Why Do Some Recruiters Encourage You to Lie?
Recruiting is a hard, hard, duty. Recruiters are required to "make mission" (or face consequences to their career), and "making mission" is often beyond their control. This system of "making mission" sometimes forces some recruiters to break the rules (damned if they do, damned if they don't). This does not justify this, but it helps explain why it happens. From a former Marine Corps Recruiter:
This may help you understand more about the overall military recruiting situation and hopefully prevent you from over-generalizing based on your own bad experience.
Ahhh...where to begin. I spent about 9 years in recruiting from the station level to the Headquarters level...and even in between. (Yes, the Marines) There are no good answers on how to make a better system. Believe me when I tell you, the Services and the large majority of all the recruiters out are all doing the best they can under the circumstances. The resources are tight, the quotas are high, every recruiter means one less person out fighting the war, and yes, the pressure is intense and continuous. I won't say anymore on how hard it is or it will seem like I'm making excuses for those who break the rules.
I will tell you that the Services do care very much about doing the right thing and recuiters do get fired, usually without mercy, when they get caught violating the rules. Each firing or recruiter (relief as we called it,) usually involved a thorough investigation and depending on the situation, it often was accompanied by some form of punishment...in some cases, a discharge from the service. When widespread offenses occur in an entire recruiting station or the local command is responsible for allowing bad recruiting practices, they may fire several officers and senior supervisors as well. Needless to say , most punishments are career-ending. Now, on top of that, being fired from recruiting duty because you didn't make your quotas, is also usually career ending. Recruiters often feel like they are between a rock and a hard place because they usually are. So your observation about the effect of the pressure tempting people to do what ever it takes to make their quota is not far off target.
The MEPS is independent from each Service, and is not on any quota. Many recruiters view the MEPS as the enemy, as an obstacle to recuiting. Consequently, some tend to "coach" their applicants on how to answer the medical questions. Yes, it's wrong, but MEPS folks are pretty good about recognizing it.
Better minds than yours and mine have tried to come up with a more effective system. DoD has worked on it. The Services meet and try to exchange ideas about what works and what doesn't. There are countless studies, investigations, and experiments. Some Services have hand-picked recruiters, some take only volunteers, they've tried team quotas, no quotas, added more officers, created career recruiters to keep the best ones out there, hired marketing/ad agencies, hired civilians to recruit, you name it, they are trying it.
The reason quotas are such a big deal, beisides the fact that the military needs so many bodies to do the work, Congress mandates that each Service be at a certain number (end strength) at the end of the year. That number is tied to the budget and the money they get to operate. If they fall too far below that number because they miss thier annual recruiting goals, Congress could reduce the size of the Service and the dollars that go with it. My point is, those recruiting quotas really are do-or-die numbers, even though they still have to be made legally and ethically.
Anyway, I apologize if this comes across like I'm preaching or making excuses for those few recruiters who cross the line. There really is no excuse for it, but as much as we all would like to think that all recuiters are hard working, highly ethical, totally honest, and the best of the best, the fact remains that they are really just human like everyone else. Most really believe in the product they are trying to sell and do the best they can until they get back to the job they enlisted for.
