As for me it was a week before anyone noticed I had been promoted to Cpl - they only did when someone pointed out that I was wearing the wrong colour dustcoat in the bay (Jnr Tech and below wore brown, Cpl and above wore white). No one handed me my Flt Lt tapes on promotion and no one noticed when I wore SO2 tapes either (although one kind sqn ldr did point out that I wasn't calling him Sir any more
). No one noticed when I had turned down assimilation and sign on to 55. Maybe it was just me? I made a point of ensuring that if promotion ever happened to any one whom I was responsible for then they would be appropriately recognized.
I had the pleasure of presenting promotions to two Jnr Techs. Both times they were marched in by the WO and a charge sheet read out - neither picked up that they were called Cpl instead of Jnr Tech. Then a heart felt well done by both myself and the WO and into the tea bar for a round of applause by the Flt/Sqn. In another situation one of my guys was in the FI when I found out he was being promoted to Sgt. Went to the effort of a similar 'well done' to find out that the deskie had already told him. Bumped into the deskie in the bar and asked about it - apparently they had (still the case?) tell the individual first so he already knew!!
We can moan when there isn't a system to do this or we can get on and do it ourselves. Call it leadership / man management - or as I did - just plain politeness and gratitude towards the individuals.
