Originally Posted by SASless
Does it matter if the Boss Wallah gets and ear full in person, by phone, e-mail, or pprune.....he is not going to be pleased with yer views no matter the source. If he can identify the bearer of such news the messenger will catch some spears.
Those that have found a way to "command" will feel that way. "Leaders" on the other hand have no need for briefs or intel reports on what goes on at pprune, arrse or any other web site. They would have their finger on the pulse the old fashioned way....leading!
In the civvie word...the greasy pole of management works best as one steps on folks going up...better traction that way than merely grabbing the pole and getting after it. One may not hear of it....but very large Black Marks can be afixed to your name on the manning roster and CV pile.
Thus....unless it is banter even to the humourless...don't say something here you would not say to the Boss Wallah in person. You might just have to someday at his insistence.
One of the main problems we face is dilution of strength of feeling. There used to be a nice little joke along the lines of "crock of ****e" becoming "wonderful manure" - pretty inane, but quite true. Many senior officers (RN at least) take ORs or junior officers with them on visits purely because the senior officer gets the "this route smells of paint" visit, whilst the non-senior officers get to go and visit mates and other places that are not necessarily cleared for inspection. It's only then that you can see under the veneer of a unit.
Whilst there are people who will moan for the sake of it, this sort of message board provides a method of aggregation of feeling - both good and bad. You can see that bad feeling is growing on a certain subject, and in fact in the good old days of Chots (Chots User Forum anyone?), I know that RN policy was changed twice based on what 2SL saw in that group - and in there you were not anonymous! I had two face-on-face conversations with pay grades that were well in excess of mine, but as SASless says, you have to be prepared to back up what you are saying.
It takes time for the fear factor to go away - many people are worried about jeopardising posting or promotion prospects for speaking out, but if you are justified in what you say, you have evidence to back it up, then it should not matter if you are at the bottom of the food chain - your views are just as valid, and deserve as much recognition. It's only when it gets into the staffing chain that people start to modify the original statement until it bears little resemblance to what the person wanted to say. On here, the original person gets to stand up and say what they feel!