Joined
·
6,722 Posts
I've been in full time LE since 1989. I've been with my current agency for most of that time. In all of these years, I've been in uniform, and never advanced in rank. The reasons are pretty simple: In my heart, I've always known that I'm just not supervisor material. Please understand, I am quite proficient at being a patrolman, and I require minimal supervision while doing it [why not?! I've had over two decades to get it right]. But, doing a job for 23 years does NOT automatically qualify you to be a leader. The idea of being the guy that other officers look to for answers, and the guy that the brass look to for explanations, literally makes my stomach knot up. The thing is, I must admit that being a slick sleeve after all of this time is really embarrassing. But, to me, the choice is stark and simple: Take the embarrassment of never being promoted, or risk the humiliation of getting promoted beyond my capabilities, and then falling on my face with it. To me, it seems that the lesser of the two evils would be just plain embarrassment. What do you guys think? Should I give in to my self-respect and start trying for stripes...or follow my heart and continue to avoid it like the plague? Any non-LE folks are welcome to chime in too, by the way.