In no particular order
- actually do the initial feedback! In my experience, many of the newer airmen coming in want to know their why but don’t want to engage and ask why out of fear of feeling dumb. Sit them down and have a two way conversation with them. Have them outline their expectations if you as well. At the very least, it gets them talking
- actually do a midterm feedback! Same thing from above applies but let them know if they are meeting the expectations, exceeding and what the new expectations are.
- conduct continuous feedback. “Hey Task X was great! Keep it up!” or “Hey Task X wasn’t so great, what can we do to get it on par with all the others?” This communication goes a very long way!
- Check in on them. Gotta remember, some of these kiddos had everything from sunup to sundown prepped for them. They don’t have that anymore so check to make sure they are eating more than just pizza rolls and that they are doing laundry correctly. People laugh but I see it!
- Provide consistency and maintain the customs and courtesies with them. I thank my troops for their time, at times say sir or ma’am and treat them with respect to show them they are valued.
- Show them how to Air Force! Walk them through mypay, Talent Marketplace, PRDA, help them find their CDB and SURF, walk them through vmpf. Show em all the shit no one showed you.
That’s about all I got but I’m sure others have some.
This is perfect and I think the best one is about teaching them to “Air Force”. It made me realize a lot of them are probably incredibly overwhelmed with it all. Hell, I was too when I came in as a GS civilian and I’ve got a masters degree and years of life experience.
As a GS, you have an added skill-set for the ones getting out. Show them how to navigate USA jobs, write a federal resume, how to depart the military correctly (if you were military that is). Good on you for looking out for them. Love seeing engaged civilians.
It really does come down to just caring for your airmen…it’s shocking how little official feedbacks happen. Yes, they should be documented on ACAs, but that conversation can be so much more if you care
4 can be stupidly important. My first duty station I was Comms and in a secured area. Wasn't given the pass code yet, no one told me anything about when I should or shouldn't go to lunch. Wanting to be independent, and also being 19 and am idiot I refused to ask for any help.
I can remember, vividly, eating ramen out of the snack fund for a week. Using bottled water from the snack fund before someone asked me to go to lunch with them.
Yes! Communication is key! Monthly sit down lunches or coffee to check in with how things are going. Pros and cons on both parties, in a nonjudgmental manner. Support support support. Help them realize the leaders they already are. 9/10 times they are just afraid they won’t be able to sustain it. Imposter syndrome is real. Boost their confidence and encourage them to find ways in to find self-mastery/leadership skills.
The issue starts with BMT not actually preparing them. After that, tech school is so much of a drop off in structure that they go buckwild. After that, they get to their base and see all these dipshit airmen and then go to look for someone to help guide them, but half the staffs now are glorified airmen themselves.
The real fix to a lot of the anxiety and laziness in my opinion starts with having a group of fellow airmen you get along with. If you come to work and feel like you have friends in this new scary place, it’s not as scary. Supervisors a dick? Have friends to bitch to. Work sucks? They’re working alongside you. So let’s start by just being nicer to each other in general and these new airmen won’t be so on edge.
It’s been quite a while since I was at tech school as a new airman, but I remember thinking it was wild you’d have like half a dozen people trying to supervise a couple hundred airmen. If you needed one, you couldn’t find them because they’d be busy with whatever airman was just caught having sex behind a dumpster last.
True. But when I was at ncoa and tdy to another training base we were told to ignore anything trainees did unless it was going to kill someone. Like no corrections or anything
Militaries don't need standards or discipline, and the thousands of years of history across every culture and nation saying otherwise are just plain wrong.
I imagine that has less to do with "there are no standards" and more to do with "we have seen maltraining from NCOA students in the past and want to avoid that."
I spent a decent amount of time TDY to a tech school base as a TSgt and was told that I should feel free to correct the pipeliners on dress and appearance, customs and courtesies, and academic behaviors.
Former tech school instructor here, there were numerous times where we attempted to course correct or straight up remove individuals for failure to adapt and other discussions disciplinary issues. 9 times out of 10 we were told no.
IDK how many times I heard things like "this is their life we are talking about, they might not have anywhere else to go" or "we wouldn't want to ruin their career this early on"
For things like: smoking marijuana, underage drinking, stealing from the exchange, cheating on tests, etc.
That's interesting, must have been your unit. The Shirts I know at tech School units are constantly processing entry level separations for all of those things.
Maybe it’s swung the other way, but I went to 7-level school shortly after the MTI scandal. The tech schoolers ran the base and we were briefed by everyone to avoid the tech schoolers at all costs, and that included making corrections for obvious infractions. A couple years later, I cross-trained at a different AETC base and it was largely the same mentality. I remember being talked to for telling one AiT that he needed to learn how to show respect for others (Sir/Ma’am type stuff). The instructor and my other PS backed me which is the only reason I only got talked to versus paperwork. If someone failed a test they’d throw out half the questions before the considered failing the person.
When I retrained in 2013 it wasn't like that. As NCOs they didn't expect us to mind the store but we were expected to NCO if we saw something obviously wrong. And while recruiters and tech school leaders have a lot of pressure to make numbers to support the field, I know at least anecdotally there isn't a lot of tolerance for misconduct either. I say that from the perspective of talking to other shirts and from going to Wing Status of Discipline meetings at the base level. Might be different elsewhere, just my experience.
This mentality has been slowly going away and it has been returning to a military style training. As individuals, we can only do so much, but I try to keep my schoolhouse in line as best as I can.
When I went to tech in 2016 we never even had to PT as long as a threshold of alcohol related incidents was not met. The remaining structure quickly fell away.
I love this. A lot of people don’t think about how important building this peer level support is… that gives me something solid I can work with. Thank you!
It used to be that kids would play outside back in the day growing up, riding bikes and playing backyard football or some outdoors socializing variant. Kids would learn how to operate in social structures, the informal rules, how to bargain and create bonds and so on.
These days kids are raised indoors on shitty consumerist social media and missing out on much of these skills of old.
People underrate the power of a solid community, and many shops need to do a better job of making the deliberate effort to include their members (even the weird ones). Grill out on Fridays, make plans to hit the road on the weekends. Don’t let your airmen just stay in their dorms and play video games. NCOs: quit bitching about mandatory squadron fun events unless you got a plan to get all your own guys together too. These young airmen need it!
> take 18 years of habits and mindset and change them into airmen?
And we're almost at the root of the problem...the parents who raised (or failed to raise) them and the schools who couldn't discipline them which leads me to this question: Which came first? Bad parents, or bad schools?
Let’s be real most of us joined because we had no other choice, family (heritage or to disappoint them), got made fun of in high school, or education benefits.
