Commentary: How I learned to stop worrying and love the new ...

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Eric Burks
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Finally, at long last, the moment had arrived.

After years of speculation, months of rumors, and more recent -- yet still relatively vague -- press releases, all would soon be revealed.

Staring at the screen, I was ready to be thrust into the next chapter of an epic saga dating back to my own childhood.

I leaned forward in my seat, eager to take in every detail of the highly anticipated sequel. The last attempt left many feeling jaded and disillusioned, but with fresh faces and a new director at the helm, this effort represented a new hope.

And in an instant, there it was, right before my eyes.

There were no starships, bounty hunters, or alien races, and neither intergalactic nor internal struggles of good versus evil.

Instead, there were two short pages of text to decipher and interpret.

Ultimately, five small boxes at the top of the second page offered options to summarize a year's worth of labor. The descriptions ranged from "Not-Rated" and "Met some but not all expectations" to "Exceeded most, if not all expectations" -- the new gold standard of Enlisted Performance Reports.

This all took place recently, and not in a galaxy far, far away. The date was August 1, 2015, when the revamped Air Force Form 911 was finally unveiled to the masses. A related new AFF 912 for chief master sergeants had gone public in June with little more reaction than a "meh" and a yawn, as there is no rank of E-10.

So the new AFF 911 was kind of a big deal, and a very fittingly numbered form. As it represented the first significant changes in decades to a performance report for Airmen competing for promotion, for some it induced a state of emergency.

While it was initially unclear whether or not the sky was indeed falling, early Fox News reports of base "5/6 Club" meetings literally turning into "The Hunger Games" were quickly disproven. So far, no technical sergeants have yet to thrust a single trident in bloodlust over an envied stratification. (I can neither confirm nor deny this is the case with senior master sergeants vying for chief.)

To anyone still fearing "Airmen: Apocalypse" in the fallout of this year's changes to the Enlisted Evaluation System, I offer a single once-viral word of advice:

R-E-L-A-X.

Yes, those ancient pearls of wisdom from Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers may not at first glance seem relevant today, as they were uttered in 2014 ... more than 226 years ago in the Twittersphere.

But in my opinion, any time you're one small amoeba swimming in a sea of change, it's always a good idea to avoid panicking or exhausting yourself to fight the current, even if you were more comfortable with the way things used to be.

Our evaluation system was revamped for a good reason.

The overwhelming majority of us had grown accustomed to being told we were all special and unique snowflakes, each one "truly among the best of the best." Unless you really dropped the ball somewhere or committed a crime, you were likely a career "firewall five."

Starting this year, that statistic should no longer be the standard.

We now have not only new EPRs but also the Airman Comprehensive Assessment, which provides an opportunity to give much more detailed feedback than previous worksheets.

Love them or hate them, these are the tools we have to use. Simply give honest feedback and evaluate accordingly. Take care of the factors within your control and trust your leadership to do their part.

Under the new system, people will still get promoted, and the mission -- as well as life-- will go on. If you're more concerned with getting a "promote now" and a stratification than doing your job and leading/mentoring your Airmen, you're flirting with the "dark side."

So close your eyes, take a deep breath, and then focus on the things that really matter -- like getting the mission done!

And that's how I learned to stop worrying and love the new EPR. May the enlisted force structure be with you.