't write your own evaluation and justify a 1/1 "Among the Best", then you might have some other issues to address!

Relax and roll with it. It can be one of the best advantages you get.

Get input from peers, ask your rater for a few of his, etc to put together ideas. Get with  the PSG or 1SG after your rough draft. Go to sites like NCOER.com for the word smithing. The integrity check is there since your rater still has to sign it and will call BS and make you rewrite if he disagrees with something.

Lets face it, you may not want him writing it... not everyone has a talent with words and if he's lazy enough to tell you to do it, he isn't going to put the effort into a good one if you insist.

If your Rater and Senior rater sign it, its fair.

I got tired of my rater waiting until the day prior to it being due, then throwing something together with crap bullets. So I started giving my rate reminders of upcoming NCOERs... With no change. So I started scheduling hard times for NCO counselings and NCOER reviews... Which were ALL blown off or "rescheduled.". So I started just writing my own and giving it to my rater for review and tweak. I literally could not get my rater (and this was over a period of 5 years and 7 raters) to give a flying @$(# about my NCOER. I had mostly excellences, all 1/2 or 2/1, with two 1/1s. But the bullets were CRAP. Rater, senior rater, 1SG didn't care. So I started "helping" my rater by doing his job for him. Usually they tweaked significantly, but used the same basic bullets. A couple literally changed nothing. One changed almost everything - that was the one and only rater I have EVER had actually do quarterly counseling. 16 years as an NCO, one rater counseled me. There is your answer right there.

I think the evals should be collaborative. You provide a shell, what you think is needed. Let the rater edit and submit to higher. In addition to your points it gives you a chance to learn to right the evals on a person you know best and who you'll make sure gets a good/fair shake - yourself. It'll make it easier to complete the evals of your juniors later.

I personally feel that if I have to write my own evaluation then the rater is derelict in their duties. 90% of the time the rater and senior rater are officers who are supposed to be educated and therefore should be able to write a grammatically correct eval. In the off chance that they are not then yes, I feel it's my duty to assist in that area. If they forgot to mention key events that would improve the rating then I should also assist, but that also shows me that they failed to track my performance.
Nothing is more irritating to me than to hear a rater ask someone " what have you done"? It is our duty to track things, rough copy or draft, make notes so that come eval time we have the meat and potatoes.
How many NCO's have signed a falsified document? You know the NCOER with BS quarterly counseling dates that were never performed? That alone goes to the integrity of both rater and rated and puts the reviewer in question also for failing to verify as they are supposed to do.
Perhaps my desire to do things by the book and not be a "yes man" has prevented me from moving up as fast as others but in the end I will still have my integrity and I'm good with that.

I personally feel that if I have to write my own evaluation then the rater is derelict in their duties. 90% of the time the rater and senior rater are officers who are supposed to be educated and therefore should be able to write a grammatically correct eval. In the off chance that they are not then yes, I feel it's my duty to assist in that area. If they forgot to mention key events that would improve the rating then I should also assist, but that also shows me that they failed to track my performance.
Nothing is more irritating to me than to hear a rater ask someone " what have you done"? It is our duty to track things, rough copy or draft, make notes so that come eval time we have the meat and potatoes.
How many NCO's have signed a falsified document? You know the NCOER with BS quarterly counseling dates that were never performed? That alone goes to the integrity of both rater and rated and puts the reviewer in question also for failing to verify as they are supposed to do.
Perhaps my desire to do things by the book and not be a "yes man" has prevented me from moving up as fast as others but in the end I will still have my integrity and I'm good with that.

What? Never... I hated it, because I would never give myself due credit...

MSgt Quick,

I see you are currently stationed at Ft Bliss Tx. That was my last duty station before leaving the Army in Jan 2001. I was assigned to D Battery, 2-43, 108th BDE, HQ Plt. Worked as a 63B in the motorpool.

You know, in my personal experience as an enlisted leader, Army and Air Force, enlisted evaluation reports are a pain to complete no matter how well in advance you have started or how well you may feel you have written them. Whether the evaluation is yours or your subordinates there are people within your chain that are involved in reviewing them that will feel compelled to make some kind of recommendation before the evaluation is finally put to bed.

I don't recall if the Army was this way so please correct me if I wrong, however, in the Air Force it was against regulations to write your own EPR. It was however, a "rule of thumb" that you do and for the very reasons you stated. Busy, busy, busy. So, who better to efficiently write about all the outstanding things you have done for God and country.

In the Air FOrce, you could "contribute" and shoot your list of "at a boys"/bullets but the odds of everyone in your chain having the same writing style as you are slim to none and would for the most part ensue a back and forth match between raters until everyone but the supervisor it seemed we re happy with the outcome. :) Of course, I am speaking about my experience. Some other folks may have had the fortunate experience to only have to resubmit once due to some grammar error if that. Thoughts?

In a word, NO. But, if it is not going to happen, and or if your rater cannot spell or put together one coherent sentence, you will be better off writing your own. Remember, he or she is your rater, not the other way around. Otherwise, you could give them a needs improvement on "Competence".

Yep, doesn't everybody? No I get you point SFC Matthew B. and yes it is unfortunate but there are plenty of reasons and excuses. I worked in a very specialized field and while I worked with my fellow CTs I may have been the only CTO so who better to know exactly what I do. How could my CTA (Admin) really write my MSA for 21 years of service when he had only been with me the last 3 years before I retired, of course I had to put the meat in it but I think you have a very valid point that leaders should be more aware of what their troops do and have the Administrative Skills to present it well on Paper.

I have been actively involved with my NCOER since becoming an NCO. I didn't do much other than provide information in what I had accomplished In the past year. I help with formatting and it's been a joint effort between my rater, and myself. But I have also drafted a rough working copy and provided it to my rater to help then recall what had transpired throughout the year. I will admit that if support forms were used like they should be, and quarterly counselings were done like they should be, this wouldn't be necessary.

I refuse to write my own awards. I don't feel right about it. I've been told to several times, but never have. Might explain why I don't have bookoos of awards.... But the ones I have mean a lot because the person who submitted them felt I was deserving.

More times than I can count.

Yes for the E4 Eval and NCOER, and surprisingly for my entire 9 years of service I've never been recommended for an award either. Majority of the NCOs I ever had were beyond lazy and never even bothered to write up supporting documentation in order to supplement to get one. I try and keep track of all the over the top stuff I do, but every time I bring it up to my section leader, he just blows it off. Being your own advocate on this stuff doesn't always seem to work, even if you do the work for them. And since I am on permanent profile for a severe injury, I can't get points in PT for promotion. And I would rather see if I can supplement some points with awards in order to be able to compete with everyone else. So far my career is stagnant due to the above issues.

I wrote every single NCOER and gave them to my rater for input. &nbsp;There was some back and forth but basically my words were the ones that created the base. &nbsp;You should be actively involved in your NCOER, it's your career after-all. &nbsp;You should also provide suggested senior rater comments in the email. &nbsp;<div><br></div><div>As far as awards - no. &nbsp;</div>

Sorry... what is NCOER?