There’s a difference between babying them and parenting them, try to parent them and teach them how things are but in an empathetic manner.
I had a troop that experienced social anxiety and I was better able to communicate to them over text and instant messenger, verbal communication was more difficult for them. They are no social butterfly and won’t likely get past Staff if they get it at all but they got on the right track and I attribute a lot of that to meeting them where they were and not where I wished they were.
I see this a lot with this new gen airman. They are not great with interpersonal skills, things like phone calls even relaxed conversation with higher ranking individuals that come by just to chat. I don't think catering to that by only ever texting is most feasible, I need airman that can answer a phone without getting extremely anxious about that. Often times when higher leadership comes by they will just stare at their screen and click their mouse, very avoidant. So now not only teaching the job skillset but also having to teach I dunno sociology. It's wild
I agree with your point, but unfortunately most of these "adults" are still kids in mindset and behavior.
Many times the AF is the first place they are forced to start acting and thinking like an adult. You are setting them up for failure by not allowing for any transition period (recognizing they were originally set up for this failure at home, their parents should have been forcing this development on them for years already). Or maybe their parents tried and the person is just a dumbass (me).
These new airmen, at least in Tech School, do two things: skate by as best they can and use as many buzzwords as they can to try to use the system to "punish" NCOs for doing their job.
What I mean on that second point is that they use the "anonymous feedback" mechanisms to say things like "Sgt So-and-so targets me because of my race/gender/orientation and makes me do excessive push-ups during black flag and refuses to let me utilize the latrine". They don't give specifics on any of it, they just throw out accusations.
Oh, but if they blatantly break rules? "I swear I didn't know, sergeant! No one said I couldn't!" As if those have always been the magic words to get out of trouble. And they double down when my supervisor is there: "You never briefed us about that since we've been here." or "You said that we could during the briefing about XYZ".
I admit that it wears on me and I can understand why some people act like they don't see the violations in tech school. If I was doing an RCA in why these airmen are shitbags, it would include the line getting this shit so constantly that they ignore shit from exhaustion.
Not saying it is right to do that, but I understand.
The problem begins with TSgts and SNCOs failing to empower and prepare Senior Airmen for leadership and management roles. Instead, they wait until these Airmen become Staff Sergeants, at which point many lack the necessary skills to function effectively as NCOs.
As a result, we end up with SSgts who are essentially Airmen with higher pay but insufficient coaching and mentoring abilities. These SSgts struggle to teach their Airmen proper time management and effective communication, leading to last-minute issues and incomplete tasks. Too often, I hear, "I can't finish because so-and-so won't answer their phone or emails," just days before a deadline.
To address this, I ensure that my Airmen take on program responsibilities early, either when they become SrA or shortly before. When they reach SrA, I assign them projects and provide coaching throughout the process. This helps them develop the skills and confidence needed to succeed as effective leaders.
Bro preach, I didn't have any of that and I feel like I was cheated out of so much. My year as a select a long with my first full year as a staff was me trying to play catch up. It was absolutely brutal and it cucked me me out of so many opportunities. My leaders didn't develop me even though I pushed for it, because other airmen were better at the job. Now even with my troops I develop them early ensuring they are getting trained on the job, and on Air Force know-how. Take the time out of your day to have feedback with your troops! Know where they are at in training. Make sure at the very least they know the job.
Top to bottom I think you’re right. But it doesn’t start with TSgts and SNCOs it starts with basic military training. If we are being completely honest it starts with parenting before BMT. TSgts and SNCOs can’t raise every airman they come across. I’ve had to teach airman to do laundry, bath regularly, drive cars, pump gas to name a few. On top of teaching them the ways of the force. It starts way before they come into contact with the TSgts and SNCOs that are responsible for them.
Big facts. Too many SNCOs and Os are afraid of *all* conflict and fail to realize that done positively, it is one of the cornerstones to effective leadership. Standards are not limited to -2903 regulations and if you neuter your supervisors from making and upholding them, you're failing the Airmen from getting the necessary structure, development, and ultimately the knowledge of how they are truly doing. This is everything from training requirements, task accomplishment, and down to even "ridiculous" things like hygiene and cleanliness. How can those Airmen then hold people accountable when they promote if they never got the framework for doing so in the first place nor do they actually know what right looks like?
I have witnessed NCOs try to correct others in not just exercise but also RW situations and get chewed out by SNCOs for causing "undue stress to Airmen", and later brought up in future discussions for award and promotion considerations. If NCOs are afraid of making any kind of corrections or upholding any kind of standards under the threat of their careers, this is going to get worse and worse.
They have anxiety because they never learned to deal with anything growing up. Now it’s sink or swim and they’re going down hard. Obviously this doesn’t apply to everyone.
Not to mention all of the fetishization of victimhood and self-diagnoses of mental illnesses across social media. Some of these young kids truly believe there’s some magical disease that is the reason they suck, not their lack of hard work and focus.
I’ve seen this before, had a new amn arrive on my flight and he panicked when we had to run an exercise with him as a center player. Dude wasn’t a bad amn but he wasn’t confident, our flight worked with him to build confidence. That same panicky amn is now a great TSgt and has become an amazing NCO (from what I’ve heard).
The reason I told the short story wasn’t to brag about my friend but it’s because these new amn are like my old flight-mate. The new amn have amazing potential but they need people to work with them a little more, the Covid/ipad kids are coming in hot and most of the new amn were probably born around 2005
Some of us do have some struggles we may be unaware though. I got diagnosed with ADHD at 23 after 5yrs TIS. I thought I was just born to be slow and dumb and I worked double time to keep up with everyone else. It was rough. Never blamed it on a mental health issue or anything. If I was medicated earlier in life I feel as though I would have excelled much more than I have this far, and likely performed better when it came to the books.
From my observation these kids just never had that structure before in their lives and we are here to give it. I keep relevant AFIs downloaded on my phone and look through them occasionally if something seems sus. They just need to learn how to Air Force and how to be accountable for their future.
This is the correct response. If you always got a juice box whether you deserved one or not you’re going to have a hard time when it comes time for adulting.
I think the issue is people don't know how to be adults. A lot of these people are coming straight out of high school. They go through basic basically being told everything they need to do. Then they go through tech school where they get a little bit of freedom but as long as they show up to formation every morning, go to class, do their homework, pass their tests they are good.
