A 25+ YEAR VETERAN DESCRIBED A CHALLENGE FOR A NEW FIRE CHIEF. The chief was recruited from the other coast and immediately enthralled in a budget battle.
The chief could not understand why the City Manager was fixated on the consolidation of the Air Shop with Technical Services. It eliminated one uniformed captain position when there were easier and more effective budget reduction actions.
“The fire chief did not know that the Air Shop captain had a long-ago affair with the city manager’s wife. The captain suffered an off-the-job injury and the old fire chief created a light-duty job for his recruit school and Truck 521 buddy. If the air shop position is eliminated, the captain will be forced off the job. He needs two more years on the job to get his pension.”
IT IS ABOUT WHO THEY KNOW … AND WHAT THEY KNOW ABOUT YOU
Career firefighters start unique relationships on the first day of recruit school. Shared difficulties, challenges and successes create career-long relationships within a band of rookies.
In departments that do not churn staff, the next set of lasting relationships are with your work crew. Days of dull routine punctuated by episodes of intense excitement. Hundreds of shared meals while working a 40 to 77 hour weekly schedule on a rotating shift. Some crews spend decades together, sharing vacations and off-the-job adventures.
Thirty Years on the Line was written by Boston Deputy Chief Leo D. Stapleton in 1982 with stories involving urban firefighter incidents and characters … including one of Stapleton’s recruit school buddies who would always critique the chief’s performance after a major incident.
Stapleton also published a six-novel, 10-year historical fiction epic following a group that start as Ffops, Boston fire fighters on probation in 1996 and conclude with one of them, Donald Holden, becoming a deputy chief.
DEVELOPING YOUR SPHERE
The range of your sphere of influence is determined by personal competence, public reputation, credentials and whatever baggage you carry. Most of us are not completely aware of our sphere, as described in the JOHARI window description of interpersonal communication and relationships. 
The process of getting a 360 degree feedback is one way to reduce the size of your JOHARI blind spots and unknown selfs.
The unique fire station work environment often means getting unsolicited feedback and harassment if your blind spots/unknown self are causing a concern. There are few secrets in a group that has been working together for years.
Competent firefighters who demonstrate consistent behavior at emergencies and in the station are more valued than a firefighter who bounces from hero to zero. We admire those to “Walk their Talk.”
BECOMING A SUPERVISOR: CREDENTIALS CHECK
Hugh Caulfield, developer of the FDNY Line Officer Development Program, describes how urban firefighters sizes up their new boss.
The first stage begins the moment a work group learns that a they are getting a new supervisor. There is uncertainty and firefighters begin a credentials search.
How serious does the new supervisor take the job? Where did the officer work; busy or quiet companies? Does the officer have experience that the firefighters can rely on?
Getting a brand new officer who spent the last three years shuffling papers at headquarters does not make firefighters comfortable. Even more discomfort if the new officer was just promoted from a paramedic ambulance in departments that use dual-role paramedic/firefighters.
Finally, what are the supervisor’s weaknesses and hot-buttons?
PACKING YOUR REPUTATION BACKPACK
Every firefighter has a reputation that begins the first day they enter the department. The reputation grows with each activity, on or off-duty adventure and emergency incident. Truths, rumors and stories fill the backpack.
The fire department social structure is like a large, extended and slightly dysfunctional family. Our employee assistance program (EAP) colleagues in Phoenix note that, for some members, the fire department is their ONLY source of family structure.
The firefighters want to determine how the new officer will respond to requests, problems and emergencies.
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
URBAN COMMANDER is an irregular feature aimed at career staff working in a department with 400 or more career firefighters. It will cover topics that were too esoteric, short-term or “sharp” for the Fire Officer textbook. FossilMedic spent eight years as a fire company officer on engines, aerials and heavy rescue companies.
February 07: It is a Labor thing ….
August 08: Idiot Replacement Theory
September 09: Just Enough Leadership
Also on FireGeezer…
- Miami-Dade latest take home car “gotcha” – October 17, 2011
- Either comply with your rules or change the requirements – October 13, 2011
- Who is behind the camera: Raleigh and Wake County – January 23, 2011
- Kenny Hedrick 1992 PGFD LODD – January 12, 2011
