Format
A formal Letter of Counseling is normally recorded on an AF Form 174, Record of Individual Counseling, but if you don't have an AF Form 174 on hand, the counseling may be recorded on plain bond paper or squadron letterhead. If using bond paper or letterhead, the format is the same for Letters of Counseling, Letters of Admonishment, and Letters of Reprimand. The only difference is the subject line. See the example below. When writing a Letter of Counseling, the following information should be included:
- What the member did or failed to do and the associated dates
- What improvement is expected
- That continued violations of standards will result in more severe action
- That the individual has 3 duty days to submit rebuttal documents to the initiator. When calculating the response due date, the date of receipt is not counted, and if the individual mails their acknowledgment, the date of the postmark on the envelope will serve as the date of acknowledgment
- That the person who initiates the LOC, LOA, or LOR has 3 duty days to advise the individual of their final decision regarding any comments submitted by the individual
- That all supporting documents received from the individual will become part of the record
- The document must include a Privacy Act statement. Written administrative counseling, admonitions, and reprimands are subject to the rules of access and protection as outlined in The Privacy Act of 1974. The same rules apply to any copies kept by supervisors or in the individual's UIF or Personnel Information File (PIF).
The format isn't as important as the documenting of improper behavior. Although failure to include all the information required above could possibly prevent the use of the document as support for further, more severe actions, I have never seen a document thrown out because of it. In real life, supervisors with enough balls to recognize, correct, and document bad behavior are relatively rare. Most of us tend to look the other way as long as possible. We don't want to write up our “friends” or subordinates. We often force our Senior NCOs to assume more responsibility for managing or disciplining our troops than we should. So, on those rare occasions when a supervisor does meet his or her management responsibility, their actions, even if poorly documented, will generaly be welcomed and suppported by the First Sergeant and the CSS.