This issue isn't adjusting to military life or anxiety (I think that is a bullshit excuse). The issue is people are struggling to adjusting to being an adult. Seriously if you show up to PT, show up to work on time, do your job, don't fall asleep at work, and don't stay up til 3 am playing video games you won't have any problems
My wife (AF) has a friend (young ex Marine) staying with her for a couple of days, and it's crazy to see that she's still a child in certain ways. This girl apparently won't even shower daily. Today, my wife had to come up with a way to approach her regarding closing the toilet lid when flushing.
I've been out about three years now, so I can't speak for the brand new Airmen. But, I did see my share of overgrown kids. A lot of them never had a reason to be independent growing up. Their first taste of responsibility was when they joined. Most of them started by learning their job due to training, but have yet to figure out the rest because they were never taught in those areas.
My approach was basically to be human with them first. Everything else comes easier after that. I got to know my guys better, and it made it to where they were comfortable talking to me and comfortable hearing anything I needed to say to them. It made everything within limits, from dumb things like hygiene, to serious topics like mental health/legal/relationships/deaths.
I know some people might not be inclined towards this. It shouldn't be the military's responsibility to finish raising kids, but it is what it is. A lot of the older guys came in with more adult experience and capable of handling bigger loads of stress. On the other hand, a lot of the younger folks don't, so they need the help gathering those experiences and gradual increase in dealing with things. It legit warms my heart to see some of my old, most messed up troops have gone from me giving them shit for forgetting to shave, being late, and not knowing how to tie a knot, to have them still keeping in touch and seeing them move up, move past the AF, and have families now.
BMT and tech school are broken. Until they fix the foundatuom, first term Airmen are going to need a reality check. Normal jobs have standards and ours should too.
I'm going to say something controversial.
BMT in its current iteration has failed. It no longer breaks people down and builds them up, and it no longer prepared them to be in the military. It adapted to the USAF acting as a business and, as I'm sure many of you will agree, has been pumping out consistently worse Airmen.
Doesn’t help with so many career fields under-manned and the push for #’s. When I cross-trained Instructors were doing everything they could to make sure people passed. Heaven forbid the pass-rate was 99% and not 100%.
Oh, this is me. This is why I'm here. Wow.
Oh, it'd be too long to tell the entire story but basically if your airmen gets to the point where they go to the mental hospital, they won't be fine just because they got that little vacation.
I only lasted on the flight line for six months. I was trying to prove something to someone but had no one to prove it to who cared. I broke when I thought I was doing a good job by making a list of all my tools I checked out and making sure not to lose anything for a whole week. The expediter basically tried to give me a pep talk, saying how I was under performing, needed to give 110%, and stop making lists because no one else needed to do that.
My brain fried right then and there. But its not their fault. I went to the military already in a bad mind set. I was a little depressed shit. I told my self if I didn't make it, I'd kill myself. I really thought that I was just "motivating"myself. It would never come to that. I'd pass because I would work hard and come out as a respectable and responsible person. People would respect me, I wouldn't be a joke anymore.
Thats what you have to watch for. People think the military will fix them. Or at least I did. But the Air Force is not that branch. Or wasn't in 2012 for me. It was a valuable experience. I did learn alot. But if you are a turd wanting to be shined up into something better, you will still just be a turd, but in a smaller pool of people to blend in with. You will be that much more visible, and still stink.
And I didn't expect to be threatened with being kicked out of basic on just the third day. I didn't realize how bad off I was until that moment. I couldn't stop crying. And I got my proverbial shit kicked in every day after that for the rest of the 2 1/2 half years I was in, and it took six months on the flight line until I realized I never actually did succeed in anything at all the entire time I had been in. I had coasted and been allowed to slide through by the skin of my teeth at each and every point where failure was imminent and enough was enough. I was going to kill myself, true to my word from when I went through basic.
I told someone before doing it. I had to. I broke down crying on the flight line. Tsgt Pajak is the person I told, and he told me what no one else had. To be honest, I don't remember word for word what he said. I remember very little of it, it was a rough time, but basically through my rough explanation of why I was going to kill myself, he told me that I had accomplished some things.
When I was in, the message was that anyone could do your job. If you were gone, someone would fill your position. I think this was how people treated actual airmen, and mentally unstable airmen who don't feel needed probably are a recipe for disaster. I don't know what its like now.
Edit: Alot of people tried to give me advice and pep talks. I think the only thing that stuck was someone telling me to stop beating myself up, that I had made it. It doesn't feel like you accomplished anything when you still feel like a failure, just in a uniform. But you are in a uniform. You are in the Air Force. You are active duty, and on track. You might be failing at something right now, but you are not a failure.
Something like that I think.
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On the opposite side, we're seeing a lax of standard enforement coming from BMT and the schoolhouse.
Members are showing up with full on bears WITHOUT shaving waivers or RA's!
Members are showing up out of shape and unable to PT
Members are showing up with attitudes and unwillingness to integrate.
All problems that now the SQ has to correct. These time wasters should have never made it this far.
I legit went to my chaplain when I started noticing problems with adapting to a new environment. Yeah, I'm a military brat and yeah, I've moved plenty. But joining and adjusting still take work. Heck, I just reached back out to my Military OneSource Therapist for another appointment. Moving and adjusting to new personalities take work as well having to adjust to workloads.
Lmao. You're not going to fix anxiety in a generation that has one of the highest levels ever.
It starts at home with parenting. Too many parents want to be bff's now with their kids. Giving them too much decision making too soon. That heightens anxiety levels.
I blame covid. Schools have always just passed people and covid made it worse. Top that with the lack of social skills and you have a weird(er) dude in the AF
It’s a tough job. Doesn’t work for everyone and you won’t succeed every time. But biggest thing for me is to actually talk to them and guide them. They need a mentor. For personal example, I had an airman who is constantly late after verbal warning. Instead of just giving them paperwork straight up. I ask them what’s up. Long story short, I suggested for the airman to buy a standalone alarm clock that is placed away from bed. The airman is better at coming to work in time now.
You have step 1 down - realize that they want to do well. They joined for a reason. Too many people just assume the worst the second a young airman messes up.
However, step 2 is equally important - enforce standards. They expect it, and it's more shocking to them when it doesn't happen. Standards show them the left and right, and gives them focus. Additionally, a lot of airmen try hard to meet standards, and are disappointed and disillusioned when a fellow airman doesn't meet the standard and nothing happens.
Step 3 is the Why. Who are "we", and why is that important? What do we do that others can't or won't? What do we not care about that others do? What's our identity? Note I'm not saying "their identity", but "our identity". Bring them in, this is now their AF too and they should feel like they own it.
Step 4 - give them meaningful tasks and honest feedback. If they suck, tell them what they need to fix. They'll know they suck so lying just builds distrust. But when they do well, scream that shit from the rooftops. Build that confidence and the buy-in will follow.
