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More SJAR Questions

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Max Reheat

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I've seen quite a few SJARs recently including ones I've had to write myself that seem a little over assessed in the recommendations catagory. Would it harm an individuals promotion chances to drop him/her from an exceptional to a high and give them a better write up with more substance and examples in it, giving it a truer reflection on performance rather than lots of fancy phrases?

Exceptional seems to be standard round here, at my last unit the JEngOs were very thourough on who should and shouldn't be awarded one.
 
Max Reheat said:
I've seen quite a few SJARs recently including ones I've had to write myself that seem a little over assessed in the recommendations catagory. Would it harm an individuals promotion chances to drop him/her from an exceptional to a high and give them a better write up with more substance and examples in it, giving it a truer reflection on performance rather than lots of fancy phrases?

Exceptional seems to be standard round here, at my last unit the JEngOs were very thourough on who should and shouldn't be awarded one.
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I would say no, providing there was an improvment in the write up.
 
Having sat on a Prom Board fairly recently I would definitely say that a strong narrative with plenty of examples and extra cirricular activities is far more important than the prom rec itself. In most instances I barely looked at the prom rec and based the decision on the narratives alone. A prom rec is a subjective opininon based on a guideline and will vary from RO to RO. Strong narrative everytime.
 
Humble Scribe said:
Having sat on a Prom Board fairly recently I would definitely say that a strong narrative with plenty of examples and extra cirricular activities is far more important than the prom rec itself. In most instances I barely looked at the prom rec and based the decision on the narratives alone. A prom rec is a subjective opininon based on a guideline and will vary from RO to RO. Strong narrative everytime.
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I understand that but would there be any negative repercussions dropping somebody from an exceptional to a high? I may be wrong on this but exceptionals have to be looked at by the board where as high doesn't???
 
Surely it depends where the individual is pre-boarded? If they're an A, they will be read. A percentage of Bs are also read.

Whether the pre-boarders treat an Exceptional as an automatic A is a scribbly question...

Thought for the day, though... if recommendations are not used by the board or the pre-boarders... why have them...?:PDT_Xtremez_41:
 
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Dilbert said:
Surely it depends where the individual is pre-boarded? If they're an A, they will be read. A percentage of Bs are also read.

Whether the pre-boarders treat an Exceptional as an automatic A is a scribbly question...

Thought for the day, though... if recommendations are not used by the board or the pre-boarders... why have them...?:PDT_Xtremez_41:
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There are non-scribblys also doing pre-boarding, there was a RAFP and Stacker on the team when I was there.
 
Sospan said:
There are non-scribblys also doing pre-boarding, there was a RAFP and Stacker on the team when I was there.
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Really?!

We had a brief from CAOS Gapping about SJARS a few months ago; they're reinstigating a training regime for SJAR biffs like me....

He gave the impression that there was a team of 8 scribblies who are repsonsible for pre-boarding... or maybe I just read that into his comments.

Interesting... :PDT_Xtremez_42:
 
Originally posted by MaxReheat
HTML: 
Would it harm an individuals promotion chances to drop him/her from an exceptional to a high and give them a better write up with more substance and examples in it, giving it a truer reflection on performance rather than lots of fancy phrases?

I don't understand this comment. Surely you should give them the write up that they deserve and have earned. I read from your comments that you are awarding marks based on your perception of what you think is needed to get the individual promoted. No wonder there is assessment creep!
 
Shiney Scot said:
I don't understand this comment. Surely you should give them the write up that they deserve and have earned. I read from your comments that you are awarding marks based on your perception of what you think is needed to get the individual promoted. No wonder there is assessment creep!
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No, this is the first year I've been doing SJARs at this unit and there seems to be a large amount of exceptionals floating around which don't seem to be backed up by the write ups. The criterea for an exceptional at my old unit was a lot tougher, high profile seconday duties, charity work, OOA's etc. I'm asking if I dropped somebody to a more realistic grading and gave them a proper write up if it would affect their promotion chances.
 
I can see your dilemma, he has top end previous assesments (possibly over assessed) but nothing to back them up? I would drop him to a High and give a decent write up that reflects the grade. IMHO its better to get a good written High rec than a poorly written spec that lacks examples.

I dropped one lad this year who had a exceptional from a previous unit to a high, he still made an A grade pre board, along with 2 others on high rec's. Another I dropped from spec to high and he made No1 on the board. As mentioned above its the write up thats important.
 
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Dilbert said:
Really?!

He gave the impression that there was a team of 8 scribblies who are repsonsible for pre-boarding... or maybe I just read that into his comments.

Interesting... :PDT_Xtremez_42:
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I know for a fact that there are non-scribblies on the pre boarding teams.
 
ady eflog said:
I can see your dilemma, he has top end previous assesments (possibly over assessed) but nothing to back them up? I would drop him to a High and give a decent write up that reflects the grade. IMHO its better to get a good written High rec than a poorly written spec that lacks examples.

I dropped one lad this year who had a exceptional from a previous unit to a high, he still made an A grade pre board, along with 2 others on high rec's. Another I dropped from spec to high and he made No1 on the board. As mentioned above its the write up thats important.
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Perfect, thats the kind of answer/example I was looking for
 
If he has a problem accepting your assessment because someone has blown smoke up his arse previously, hopefully you've given him a mid term with some goals/advice, things he needs to tweak to improve himself. Failing that, for example tell him he needs to be doing extra duties, sport, community work, charity, etc...to get an exceptional. Your doing the right thing by him.
 
Mid terms, hmmm. Another thing missing here. We get told who we will be writing just before they are due.
 
I don't know why most people don't bother with 6 monthlies. The way I see it is you are covering your own arse if someone turns round and demands a better assessment because, to be fair, they haven't been informed of what they could be doing better at their 6 month point!!
 
PTR Hoar said:
I don't know why most people don't bother with 6 monthlies. The way I see it is you are covering your own arse if someone turns round and demands a better assessment because, to be fair, they haven't been informed of what they could be doing better at their 6 month point!!
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Mid-terms are mandatory, precisely for the reasons you describe.
 
RO's really need more training on the fact MPARs are mandatory. I asked for mine this year and was told I wasn't getting one because I hadn't been in post long enough.

As for the Exceptional being read by the board, the JSP says C grades with Exceptional should be read, I can't find anything that says B grades need to be.
 
True Blue Jack said:
Mid-terms are mandatory, precisely for the reasons you describe.
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Mandatory in words but not in the real world in my experience. Nobody checks on whether they have been carried out, there is a box on the SJAR that a date can be entered and that's it. Most people seem happy (again in my experience) not having a mid term because this tells them that all is fine.
 
Why?

Why?

ady eflog said:
I can see your dilemma, he has top end previous assesments (possibly over assessed) but nothing to back them up? I would drop him to a High and give a decent write up that reflects the grade. IMHO its better to get a good written High rec than a poorly written spec that lacks examples.
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IMHO it's better to get a good written Exceptional than a good written High!
I dropped one lad this year who had a exceptional from a previous unit to a high, he still made an A grade pre board
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shame he may have come off if you had given him an exceptional again
Another I dropped from spec to high and he made No1 on the board. As mentioned above its the write up thats important.
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So you dropped someone from spec to high and the board gave him number 1! I hope you apologised to the lad for underestimating him and poorly assessing him?
If he was good enough to make number 1 I would have thought he was exceptional!
Just shows how much ambiguity the system has in it.
 
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