You asked…. Did we really listen? 🤯🤷🏻‍♂️

Goodness gracious…. All I wanted for Christmas was a new EER System and my two front teeth.

I’ve started a compendium of things I certainly would have rather seen before a new evaluation system. Feel free to add yours.

1. Fully staffed embassies and bureaus (with positions filled for more than one bidding cycle).

2. Functional IT systems.

3. Clear, consistent policy guidance that doesn’t change every six weeks.

4. Real language training time instead of “learn it while doing three jobs.”

5. Predictable assignments and bidding transparency, not last-minute surprises.

6. Promotion precepts that actually match daily work, especially crisis and management labor.

7. Adequate resources for diplomacy so officers aren’t improvising basic tools.

8. Leadership continuity long enough to finish an initiative before the next “reset.”

9. Work-life balance that acknowledges 24/7 crisis response isn’t sustainable forever.

10. Actually being asked what’s broken and seeing fixes implemented.