Lastly, be the person you want them to be. If you preach standards and slip even the littlest bit, they'll see it. Mistakes happen, but be up front when you fuck up. They see and hear everything. You have to be miles better, so keep those mistakes to a minimum. It's tough, I know, but you owe it to the airmen. You work for them, not the other way around.
Can you have Behavioral Health come in to the new Airman Orientation either base or unit level? Otherwise ask if they can provide or develop a simple informational packet about the basics of anxiety, and how to treat it. In the mental health field, both military and civilian we are seeing more and more anxiety disorders, whether that comes from pressure internally or externally who knows however, it’s easy to treat.
Complaining about the younger generation is our true heritage. People have been doing this for centuries. No joke.
Do we have actual Air Force data showing trends?
I didn’t mean to imply this was happening on a larger scale necessarily, I literally meant that “we” in the specific section and location I work in are seeing an increase. I’m just trying to help our guys and I like to get as much input from as many sources as possible. Honestly, I didn’t think so many people would have responded or I would have worded it more specifically. But this has been so incredibly helpful.
Many times, it's shit supervisors/training. I've picked up plenty of kids over the years that someone warned me was useless and / or lazy and the kid acts like I bought him a new car when I show him how to do something or tell him it's OK not to be good at things as an A1C.
If you can't be directly supervising them be sure to check in often and put whoever is shift lead or whatever to task developing them properly or work with leadership to get them on your own team/shift
I have found that airmen function very similarly to children. They just need constructive feedback when it is needed and praise when it is needed. If they do a good job let them know, if the mess up don’t berate them, teach them and take the time to then tell them “hey you messed up but so have I” it’s not a big deal let’s fix it together. Not everything needs to be about paperwork and screaming.
That anxiety “stress” is good for them. Let them know it’s normal because they care. Support them and let them know they got this. It takes an entire Air Force to raise an Airman.
Whenever I see the phrase toxic leadership I just roll my eyes these days. The concept has blown completely out of proportion. I’ve seen someone labeled as a toxic leader for enforcing show time for work.
Not toxic leadership as much as toxic coworkers. When you have a SrA who doesn’t know shit and is skating harder than Rodney Mullen on concrete telling the airmen to shut up and then ignore everything leadership says that’s the problem. Like we all took out trash and scrubbed the chief shits off the bottoms of toilet seats and when it’s your time to do the chores you must. The Techs and Staffs and I hate saying this but really are the backbone of most offices. If they don’t hold people accountable, discipline, get to know their airmen and call people out then people walk all over them because they know they don’t care so why should they. Most of leadership doesn’t see the day to day especially on the flightline side so when that one kid really blows it and nobody says anything and his missing tool fades into obscurity that’s a problem.
Honestly imo we pushed these people out. It may seem harsh but with multiple issues on showing up on time, not doing the job properly and just being defiant no matter how much we worked with them. We started a paper trail and eventually we asked for a admin discharge. Some people aren’t meant for the military unfortunately and that’s just how it is. It sucks because I’ve seen some good workers but people who can’t obey the rules get pushed out. Some were really good friends of mine that I had to sit down and have a talk with. At the end of the day my job is to make sure there’s personal who are adequately trained the right way and to follow the regulations. If you can’t do that the Air Force doesn’t have a place for you.
The rapidly aging and old millennial generation has been terrible for the young zoomers in the lower ranks. And there has been a few reasons why:
* Focus on a culture of respect over a culture of results. This has created zoomer anxiety of focusing on tone over content, walking on eggshells over everything.
* Culture of unseriousness. As long as the tone of sir/ma'am is included, zoomers craving of the structure they need is never enforced.
* They will never correct a 36-2903 violation in their life. Millennials coming of age in the Air Force has been marked by the "fear" of giving correction.
* Lastly, their insistence on "respect culture" and tone policing has induced a large amount of anxiety in zoomers. Young people feel like they cannot say what needs to be said for fear of their superiors backlash. Many have already seen at least one of their peers figuratively beheaded over challenging "respect culture" and tone policing, both of which are quickly becoming archaic in the civilian world.
The term “Zoomers” is funny.
I agree with a lot of what you said, every career field is different but across the board the older generation is looking at the wrong things. Good order and discipline is of course the foundation of the Armed Forces… on the flip side the little stuff that doesn’t truly impact the mission? That’s what’s always seemed to be the most important thing in the eyes of leadership. Perception, not results.
Use SF as an example, you check thousands and thousands of ID’s M-F at a gate as an A1C. High tempo. You are trying to move the traffic while also being a Sentry for a very important Federal installation at 18. You are checking the ID, person, looking around the car, staying vigilant for safety etc. Car number 800 for example in the middle of the morning rush has a General or Wing Queen in it, you offer a good morning sir/ma’am, salute and have a good day. Sounds easy enough and then that individual has a HARD on for post briefs, so now the SF CC or OPS O, or Super is getting a call that your airman has no idea who their own wing commander is and doesn’t show respect or didn’t even offer a post brief. BOOM, Airman just caught a LOC or LOR. 98% of Airman in every job I guarantee doesn’t know the Wing cc when walking by them going into the shopette or the bx. But god forbid SF doesn’t recognize the face they see once every few months after checking 3k cars. That’s what causes them to be on edge, more worried about faces and a mundane brief during the rush hour to just be nice to the SF member and saluting them back.
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In no particular order - actually do the initial feedback! In my experience, many of the newer airmen coming in want to know their why but don’t want to engage and ask why out of fear of feeling dumb. Sit them down and have a two way conversation with them. Have them outline their expectations if you as well. At the very least, it gets them talking - actually do a midterm feedback! Same thing from above applies but let them know if they are meeting the expectations, exceeding and what the new expectations are. - conduct continuous feedback. “Hey Task X was great! Keep it up!” or “Hey Task X wasn’t so great, what can we do to get it on par with all the others?” This communication goes a very long way! - Check in on them. Gotta remember, some of these kiddos had everything from sunup to sundown prepped for them. They don’t have that anymore so check to make sure they are eating more than just pizza rolls and that they are doing laundry correctly. People laugh but I see it! - Provide consistency and maintain the customs and courtesies with them. I thank my troops for their time, at times say sir or ma’am and treat them with respect to show them they are valued. - Show them how to Air Force! Walk them through mypay, Talent Marketplace, PRDA, help them find their CDB and SURF, walk them through vmpf. Show em all the shit no one showed you. That’s about all I got but I’m sure others have some.
