Somebody Trolled the NY Officer Recruiter

[Seafort]

helolumpy, he told his CoC when he was starting the blog, what he was going to be using it for, and cleared his decisions with his CO.

This likely came from other ORs complaining to their COs who then complained to someone below RDML Faller, but above Malibu's boss.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone from the CoC shows up on AW just to clear the air.

 

[Spekkio]

So the OR from NY starts posting information on his blog but what if he's wrong????

From the way the instance reads, it sounds like he was posting an officially released list publicly at the time that everyone was free to notify their applicants. If he is wrong about a selectee, that means the official list was wrong. He wasn't trying to use inside information or be deceitful like the NROTC CO.

 

[bubblehead]

He violated zero regulations or rules. He did nothing wrong and kicked-a** at his job (he recruited 26 people in a year). He also went out of his way to help people.

IMHO, I feel the complaints were brought upon by jealous people who felt threatened and the fact that he was setting the bar for the kind of work that recruiters should be doing.

I was fortunate and had a recruiter that was stellar. The person was an E-6 filling an O-4 billet and was kicking a**. I've heard horror stories from multiple people about other recruiters and their antics: stonewalling, forgetting to submit packages, submitting incomplete packages, not keeping applicants updated, not communicating anything to applicants, etc.

There is a scene in the movie, Big, that sums it up for me. Tom Hanks' character, Josh, starts working as a data entry guy at MacMillan Toy Company. In the scene, he is breezing through his tasks, when one of his co-workers pokes his head over the cube:

SCOTT
Psst! Psst! Hey! Hey! I'm Scott Brennan.

JOSH
Uh, I'm Josh Baskin.

SCOTT
Listen, what are you trying to do? Get us all fired?

JOSH
Huh?

SCOTT
You've gotta slow down. Pace yourself. Slowly! Slowly!

 

[EM1]

Have a question: I know seafort you said that the CO approved what he was doing, but, was there a change of command? Sometimes what flies for one CO does not fly for another. (or, on a similar vein, what flies for a CO may not fly for the COs boss)

If the list is publicly available after a few days why do people have to flock to the ny recruiters site for the answers? If they were public, they should be public (like list posted on NPC). I know a quite few years back there were some privacy act concerns with posting selectees for advancement on the NPC website, which have since been clarified and fixed. Maybe that's driving it

Either way, he's been told no and needs to act like an Officer in response to what he's been told. He should just shut his mouth, take his lumps and move forward. Whining like he is not only makes him look unprofessional, but serves to undermine the chain of command and his peers. If he has issues with either his chain or his peers, he needs to professionally address these issues in private, not in a public forum.

 

[bubblehead]

Either way, he's been told no and needs to act like an Officer in response to what he's been told. He should just shut his mouth, take his lumps and move forward. Whining like he is not only makes him look unprofessional, but serves to undermine the chain of command and his peers. If he has issues with either his chain or his peers, he needs to professionally address these issues in private, not in a public forum.

While I disagree with him having to muzzle his blog posts, I agree with you in this regard.

 

[Flash]

Okay guys, reality check. For those of you who are saying this guy didn't break any rules, was cleared to do what he did, is only making others look bad and basically is God's gift to the recruiting world, take a look at those who are saying the guy is probably in the wrong. Do you notice anything general characteristics in the difference in experience between the two camps? The wings might be a hint.

Simply put, while those on the outside think this guy might be the world's most awesome recruiter some of us who have dealt with stuff like this, promotion messages come to mind, cringe a little bit when stuff like this is put out for public consumption when it maybe should not have been. I honestly don't know if the guy broke any rules or not, just because he says he didn't does not mean he didn't. And some of you may be right, some recruiters may need to get the lead out their ass. But to make that kind of internal issue public to some who may soon become professional naval officers sets a VERY POOR example. One cardinal rule is you don't take issues you have with your superiors public, whether in maintenance control or on a blog that everyone and anyone can read. It undermines their authority and can have serious and a very detrimental impact on a unit. Very poor form.

Oh, and recruiting 26 guys ain't exactly walking on water, the guy I work with now who was a recruiter had similar numbers out of Pittsburgh and said it was the easiest job he ever did, and he is a bit of a slacker.

 

[bubblehead]

But to make that kind of internal issue public to some who may soon become professional naval officers sets a VERY POOR example. One cardinal rule is you don't take issues you have with your superiors public, whether in maintenance control or on a blog that everyone and anyone can read. It undermines their authority and can have serious and a very detrimental impact on a unit. Very poor form.

I think we can all agree with this.

 

[jtmedli]

But to make that kind of internal issue public to some who may soon become professional naval officers sets a VERY POOR example. One cardinal rule is you don't take issues you have with your superiors public, whether in maintenance control or on a blog that everyone and anyone can read. It undermines their authority and can have serious and a very detrimental impact on a unit. Very poor form.

+1

 

[Seafort]

Have a question: I know seafort you said that the CO approved what he was doing, but, was there a change of command? Sometimes what flies for one CO does not fly for another. (or, on a similar vein, what flies for a CO may not fly for the COs boss)

There was a recent change of command yes. That much I do know. Yet I find it hard to believe that Malibu would not have discussed this with his new CO. Given what I know about his earlier behavior, it would have been out of character. My vote goes to your second hypothesis: boss's boss.

If the list is publicly available after a few days why do people have to flock to the ny recruiters site for the answers? If they were public, they should be public (like list posted on NPC). I know a quite few years back there were some privacy act concerns with posting selectees for advancement on the NPC website, which have since been clarified and fixed. Maybe that's driving it

Then CRUITCOM needs to run an official CRUITCOM blog. This does fill a need. CRUITCOM needs to either work with Malibu, or replace him with something just as effective. He's not getting paid extra for doing this, and it's all been on his own initiative.

Either way, he's been told no and needs to act like an Officer in response to what he's been told. He should just shut his mouth, take his lumps and move forward. Whining like he is not only makes him look unprofessional, but serves to undermine the chain of command and his peers. If he has issues with either his chain or his peers, he needs to professionally address these issues in private, not in a public forum.

This is true. It was an order, and the only acceptable answer to an order is "aye, aye, sir." I can see how angry he would be after all the work he has done on his own time, but naval officers are held to a higher standard, and righteous anger or not, he probably did cross the line with a few of his comments.

 

[Seafort]

I think we can all agree with this.

Ditto. While I have been quick to defend the work that he has done, it doesn't excuse certain elements of his behavior.

 

[Grizzly]

Just reading the comments on Malibus blog and number 11 by: Nancy, her husbands recruiter lying about his application submission, although no way to vet the story it's a poor example integrity on the recruiters part anyways + 1 for flash's post too also I think I've learned enough on this post for now.

 

[GreenLantern330]

I can totally see why people would praise him for releasing information, especially when sometimes ORs can be difficult to get in contact with and you've been waiting to hear whether you were selected or not. However, I don't think it was a wise idea to release the results because even if he had it cleared and got permission to do so, I know that I personally wouldn't want my name on a list on some recruiter's blog for the rest of the world to read, so I'm sure there are others that feel the same, regardless if they are selected or not. Think about the privacy of those applying for a commission.

 

[warface]