When I was an E4, I worked with a piece of shit E6 who decided he hated me for no reason one day. I had never been disrespectful to him but he went out of his way to try and get me in trouble and was just generally a dick to me every chance he could be. His attempts to get me in trouble all failed because literally I did nothing wrong. He once told me I needed to respect him because he was an E6 and had earned it. I told him I give his rank the respect it deserves, I stand at parade rest when talking to him, I answered his questions respectfully with a “Yes, Sergeant” or “No, Sergeant” but due to the way he treats me and started treating me like crap for no reason, I did not and would not respect him as a person. He did not like that, but there literally wasn’t anything he could do about it. He told me I needed to drop out of college and focus 100% of my efforts on being a soldier and I should just do everything he says because he outranks me. I told him the Army is not my career, I’m doing my 4 years and getting out, and so ETS’ing with a degree is more important to me than spending that time to go above and beyond the standards the Army required. And of this was said respectfully, and was overheard by his section lead, so while he was upset I didn’t just bend over and suck his E6 dick, he couldn’t do shit about it because ultimately I was 100% in the right. My uniform was clean, pressed, had all the creases it was supposed to and my boots were shined. They weren’t a mirror every day because I didn’t spend 3 hours shining my boots every day, I did once a week and then kept them above the minimum standard required through the week, then my next day off I’d tear them down and rebuild the shine. So my uniform was still in better shape than most peoples so him singling me out was very much bullshit. The guy ended up getting himself in trouble more than anything else. I never got in trouble for how I treated him since ultimately I never did shit to him and always gave him the respect required for his rank. But not 1 step beyond that, and he didn’t like that, but there wasn’t jack shit he could do about it. His own supervisor (an E7) made him apologize to me on 2 occasions when he witnessed his bullshit.
Like when he told me to do something which that morning the E8 in charge passed down to us that we were not to do this specific thing. So when I said I couldn’t do that for him over the phone, he forced me to get relieved so I could come up there and explain in person why I wouldn’t do what a higher ranking NCO told me to do. So I explained according to E7 Guard Commander X, E8 Master Sergeant Y passed down these instructions. And the response was “So, Guard Commander X told you this?” “Yes, Sergeant” “That’s all you had to say, get the fuck out of my office.” I relayed that conversation to the Guard Commander (who was in my chain of command, this guy was not) And within 5 minutes, I was called back to his office, that his boss shared with him, and got to stand there while this E6 being glared at by his E7 boss apologized for his behavior.
Then when I was close to ETSing the dude “randomly” chose me to be piss tested every single time it was his job to conduct it. Literally on my day off while I was an hour north of post at college he couldn’t find me in the barracks to “randomly” piss test me, so he told everyone if they saw me, I needed to go to him. So 4 hours later when I returned from school, I got the message, and then he chewed me out for not arriving earlier. Like bitch, its my day off, I was at college, I came as soon as I got back, what more do you want? Turns out he didn’t even need me, he let slip he only needed someone with the last name starting with “R” so he was able to easily just piss test someone else. But he intentionally was singling me out to be his “R” person every single time. That guy was a piece of shit and I think exemplified this perfectly.
Expecting people to know this is so weird (criticising op not you). Thanks for explanation
Enlisted ranks in the Army (and I think most other US branches of the military too) are graded E1 through E9, E1 being Private, where you start, no authority, can’t wipe their own ass without help, generally just completing basic training and AIT is enough to get you promoted to E2, Private 2nd Class, then about 6 months later you get promoted to E3, Private First Class or PFC. E4 is Specialist, the highest rank before ranks become NCOs or (Non-Commissioned Officers), E5 is Sergeant (SGT), E6 is Staff Sergeant (SSG), E7 is Sergeant First Class (SFC), E8 is Master Sergeant (MSG) or First Sergeant (1SG), and E9 is Sergeant Major (SGM) or Command Sergeant Major (CSM).
Generally (there are always exceptions to the rule) SGT are team leaders in charge of 2-4 E1-E4s, SSG’s are squad leaders in charge of 3-4 E5’s, SFC are are Platoon Sergeants in charge of 3-4 E6’s
However working in a jail we also had positions that granted us different authority. For example, in the jail when I was working the Control Booth, even as an E4, I had authority to force even E9s to wait if I needed to for the safe operation of the jail. (Granted this would never happen, as anyone that high up in rank would have the whole facility partially locked down so there would be no inmate movement while they were there, so there would literally never be an instance where someone like that would have to wait, but if circumstances resulted in someone like that maybe showing up unannounced or what not, its very possible they would have to wait behind a door while an area of the facility had inmate movement since my position in the Control Booth and the requirements of a jail gave me specific requirements that even an E9 or General couldn’t overrule).
A friend of mine got written up by an E6 Chef from the prison kitchen, that he made wait 2 minutes because of a large movement of inmates so by procedure he could not open the gate the E6 was behind. Our Platoon Sergeant (E7/SFC) got that write up, made a jerking off motion, tore it up and threw it away.
I was in the Navy and that story is a tale as old as time. Usually it’s an E5 (Petty Officer second class) picking on an E4 (Petty Officer third class) or a brand new E4 picking on pretty much anyone below them.
As long as a Chief doesn’t get involved no one seems to give a shit.
Interesting story, but I definitely got lost in the forest of contradictory orders between various E-ranks. I got the gist of it, but man, it was confusing for a bit.
Sorry bout that, there is so much more about the situation that I didn’t post, but it was already getting kind of long-winded, so I tried to reduce it as much as possible, but I guess I left too much context out ><
I’m sure if you’ve been in the military it made perfect sense.
At the end of the day, that awful person who just has it out for you is a literal nightmare and I’m sorry you had to deal with it. From my own experiences, I understand how frustrating and even traumatic that can be.
Your story is my story, except I definitely was a bit more belligerent. I picked up E4 less than two years in service, which was tough as an 11, and proceeded to remain there for like another 40+ months until I fucked off, although that’s a story for a different day. I consistently filled billets above my rank, and with that came dealing with dudes with rockers on the regular, and when they saw me, not a big guy, only two stripes, most scratched their heads. I generally was able to prove my competency to individuals, but there was one who just couldn’t stand me and would try to correct me at every opportunity.
Our last exercise together I was just a squad leader and he was a platoon sergeant, different platoon, not in my chain of command, but constantly would try to correct me or my Marines, and that shit just didn’t fly with me, especially knowing I was out of here in like three or four months, and so I would just turn up the belligerent with him, because I knew his only recourse was to either hit me or go to my chain of command, and my platoon sergeant, my platoon commander, and company gunny always had my back because I did my fucking job well, and so it’d always end there with him acting like a baby and me acting like a child.
Yeah, good times. Stupid times but good times.
Turns out he didn’t even need me, he let slip he only needed someone with the last name starting with “R” so he was able to easily just piss test someone else.
Wait what? What kind of a rule is that?
Human respect should be given, respect of an authority, I think, should be earned.
I wish I could think and articulate this clearly all the time.
Way back in my 20s I had a manager who was power tripping against me stating I did not respect her. I told her that I would do as she says because she is my manager, but respect is earned. She and her boss both argued that respect is given. I gave up and a few weeks later I quit because that job (and some personal stuff) destroyed my mental health. Ultimately it was the best decision I could have made for myself at that time.
This is why operationalizing your variables is so important
I mean defining your terms and how they are measured makes it clear what you mean.
What do you mean “variables”? In the computer science sense? Can you define this term?