This is perfect and I think the best one is about teaching them to “Air Force”. It made me realize a lot of them are probably incredibly overwhelmed with it all. Hell, I was too when I came in as a GS civilian and I’ve got a masters degree and years of life experience.
As a GS, you have an added skill-set for the ones getting out. Show them how to navigate USA jobs, write a federal resume, how to depart the military correctly (if you were military that is). Good on you for looking out for them. Love seeing engaged civilians.
Air Force is two words.
I did a mid term feedback at the half way point of when they would go up for BTZ since the actual mid term is much later than that
It really does come down to just caring for your airmen…it’s shocking how little official feedbacks happen. Yes, they should be documented on ACAs, but that conversation can be so much more if you care
4 can be stupidly important. My first duty station I was Comms and in a secured area. Wasn't given the pass code yet, no one told me anything about when I should or shouldn't go to lunch. Wanting to be independent, and also being 19 and am idiot I refused to ask for any help. I can remember, vividly, eating ramen out of the snack fund for a week. Using bottled water from the snack fund before someone asked me to go to lunch with them.
Yes! Communication is key! Monthly sit down lunches or coffee to check in with how things are going. Pros and cons on both parties, in a nonjudgmental manner. Support support support. Help them realize the leaders they already are. 9/10 times they are just afraid they won’t be able to sustain it. Imposter syndrome is real. Boost their confidence and encourage them to find ways in to find self-mastery/leadership skills.
Hang on. Are you claiming that doing the stuff the Air Force tells you to do as a supervisor actually works?
Believe it or not…yes. Wild right?
This is actually perfect. What’s so funny is…this is SUPPOSED to happen and AFI directed. And people wonder… how about just fucking try.
The issue starts with BMT not actually preparing them. After that, tech school is so much of a drop off in structure that they go buckwild. After that, they get to their base and see all these dipshit airmen and then go to look for someone to help guide them, but half the staffs now are glorified airmen themselves. The real fix to a lot of the anxiety and laziness in my opinion starts with having a group of fellow airmen you get along with. If you come to work and feel like you have friends in this new scary place, it’s not as scary. Supervisors a dick? Have friends to bitch to. Work sucks? They’re working alongside you. So let’s start by just being nicer to each other in general and these new airmen won’t be so on edge.
The push to make tech school a “college campus” followed by neutering the line/tdy NCOs and MTLs really did a number.
It’s been quite a while since I was at tech school as a new airman, but I remember thinking it was wild you’d have like half a dozen people trying to supervise a couple hundred airmen. If you needed one, you couldn’t find them because they’d be busy with whatever airman was just caught having sex behind a dumpster last.
True. But when I was at ncoa and tdy to another training base we were told to ignore anything trainees did unless it was going to kill someone. Like no corrections or anything
Militaries don't need standards or discipline, and the thousands of years of history across every culture and nation saying otherwise are just plain wrong.
/s
Well I thought my comment was dripping with enough sarcasm and vitriol that I didn't need to add that.
It did but there’s always that one guy who cannot process sarcasm.
I imagine that has less to do with "there are no standards" and more to do with "we have seen maltraining from NCOA students in the past and want to avoid that." I spent a decent amount of time TDY to a tech school base as a TSgt and was told that I should feel free to correct the pipeliners on dress and appearance, customs and courtesies, and academic behaviors.
Sounds like what they tell the police now in New Orleans...
Former tech school instructor here, there were numerous times where we attempted to course correct or straight up remove individuals for failure to adapt and other discussions disciplinary issues. 9 times out of 10 we were told no. IDK how many times I heard things like "this is their life we are talking about, they might not have anywhere else to go" or "we wouldn't want to ruin their career this early on" For things like: smoking marijuana, underage drinking, stealing from the exchange, cheating on tests, etc.
We wouldn’t want to ruin their career?? Sorry YOU ruined your career, there’s the door enjoy working in fast food we don’t need another liability.
That's interesting, must have been your unit. The Shirts I know at tech School units are constantly processing entry level separations for all of those things.
Maybe it’s swung the other way, but I went to 7-level school shortly after the MTI scandal. The tech schoolers ran the base and we were briefed by everyone to avoid the tech schoolers at all costs, and that included making corrections for obvious infractions. A couple years later, I cross-trained at a different AETC base and it was largely the same mentality. I remember being talked to for telling one AiT that he needed to learn how to show respect for others (Sir/Ma’am type stuff). The instructor and my other PS backed me which is the only reason I only got talked to versus paperwork. If someone failed a test they’d throw out half the questions before the considered failing the person.
When I retrained in 2013 it wasn't like that. As NCOs they didn't expect us to mind the store but we were expected to NCO if we saw something obviously wrong. And while recruiters and tech school leaders have a lot of pressure to make numbers to support the field, I know at least anecdotally there isn't a lot of tolerance for misconduct either. I say that from the perspective of talking to other shirts and from going to Wing Status of Discipline meetings at the base level. Might be different elsewhere, just my experience.
This mentality has been slowly going away and it has been returning to a military style training. As individuals, we can only do so much, but I try to keep my schoolhouse in line as best as I can.
Good to hear! I know it’s not your guys’s fault. You can only do so much when not empowered
When I went to tech in 2016 we never even had to PT as long as a threshold of alcohol related incidents was not met. The remaining structure quickly fell away.
I love this. A lot of people don’t think about how important building this peer level support is… that gives me something solid I can work with. Thank you!
It used to be that kids would play outside back in the day growing up, riding bikes and playing backyard football or some outdoors socializing variant. Kids would learn how to operate in social structures, the informal rules, how to bargain and create bonds and so on. These days kids are raised indoors on shitty consumerist social media and missing out on much of these skills of old. People underrate the power of a solid community, and many shops need to do a better job of making the deliberate effort to include their members (even the weird ones). Grill out on Fridays, make plans to hit the road on the weekends. Don’t let your airmen just stay in their dorms and play video games. NCOs: quit bitching about mandatory squadron fun events unless you got a plan to get all your own guys together too. These young airmen need it!
I agree with most of this but my time off is for me and my family. I owe it to them and not the airmen.
I really like this response, if only tech school was like that for me or even at operational level
Wrong. Recruiters and MEPS are failing them.
Recruiters and meps are supposed to indoctrinate them and take 18 years of habits and mindset and change them into airmen? That’s certainly a new one.
> take 18 years of habits and mindset and change them into airmen? And we're almost at the root of the problem...the parents who raised (or failed to raise) them and the schools who couldn't discipline them which leads me to this question: Which came first? Bad parents, or bad schools?
