Military Evaluations, do the (supervisors) frequently give higher scores to people they like?

Question

please only people who have ever actually written evaluations. did your personal feeling go into the evaluation process

Answer 1

I'd like to say, "Not on my watch." But I suppose a little favoritism creeps in now and then.



I can't speak for the other services, but in the Navy, the evaluator usually is working off comments of other people who'd observed the individual being evaluated. If I noted something really low in a history of otherwise high evaluations, I'd ask the guy being evaluated. I'd also ask about an exceptional high evaluation among a history of otherwise average or low evaluations. That was especially true if the suspicious evaluation was the one previous to the one I was administering. Sometimes guys take transfers for advancement that supervisors would have like to have gotten, and an angry supervisor can try to damage a guy's career. If I found that to be the case I'd write a letter to that supervisor's command to be considered for his next evaluation.

Answer 2

Personal feelings? At work, I don't have personal feelings. Now, I do have opinions and what some might call prejudices. My prejudice tends to be against lazy, no account slackers who think they can get by doing less work than everyone else, then pull the same evals and awards. If that's prejudice so be it.



As far as marking someone higher because I "liked" them? Well, if they do their jobs, I like them, so they get higher marks. If you're looking at the "friendship" angle, then no, I don't see that.

Answer 3

I found, and I think most leaders would agree, that I was harder on people I liked in evaluations to avoid the appearance of favoritism. You want to see friends do well, but not at the cost of a reasonable person saying that it was because he was friends with his reporting senior.

Answer 4

I like to think I'm objective about some one's duty performance.



If I dislike them strictly because of personality, then its easier to be fair. If I dislike them because they are consistently late, refusing to do their job, stealing (had a troop that did that), etc, then I have a harder time being obective and usually consult a SNCO in the chain for a second opinion.

Answer 5

Well, yes and no. Performance evals must have some objective measurement to back up the results. So, while I do give better evals to Soldiers I "like" it is because that Soldier has the documented performance to back up the great eval I gave to him/her.



The Soldiers I dislike...well there is a reason that Soldier is disliked. If I give him/her a bad eval...you can be sure I have the documentation to back it up.

Answer 6

Why not? I like good soldiers, and I dislike crappy ones. How is that wrong?



Here's the formula I use:



Good Soldier = Like = Good evaluations

Bad Soldier = Dislike = Bad evaluations

Answer 7

Absolutely.

Answer 8

I did my best NOT to let personal judgments effect my rating of subordinates.

Answer 9

Of course they do! People are people.