The Air Force is asking recruiters in a survey if they feel pressured to cut corners — but the fine print on the survey has some worried that answering honestly could get them in trouble.
The online survey asks recruiters to agree or disagree with the statement, “I feel pressured to cut corners to meet goal.”
But on the survey’s opening page, it says, “We cannot provide confidentiality to a participant regarding comments involving criminal activity/behavior, or statements that pose a threat to yourself or others.”
Recruiters told Air Force Times that they take that to mean anyone who admits to feeling pressure to improperly cut corners — which could include falsifying reports against Air Force rules — would have just admitted to criminal activity or behavior, sacrificing their anonymity and opening themselves up to punishment.
As a result, they doubt any recruiters who know anything about report falsification will answer the survey honestly.
“No one’s going to say anything unless there’s full immunity about what’s going on,” said one recruiter in New York, who asked for his name not to be printed for fear of retribution.
“That shuts down the entire survey, if they say that [about not being able to provide confidentiality]. It’s too wide open of a statement,” the New York recruiter said.
“That’s telling recruiters, ‘We want to know what’s going on, but we don’t want to know what’s going on,’ ” said another recruiter in Florida, who also asked for his name not to be printed. “If they’re going to come out with a survey, they need to make it complete amnesty for anyone who is being completely honest.”
The Florida recruiter said he does not “pencil-whip” reports, as falsifying reports is sometimes called, but knows of recruiters who do.
The recruiters said this is the first time they remember seeing a survey ask about the pressure to cut corners.
Air Force Times last September published a story, based on interviews with current and former recruiters, about the pressures some overworked recruiters are under to falsify reports. Some recruiters said their flight chiefs tacitly encouraged them to falsify reports. One former recruiting flight chief said he himself encouraged his recruiters to cut corners to get everything done.
The Air Force Recruiting Service last year strongly denied that falsifying reports was a widespread problem, and said cheaters are swiftly punished when they are found out.
Investigators at the 337th Recruiting Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina last year investigated allegations that recruiters were being pushed to falsify records, but said they found nothing to substantiate those allegations.
The Air Force Recruiting Service was unable to respond to questions about the survey by press time.