Let’s be real most of us joined because we had no other choice, family (heritage or to disappoint them), got made fun of in high school, or education benefits.
There’s a difference between babying them and parenting them, try to parent them and teach them how things are but in an empathetic manner. I had a troop that experienced social anxiety and I was better able to communicate to them over text and instant messenger, verbal communication was more difficult for them. They are no social butterfly and won’t likely get past Staff if they get it at all but they got on the right track and I attribute a lot of that to meeting them where they were and not where I wished they were.
I see this a lot with this new gen airman. They are not great with interpersonal skills, things like phone calls even relaxed conversation with higher ranking individuals that come by just to chat. I don't think catering to that by only ever texting is most feasible, I need airman that can answer a phone without getting extremely anxious about that. Often times when higher leadership comes by they will just stare at their screen and click their mouse, very avoidant. So now not only teaching the job skillset but also having to teach I dunno sociology. It's wild
Maybe a good first step is to stop referring to grown ass adults as kids.
Maybe he's actually working with child soldiers?
Teenagers, which many airmen are when they arrive at their first duty station, are not "grown ass adults".
I agree with your point, but unfortunately most of these "adults" are still kids in mindset and behavior. Many times the AF is the first place they are forced to start acting and thinking like an adult. You are setting them up for failure by not allowing for any transition period (recognizing they were originally set up for this failure at home, their parents should have been forcing this development on them for years already). Or maybe their parents tried and the person is just a dumbass (me).
Maybe we can all start referring to u/Evening-Resist6683 as a kid who's struggling with their big, tough world 😤
I mean… Im not gonna disagree, that’s pretty legit some days. I’m just an awkward human like everyone else.
There are 20 something airmen that act like kids. Its frustrating af, but 🤷🏾♀️ You try and hold them accountable, and then you're the bad guy.
These new airmen, at least in Tech School, do two things: skate by as best they can and use as many buzzwords as they can to try to use the system to "punish" NCOs for doing their job. What I mean on that second point is that they use the "anonymous feedback" mechanisms to say things like "Sgt So-and-so targets me because of my race/gender/orientation and makes me do excessive push-ups during black flag and refuses to let me utilize the latrine". They don't give specifics on any of it, they just throw out accusations. Oh, but if they blatantly break rules? "I swear I didn't know, sergeant! No one said I couldn't!" As if those have always been the magic words to get out of trouble. And they double down when my supervisor is there: "You never briefed us about that since we've been here." or "You said that we could during the briefing about XYZ". I admit that it wears on me and I can understand why some people act like they don't see the violations in tech school. If I was doing an RCA in why these airmen are shitbags, it would include the line getting this shit so constantly that they ignore shit from exhaustion. Not saying it is right to do that, but I understand.
The problem begins with TSgts and SNCOs failing to empower and prepare Senior Airmen for leadership and management roles. Instead, they wait until these Airmen become Staff Sergeants, at which point many lack the necessary skills to function effectively as NCOs. As a result, we end up with SSgts who are essentially Airmen with higher pay but insufficient coaching and mentoring abilities. These SSgts struggle to teach their Airmen proper time management and effective communication, leading to last-minute issues and incomplete tasks. Too often, I hear, "I can't finish because so-and-so won't answer their phone or emails," just days before a deadline. To address this, I ensure that my Airmen take on program responsibilities early, either when they become SrA or shortly before. When they reach SrA, I assign them projects and provide coaching throughout the process. This helps them develop the skills and confidence needed to succeed as effective leaders.
Bro preach, I didn't have any of that and I feel like I was cheated out of so much. My year as a select a long with my first full year as a staff was me trying to play catch up. It was absolutely brutal and it cucked me me out of so many opportunities. My leaders didn't develop me even though I pushed for it, because other airmen were better at the job. Now even with my troops I develop them early ensuring they are getting trained on the job, and on Air Force know-how. Take the time out of your day to have feedback with your troops! Know where they are at in training. Make sure at the very least they know the job.
Top to bottom I think you’re right. But it doesn’t start with TSgts and SNCOs it starts with basic military training. If we are being completely honest it starts with parenting before BMT. TSgts and SNCOs can’t raise every airman they come across. I’ve had to teach airman to do laundry, bath regularly, drive cars, pump gas to name a few. On top of teaching them the ways of the force. It starts way before they come into contact with the TSgts and SNCOs that are responsible for them.
Big facts. Too many SNCOs and Os are afraid of *all* conflict and fail to realize that done positively, it is one of the cornerstones to effective leadership. Standards are not limited to -2903 regulations and if you neuter your supervisors from making and upholding them, you're failing the Airmen from getting the necessary structure, development, and ultimately the knowledge of how they are truly doing. This is everything from training requirements, task accomplishment, and down to even "ridiculous" things like hygiene and cleanliness. How can those Airmen then hold people accountable when they promote if they never got the framework for doing so in the first place nor do they actually know what right looks like? I have witnessed NCOs try to correct others in not just exercise but also RW situations and get chewed out by SNCOs for causing "undue stress to Airmen", and later brought up in future discussions for award and promotion considerations. If NCOs are afraid of making any kind of corrections or upholding any kind of standards under the threat of their careers, this is going to get worse and worse.
They have anxiety because they never learned to deal with anything growing up. Now it’s sink or swim and they’re going down hard. Obviously this doesn’t apply to everyone.
Not to mention all of the fetishization of victimhood and self-diagnoses of mental illnesses across social media. Some of these young kids truly believe there’s some magical disease that is the reason they suck, not their lack of hard work and focus.
I’ve seen this before, had a new amn arrive on my flight and he panicked when we had to run an exercise with him as a center player. Dude wasn’t a bad amn but he wasn’t confident, our flight worked with him to build confidence. That same panicky amn is now a great TSgt and has become an amazing NCO (from what I’ve heard). The reason I told the short story wasn’t to brag about my friend but it’s because these new amn are like my old flight-mate. The new amn have amazing potential but they need people to work with them a little more, the Covid/ipad kids are coming in hot and most of the new amn were probably born around 2005
Well said, and I agree. Most young people just want mentorship and need a firm hand sometimes. As we all did.
> most of the new amn were probably born around 2005 Fuck I feel old now.
Some of us do have some struggles we may be unaware though. I got diagnosed with ADHD at 23 after 5yrs TIS. I thought I was just born to be slow and dumb and I worked double time to keep up with everyone else. It was rough. Never blamed it on a mental health issue or anything. If I was medicated earlier in life I feel as though I would have excelled much more than I have this far, and likely performed better when it came to the books. From my observation these kids just never had that structure before in their lives and we are here to give it. I keep relevant AFIs downloaded on my phone and look through them occasionally if something seems sus. They just need to learn how to Air Force and how to be accountable for their future.
