There are two sorts of people who come to you for your help: Students and Parasites.
Students (this includes peers and superiors) who come to you in an honest attempt to learn a skill you have are normally welcomed by most folks (unless you are some sort of sociopath). They need to do something and are currently unable to do it or unable to do it as well as you can so they want you to teach them. No problem. This sort of behavior in the Army (or a business) enhances the entirety of the organization. Critical skills and knowledge become distributed throughout the hierarchy and prevent knowledge from becoming over concentrated in employees who may leave.
Parasites are those folks who are not operating from a position of good faith when asking for help. Instead they imply intend to leech the fruits of your intellect or labor for their own temporary gain. They are the folks who come to you asking for assistance with a presentation or a point paper so poorly assembled that it strikes you as an affront to mankind. They know that you won’t allow them to send up this piece of trash as a matter of principle. So there you sit and “help” them to correct their project (read as “dictate an original creation to them”). They make no attempt to discern the methodology you use to create these competent works, all they care about is that it gets done right then to save face.
Where is the hypocrisy you ask? Surely you are simply acting the part of the Good Samaritan here? Wrong! By allowing these people to limp onward as undiscovered morons in your organization you are weakening both the business and yourself. The Army is especially prone to this. Without a copious amount of documented egregious flaws to point at a CSM or 1SG is unable to write these people unfavorable performance reviews. Your good nature has allowed an incompetent the opportunity to present themselves for continuance or promotion on an equal footing as other workers who are competent on their own or who are legitimate Students!
This is in no way meant to excoriate those who legitimately need or want to learn something. In fact all of us oscillate between the roles of Student and Teacher. This give and take is at the heart of all successful professional endeavors. Instead this is intended as a wake up call to myself. I have committed this gentle hypocrisy over and over throughout my career. It goes against my nature to turn away those who want my help even when I know their request is not based from an honest desire learn and improve their own skillsets.
Parasites have become a poisonous stain on the fabric of the Army’s soul. We are headed rapidly down the road to another Hollow Force. Time and time again skilled and selfless soldiers have unthinkingly shouldered the burdens of those less motivated, skilled, or intelligent than themselves. Ordinarily this would be considered and act of charity but when committed in the defense of a nation it borders on sabotage. The Army is not supposed to be a welfare state for the unskilled. We are supposed to be a professional, skilled, and aggressive group who kill people and break things when the nation needs us to. Dilution of the skillpool results in poorly laid plans, sloppy execution, collateral damage, and worst of all fratricide or needless deaths. This is the gentle, subtle, and damning hypocrisy in which I and a host of others have engaged in. I come to this realization late in the fight but my participation in this unwitting conspiracy of fools ends today.
