Originally Posted by Unregistered

Promotions are centrally managed by HR, so your RO and SLs may not necessarily have the precise answers you seek. Of course, the school can speed things up for you by raising your CEP, but lately, getting geo4 after spending only 2 to 3 years as a geo3 seems to only be achievable by people with higher tier scholar status and/or have had their CEP raised multiple times in the first few years of their career. Whereas 2-3 years used to be the norm in the 1A1 to 1A2 days.

i.e., as others say, it affects everyone on average.