Being a "Grey man", or blending in on course - [Merged]

[DG-41]

The true grey man is furthest from that - they are the people that accomplish what needs to be done within their group and with themselves, often above and beyond, but do it without being overly/overtly noticed.

The true soldier does not care if he is noticed or not (except by the enemy, of course) Worrying about being noticed is wasted effort and detracts from the mission.

If the soldier is noticed for doing a good job and is praised, good for him. If he is noticed for doing something wrong, his instructors will correct him *and he will be the better for the correction*

The purpose for training is *learning*. If you are invisible, you cannot learn. Far better to try NOW, and maybe make mistakes, and be corrected, than to cheat yourself of the opportunity to learn in an evironment set up to teach you.

Don't showboat, don't brownnose, don't blade - but certainly do all within your power to become the best troop you possibly can.

DG

 

[QV]

Interesting comments here.  I know a guy who has always strived to be the grey man, incidentally he placed 4th of 32 in infantry battle school and was top student on his PLQ. 

 

[medicineman]

Strange, been pretty much the same here - always been in the top 5-10% on courses by blending in.  Well, I think the verbal safety is going to "R" here.  I'll give you some examples of people on my Recruit course.  First things first.  In my squad alone, out of 36 people that started, we had about 10 of us (myself inclusive) who were ex-Reservists.  There was the one guy who was always out there trying to "help us along" - volunteering for this and that and generally accomplishing the square root of diddly squat.  He was loud, always going on about what he knew and where he'd been, etc.  I believe he held the CFRS record for numbers of recourses in Basic - last I heard he finally graduated after about half way through my 6 month French course.  Of course, he's an extreme, but there's always at least one per course.  We were in fact going to move his kit for him, but weren't allowed.  There was another dude who started to emulate him - that lasted about a week, then he woke up.  The rest of us did what had been suggested to us - blend in.  While doing that, we helped out our fellow candidates in the stuff we were strong in, including leadership issues when they arose.  Oddly enough, those of us that kept our mouths shut or kept things to a dull roar were generally the ones that ended up as squad and course seniors.  All but 2 guys in my squad that ended up as squad/course knobs were the ex-Reserve crowd and all were the one's (again myself included) that showed that being a grey man pays off.  We always had excellent course assessments, did well at most stuff and strangely enough, didn't have to bag lick, be constantly standing there with our hands out for more stuff to do - we just found what needed doing and made it happen.

I liken getting noticed to that knob we all know and love who wanders the workplace with a clipboard of paper and a pen in hand all day long.  This person makes him/herself look important, on a mission and like they're doing something; hopefully the bosses take note of this and they are seen to have initiative.  However, the really crafty boss will actually look at the pad of paper before they decide on how good this dude/ette is and then let him/her know they were noticed...

Spleen back in rib cage.

MM

 

[Hansol]

So basically it comes down to what my gym teacher Mr. Saunders would tell all the jackasses in gym class: "(insert name)! Don't be that guy!"

 

[GO!!!]

+1 to what medicine man has to say.

The Grey man is the place to be, to achieve success in this army. I have yet to see anyone garner any "positive" individual attention on a course, and praise seems to be a foreign term in our army.

The best way to do your job is with a quiet professionalism - be the useful cornerstone rather than the brightly colored (but useless) flag.

 

[billydee]

Hey folks,

Working my way through the recruitment process. Just about to get a medical booked. Very much looking forward to joining the reserves and 'giving back'.

Here's my question. I've been researching what to expect at BMQ - there are lots of people online suggesting that you should aim to 'blend in' at Basic, or not to 'try to hard' while training, so as not to 'stand out' and 'draw attention' to yourself.

I find that to be confusing. Aren't you supposed to be testing yourself or aiming to become something more than what you were on entering?

Wouldn't you, generally speaking, want to try as hard as you possibly can to grow physically and mentally?

 

[mariomike]

Re: On the subject of 'blending in'

See also,

Being the grey wo/man,
https://www.google.ca/search?q=site%3Aarmy.ca+medical+release&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-CA:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7GGHP_en-GBCA592&gfe_rd=cr&ei=Q5oyWZjCCI-R8QeCnZb4BA&gws_rd=ssl#q=site:army.ca+%22grey+man%22&spf=1496488812864

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Yes.  try hard, give 101%.  Being the greyman means not making yourself stand out as a egotistical fuckwad or a knuckledragger who can't tie their own boots.

If you finish something before others (polishing boots, cleaning weapons, etc) then go help others and don't brag about being first/best.  (egotistical fuckwad).  Similarly, if you are the last to clean your weapon because you got your tonque caught in the ejection port cover (again) you might be in the knuckledragger category.  ;D

 

[BeyondTheNow]

Hey folks,

Working my way through the recruitment process. Just about to get a medical booked. Very much looking forward to joining the reserves and 'giving back'.

Here's my question. I've been researching what to expect at BMQ - there are lots of people online suggesting that you should aim to 'blend in' at Basic, or not to 'try to hard' while training, so as not to 'stand out' and 'draw attention' to yourself.

I find that to be confusing. Aren't you supposed to be testing yourself or aiming to become something more than what you were on entering?

Wouldn't you, generally speaking, want to try as hard as you possibly can to grow physically and mentally?

Elaborating on what EITS said a bit, yea, not everyone can be the 'grey man.' There are lots of reasons a recruit might stand out, just make sure they're good reasons vs bad ones. Helping out others is a big one in terms of standing out for positive reasons. If you're done getting your ruck and other gear ready, great, go help someone else get their stuff together, if you (think) you're ready for inspection, great, go give a fresh set of eyes to the guy/girl beside you and see if there's something they missed or run over that common-job one more time, etc. (Your pl mates will appreciate/respect you for that type of attitude also.)

Sometimes the positive/negative things you do won't be done in front of Staff, but don't kid yourself about them not being able to zero-in on the type of recruit a person is.

And if you do end up standing out for a bad reason, it's okay as long as you simply take your jacking-up like an adult and don't (or at least try your hardest not to) make the same mistake again. Mistakes on course are part of the learning curve also.