Hi Dan - I hear what you say! I think I know who to whom you refer too!
It took 3 x consecutive Spec Recs before I finally made Spec Aircrew Sqn Ldr - and I'd always thought that a Spec Rec meant 'to be promoted on next available list'. But there was an element of karma - once I'd been promoted I found that I was senior to all the squadron Flt Cdrs in the Air Force List.
Apart from having been volunteered to produce the station magazine, the only secondary duties I ever had were for the direct benefit of others, not for some 1369 brown-nosing promotion nonsense.