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Authority doesn’t always equal competence, especially when promotions outpace training.

One tech-savvy mechanic found himself caught between doing what was right and doing what was expected, and his choice sent ripples up the chain of command!

Read on for the full story!

“You can’t do that work any more, because it’s not your trained specialty…”

When I was in the military, my military occupational specialty (MOS) was power generation equipment repair — or generator mechanic for all the civilians.

He received very specific training in this field.

I was trained on the mostly 5kW and 10kW generators, but when I got to my permanent duty station, they only had a few scrawny 1.5kW and 3kW generators that we occasionally used in the field.

But he was soon assigned other tasks as well.

Once our motorpool captain found out that I was computer savvy, he had me in the office doing reports and memos and other computer-related work.

After a while, they even sent me away with another sergeant for a week of training to manage a new application to track vehicle repair work in the motorpool.

Then a new leader brought in some changes.

Things were good for a year or so, and then we had a change of leadership in the motorpool — including me losing my immediate boss (the sergeant who had trained with me).

The Sergeant First Class (Big Sarge) was known for doing shady stuff, and they wanted me to be comfortable with a lot less accuracy on reporting through the computer system.

But he didn’t agree with how the boss was handling things, so he got reassigned again.

I didn’t feel like being set up to be the scapegoat for the nonsense I knew they were doing.

Due to my lack of cooperation, Big Sarge took me away from that work and put me back on generator duty, “because that’s your MOS.”

Even when we had nothing going on with generators on a regular basis, that’s all they had me working on each day.

Turns out, the people assigned to replace him on the computers needed his help.

Well, things were fine with the computer stuff for almost two months, until it came time to do all the end-of-quarter reporting.

And none of these dummies in the new clique had ever been trained on the system.

So when his boss tries to force him to help, he falls back on their rigid structure for specialties.

So, they fumbled around for two or three days, and then Big Sarge told me right at the end of a motorpool formation that I needed to go and help them run the reports — while we were still in formation.

Me: “I don’t know how to do that, Sergeant!”

Him: “What do you mean? Of course you do!”

Me: “It’s not my MOS, Sergeant!”

Him: “Drop!! Give me 50, soldier!”

He dismissed everyone else and left me out there until I did the pushups.

Later on, the two had a much better conversation.

He was heated, but didn’t say anything else to me that day.

The next day, he called me aside privately and asked if I could please help them out.

“Sure,” I said.

He treated me a whole lot better at that point, and I did run the reports they needed.

What started as a demotion turned into the ultimate full-circle moment.

What did Reddit have to say?

This commenter is surprised the story turned out the way it did.

This fellow military member decided they wanted to stay far away from computers.

Every new manager seems to come in and think their way of doing things is the best.

This commenter has a problem with the types of punishment typically issued in military environments.

This mechanic didn’t even have to lift a finger to get even — he just let their incompetence speak for itself.

The system may have tried to box him in, but it was that very system that ended up giving him the upper hand.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.