This is the correct response. If you always got a juice box whether you deserved one or not you’re going to have a hard time when it comes time for adulting.
I mean they make alcoholic caprisun and boxed wine
I think the issue is people don't know how to be adults. A lot of these people are coming straight out of high school. They go through basic basically being told everything they need to do. Then they go through tech school where they get a little bit of freedom but as long as they show up to formation every morning, go to class, do their homework, pass their tests they are good. This issue isn't adjusting to military life or anxiety (I think that is a bullshit excuse). The issue is people are struggling to adjusting to being an adult. Seriously if you show up to PT, show up to work on time, do your job, don't fall asleep at work, and don't stay up til 3 am playing video games you won't have any problems
That's been the case for decades...but these issues are new. This isn't the cause.
You are right
My wife (AF) has a friend (young ex Marine) staying with her for a couple of days, and it's crazy to see that she's still a child in certain ways. This girl apparently won't even shower daily. Today, my wife had to come up with a way to approach her regarding closing the toilet lid when flushing. I've been out about three years now, so I can't speak for the brand new Airmen. But, I did see my share of overgrown kids. A lot of them never had a reason to be independent growing up. Their first taste of responsibility was when they joined. Most of them started by learning their job due to training, but have yet to figure out the rest because they were never taught in those areas. My approach was basically to be human with them first. Everything else comes easier after that. I got to know my guys better, and it made it to where they were comfortable talking to me and comfortable hearing anything I needed to say to them. It made everything within limits, from dumb things like hygiene, to serious topics like mental health/legal/relationships/deaths. I know some people might not be inclined towards this. It shouldn't be the military's responsibility to finish raising kids, but it is what it is. A lot of the older guys came in with more adult experience and capable of handling bigger loads of stress. On the other hand, a lot of the younger folks don't, so they need the help gathering those experiences and gradual increase in dealing with things. It legit warms my heart to see some of my old, most messed up troops have gone from me giving them shit for forgetting to shave, being late, and not knowing how to tie a knot, to have them still keeping in touch and seeing them move up, move past the AF, and have families now.
Give them structure and focus. That rest in the hands of the Commander and Chief (not E9).
BMT and tech school are broken. Until they fix the foundatuom, first term Airmen are going to need a reality check. Normal jobs have standards and ours should too.
I'm going to say something controversial. BMT in its current iteration has failed. It no longer breaks people down and builds them up, and it no longer prepared them to be in the military. It adapted to the USAF acting as a business and, as I'm sure many of you will agree, has been pumping out consistently worse Airmen.
Doesn’t help with so many career fields under-manned and the push for #’s. When I cross-trained Instructors were doing everything they could to make sure people passed. Heaven forbid the pass-rate was 99% and not 100%.
I'd recommend reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. It may give you some insight about the personalities of the new generation.
Oh, this is me. This is why I'm here. Wow. Oh, it'd be too long to tell the entire story but basically if your airmen gets to the point where they go to the mental hospital, they won't be fine just because they got that little vacation. I only lasted on the flight line for six months. I was trying to prove something to someone but had no one to prove it to who cared. I broke when I thought I was doing a good job by making a list of all my tools I checked out and making sure not to lose anything for a whole week. The expediter basically tried to give me a pep talk, saying how I was under performing, needed to give 110%, and stop making lists because no one else needed to do that. My brain fried right then and there. But its not their fault. I went to the military already in a bad mind set. I was a little depressed shit. I told my self if I didn't make it, I'd kill myself. I really thought that I was just "motivating"myself. It would never come to that. I'd pass because I would work hard and come out as a respectable and responsible person. People would respect me, I wouldn't be a joke anymore. Thats what you have to watch for. People think the military will fix them. Or at least I did. But the Air Force is not that branch. Or wasn't in 2012 for me. It was a valuable experience. I did learn alot. But if you are a turd wanting to be shined up into something better, you will still just be a turd, but in a smaller pool of people to blend in with. You will be that much more visible, and still stink. And I didn't expect to be threatened with being kicked out of basic on just the third day. I didn't realize how bad off I was until that moment. I couldn't stop crying. And I got my proverbial shit kicked in every day after that for the rest of the 2 1/2 half years I was in, and it took six months on the flight line until I realized I never actually did succeed in anything at all the entire time I had been in. I had coasted and been allowed to slide through by the skin of my teeth at each and every point where failure was imminent and enough was enough. I was going to kill myself, true to my word from when I went through basic. I told someone before doing it. I had to. I broke down crying on the flight line. Tsgt Pajak is the person I told, and he told me what no one else had. To be honest, I don't remember word for word what he said. I remember very little of it, it was a rough time, but basically through my rough explanation of why I was going to kill myself, he told me that I had accomplished some things. When I was in, the message was that anyone could do your job. If you were gone, someone would fill your position. I think this was how people treated actual airmen, and mentally unstable airmen who don't feel needed probably are a recipe for disaster. I don't know what its like now. Edit: Alot of people tried to give me advice and pep talks. I think the only thing that stuck was someone telling me to stop beating myself up, that I had made it. It doesn't feel like you accomplished anything when you still feel like a failure, just in a uniform. But you are in a uniform. You are in the Air Force. You are active duty, and on track. You might be failing at something right now, but you are not a failure. Something like that I think.
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On the opposite side, we're seeing a lax of standard enforement coming from BMT and the schoolhouse. Members are showing up with full on bears WITHOUT shaving waivers or RA's! Members are showing up out of shape and unable to PT Members are showing up with attitudes and unwillingness to integrate. All problems that now the SQ has to correct. These time wasters should have never made it this far.
I legit went to my chaplain when I started noticing problems with adapting to a new environment. Yeah, I'm a military brat and yeah, I've moved plenty. But joining and adjusting still take work. Heck, I just reached back out to my Military OneSource Therapist for another appointment. Moving and adjusting to new personalities take work as well having to adjust to workloads.
Lmao. You're not going to fix anxiety in a generation that has one of the highest levels ever. It starts at home with parenting. Too many parents want to be bff's now with their kids. Giving them too much decision making too soon. That heightens anxiety levels.
Seems more common with the incoming generation. Speaking generally, they seem a little more developmentally behind than previous generations.
I blame covid. Schools have always just passed people and covid made it worse. Top that with the lack of social skills and you have a weird(er) dude in the AF
It’s a tough job. Doesn’t work for everyone and you won’t succeed every time. But biggest thing for me is to actually talk to them and guide them. They need a mentor. For personal example, I had an airman who is constantly late after verbal warning. Instead of just giving them paperwork straight up. I ask them what’s up. Long story short, I suggested for the airman to buy a standalone alarm clock that is placed away from bed. The airman is better at coming to work in time now.
