We often see people with injuries that are clearly incompatible with life. However, what we often don’t recognize in ourselves and our fellow firefighters are attitudes incompatible with real life.
I guarantee you know someone who has such an attitude. It may be the guy who takes it as a premeditated attempt against his life when the smallest thing doesn’t go right on a call or the gal who’s ready to chuck it all when one small, easily surmountable obstacle gets in the way of her plans. There are a number of people whose attitudes just don’t instill confidence or a team-building spirit in their co-workers.
For example: A-Shift left the station a mess because they’ve been out since they sat down to eat last night’s dinner. B-Shift firefighter Dapper Dan is a real anal-retentive type — shoes spit-shined, helmet polished and turnouts starched before every shift. He can’t stand it when A-Shift leaves a smudge on the mirror that blocks the view of his perfectly groomed moustache. When the A-Shift guys return after a long night of saving lives, Dan goes off on them. A-Shift just “salutes” Dan. Dan then unloads on the B-Shift commander. Dan’s had it. Last time it was toast crumbs in the butter and day-old doughnuts left on the counter.
If you supervise someone like Dan with a poor attitude, pull them aside, coach them through their rough period, and help them learn ways to look at their dilemma from multiple angles — not just head-on. In Dan’s case, sit him down and go over his options one by one:
• Transfer to the anal-retentive station;
• Sulk;
• Clean the station and sulk;
• Understand that what comes around goes around: A-shift has to clean up C-Shift’s mess, and C-Shift has to clean up B-Shift’s mess, including Dan’s.
• Pay A-Shift to stick around and clean up their mess;
• Get over it — part of our job is cleaning up other peoples messes, whether its Ms. Jones’ burned food on the stove, the drunk driver’s latest victim or the off-going shift’s when they haven't been able to get to it themselves; or
• Approach the B-Shift commander in a more reasonable fashion and calmly explain why he finds this situation so upsetting.
Hopefully, when Dan thinks about different options, he’ll see that the last two are really the only reasonable options here. Of course, my advice would be: Get over it. This is the simple solution for most of our problems.