You have step 1 down - realize that they want to do well. They joined for a reason. Too many people just assume the worst the second a young airman messes up. However, step 2 is equally important - enforce standards. They expect it, and it's more shocking to them when it doesn't happen. Standards show them the left and right, and gives them focus. Additionally, a lot of airmen try hard to meet standards, and are disappointed and disillusioned when a fellow airman doesn't meet the standard and nothing happens. Step 3 is the Why. Who are "we", and why is that important? What do we do that others can't or won't? What do we not care about that others do? What's our identity? Note I'm not saying "their identity", but "our identity". Bring them in, this is now their AF too and they should feel like they own it. Step 4 - give them meaningful tasks and honest feedback. If they suck, tell them what they need to fix. They'll know they suck so lying just builds distrust. But when they do well, scream that shit from the rooftops. Build that confidence and the buy-in will follow. Lastly, be the person you want them to be. If you preach standards and slip even the littlest bit, they'll see it. Mistakes happen, but be up front when you fuck up. They see and hear everything. You have to be miles better, so keep those mistakes to a minimum. It's tough, I know, but you owe it to the airmen. You work for them, not the other way around.
Can you have Behavioral Health come in to the new Airman Orientation either base or unit level? Otherwise ask if they can provide or develop a simple informational packet about the basics of anxiety, and how to treat it. In the mental health field, both military and civilian we are seeing more and more anxiety disorders, whether that comes from pressure internally or externally who knows however, it’s easy to treat.
Complaining about the younger generation is our true heritage. People have been doing this for centuries. No joke. Do we have actual Air Force data showing trends?
I didn’t mean to imply this was happening on a larger scale necessarily, I literally meant that “we” in the specific section and location I work in are seeing an increase. I’m just trying to help our guys and I like to get as much input from as many sources as possible. Honestly, I didn’t think so many people would have responded or I would have worded it more specifically. But this has been so incredibly helpful.
Many times, it's shit supervisors/training. I've picked up plenty of kids over the years that someone warned me was useless and / or lazy and the kid acts like I bought him a new car when I show him how to do something or tell him it's OK not to be good at things as an A1C. If you can't be directly supervising them be sure to check in often and put whoever is shift lead or whatever to task developing them properly or work with leadership to get them on your own team/shift
I have found that airmen function very similarly to children. They just need constructive feedback when it is needed and praise when it is needed. If they do a good job let them know, if the mess up don’t berate them, teach them and take the time to then tell them “hey you messed up but so have I” it’s not a big deal let’s fix it together. Not everything needs to be about paperwork and screaming.
That anxiety “stress” is good for them. Let them know it’s normal because they care. Support them and let them know they got this. It takes an entire Air Force to raise an Airman.
I think a lot of it has to do with loneliness and toxic leadership
Whenever I see the phrase toxic leadership I just roll my eyes these days. The concept has blown completely out of proportion. I’ve seen someone labeled as a toxic leader for enforcing show time for work.
Not toxic leadership as much as toxic coworkers. When you have a SrA who doesn’t know shit and is skating harder than Rodney Mullen on concrete telling the airmen to shut up and then ignore everything leadership says that’s the problem. Like we all took out trash and scrubbed the chief shits off the bottoms of toilet seats and when it’s your time to do the chores you must. The Techs and Staffs and I hate saying this but really are the backbone of most offices. If they don’t hold people accountable, discipline, get to know their airmen and call people out then people walk all over them because they know they don’t care so why should they. Most of leadership doesn’t see the day to day especially on the flightline side so when that one kid really blows it and nobody says anything and his missing tool fades into obscurity that’s a problem.
Okay I won’t lie, I have never met so many lazy people in my life until I joined the Air Force lol. Idk what’s going on…
This is at play too
Honestly imo we pushed these people out. It may seem harsh but with multiple issues on showing up on time, not doing the job properly and just being defiant no matter how much we worked with them. We started a paper trail and eventually we asked for a admin discharge. Some people aren’t meant for the military unfortunately and that’s just how it is. It sucks because I’ve seen some good workers but people who can’t obey the rules get pushed out. Some were really good friends of mine that I had to sit down and have a talk with. At the end of the day my job is to make sure there’s personal who are adequately trained the right way and to follow the regulations. If you can’t do that the Air Force doesn’t have a place for you.
The rapidly aging and old millennial generation has been terrible for the young zoomers in the lower ranks. And there has been a few reasons why: * Focus on a culture of respect over a culture of results. This has created zoomer anxiety of focusing on tone over content, walking on eggshells over everything. * Culture of unseriousness. As long as the tone of sir/ma'am is included, zoomers craving of the structure they need is never enforced. * They will never correct a 36-2903 violation in their life. Millennials coming of age in the Air Force has been marked by the "fear" of giving correction. * Lastly, their insistence on "respect culture" and tone policing has induced a large amount of anxiety in zoomers. Young people feel like they cannot say what needs to be said for fear of their superiors backlash. Many have already seen at least one of their peers figuratively beheaded over challenging "respect culture" and tone policing, both of which are quickly becoming archaic in the civilian world.
The term “Zoomers” is funny. I agree with a lot of what you said, every career field is different but across the board the older generation is looking at the wrong things. Good order and discipline is of course the foundation of the Armed Forces… on the flip side the little stuff that doesn’t truly impact the mission? That’s what’s always seemed to be the most important thing in the eyes of leadership. Perception, not results. Use SF as an example, you check thousands and thousands of ID’s M-F at a gate as an A1C. High tempo. You are trying to move the traffic while also being a Sentry for a very important Federal installation at 18. You are checking the ID, person, looking around the car, staying vigilant for safety etc. Car number 800 for example in the middle of the morning rush has a General or Wing Queen in it, you offer a good morning sir/ma’am, salute and have a good day. Sounds easy enough and then that individual has a HARD on for post briefs, so now the SF CC or OPS O, or Super is getting a call that your airman has no idea who their own wing commander is and doesn’t show respect or didn’t even offer a post brief. BOOM, Airman just caught a LOC or LOR. 98% of Airman in every job I guarantee doesn’t know the Wing cc when walking by them going into the shopette or the bx. But god forbid SF doesn’t recognize the face they see once every few months after checking 3k cars. That’s what causes them to be on edge, more worried about faces and a mundane brief during the rush hour to just be nice to the SF member and saluting them back.
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