Are firefighters too "connected" to the outside world while on calls?
Click here to read the solutions to the April Personnel Problem of the Month: The Half-NakedTruth
Problem to Ponder
You have a good spot with a good crew and are stationed in a nice part of town. One of your firefighters is out sick for the shift, and a rover (floater) has been assigned to your station. His name is Scott, and you've never met him. He has 2 1⁄ 2 years on the job and seems like a pretty good guy. He does all the stuff he needs to do in the morning: checks out the equipment, helps clean the station, drops for chow and kitty, and does a pretty good job on the first couple of calls. On the third call of the day, you respond to a 68-year-old female with chest pain. While you're documenting the call and talking to your patient's wife, Scott is taking vitals and doing all the BLS crap he needs to be doing when suddenly, his cell phone starts ringing. To your amazement, Scott actually stands up, excuses himself and answers the call. How are you going to address the problem of the electronically challenged youth we all have to supervise these days?
Please e-mail your responses to FireRescue@FireRescue1.com, or e-mail your solution to frm.editor@elsevier.com. Please include your name, rank, department name and contact information. Although we will not print identifiable information without your consent, we must confirm your identity. We'll post reader responses here, as well as in the April issue of FireRescue.
Solutions to April's Personnel Problem of the Month: The Half-Naked Truth
Put Some Clothes On!
Your firefighter's half-naked friend is welcome to ride along — but only if she gets dressed first
Last month's problem had you pondering a young, well-built, inappropriately dressed female rider who one of your firefighters, Phil, invited down to the station (see "The Half-Naked Truth," April issue, p. 154). I got three responses to this problem. Let's look at them.
The Reponses
1) "First, I would say that the captain missed the perfect opportunity to stop this before it even happened by reviewing with Phil the ride-along policy, which usually addresses rider attire, as well as acceptable behaviors, the duration of ride-alongs and any release of liability. That said, the captain should introduce himself to the rider, then excuse firefighter Phil and himself outside for a private conversation.
"The captain should have quick access to the ride-along policy. He should explain to Phil that, although the rider is wearing what she considers normal attire, Acme Fire Department is a professional organization and must convey that level of professionalism at all times, which includes requiring riders to dress in a similarly appropriate fashion (i.e., long blouse or T-shirt and long pants) as firefighters. He can also explain that long pants and shirts provide an extra level of protection against blood-borne pathogens, etc.
The captain should confirm that Phil has understood the conversation and assist him with a couple of solutions to the problem, since she is his friend. Together they should return to the rider, and Phil can explain the ride-along policy.
"Special care should be taken to explain that the issues at hand are personal safety and public perception. After reviewing the policy, they can discuss her options: She can return home, change quickly and return for the rest of her ride-along, or reschedule for another time. Make sure she knows she is welcome to return and ride along again, regardless of when she returns. After the incident is over, the captain needs to ask Phil what he learned and what he would do different next time."
2) "The first thing I would do is get Phil in the office and tell him she can't ride looking like that. I would explain why and hope he understood; however, it must be non-negotiable whether he was OK with it or not. I would then bring her in and explain the problem to her. I would also try to help them find a solution so she could still ride that shift, maybe take something from the uniform locker; however, she would have to look professional or she could not ride.
"I think there is an underlying problem in that Phil is either unaware or unconcerned about how closely we are scrutinized by the public, and how important it is to maintain a positive professional reputation, not because we are scared of the public, but because we owe our citizens the very best at all times (yes, I really believe that!). This won't (or shouldn't) require any disciplinary action but rather coaching and setting a good example."
3) "The job of being a firefighter is a very respectable one. It is also under constant scrutiny by the public. In this situation, the company officer should have done a few things differently. First, it is usually never a good idea to let a firefighter's love interest hang around a station. If something were to happen at the station, unbeknownst to you of course, you are ultimately responsible. Second, relationships tend to be as predictable as the weather. If this love interest of Phil's decides he has done something wrong to her, a variety of catastrophes could occur. The officer should have sat down with Phil and explained the 'rules' of a ride-along. If this person is not 18 years old, you can imagine the dire consequences of any bad behavior.
"Since she is already at the station, the officer is going to have to deal with this matter quickly and discreetly. I would pull Phil aside and explain to him that the attire she is wearing is not appropriate for the situation. As the officer, I would walk Phil and his exotic friend back to her car and explain to her that an 'unexpected training exercise' has popped up (How To Handle Hormonal Firefighters 101). After she has left, I would have a private meeting with Phil. I would reiterate the importance of our professional image.
The last thing the fire chief wants to see on the news is a picture of a half-naked woman riding in a fire truck.
"As a young firefighter, you can get caught up in trying to show off or gain acceptance from your crew. Phil, being the Casanova you described, can be a good thing for public relations. As the officer, I would encourage him to use his talents in dealing with the public and diffusing tense situations. This can be conveyed to him as 'officer training.'"
Feedback
Most problems involving some sort of sexual deviancy in the fire service usually end up on the 6 o'clock news. This includes some situations that happen off duty. You can also see highlights of the fire service's sexual misconduct on all of the major fire Web sites, like FireRescue1.com. There are five to 10 articles a week about firefighters who committed organizational suicide by engaging in some sort of heinous or lude sexual act while on duty. In some cases, these situations wreck the entire fire department. I'm sure most of these incidents started out similar to this one — a bad situation that just got progressively worse until it exploded on the front page of the newspaper.
But as the responses to the problem stated, even if nothing inappropriate happened with Phil's rider in the station, I'm sure Mrs. Smith wouldn't want to see Phil's scantily dressed girlfriend hanging out with a bunch of hormonally imbalanced firefighters while her husband was having a heart attack. I'm also sure that if any of the other firefighters' wives or significant others happened to show up at the station while she was there, they would be just a little bit concerned.
As far as addressing any issue like this, I agree with response No. 1: Prevent it before it even happens. The company officer could have done this by reviewing the rider policy with Phil right after he asked if he could invite a rider along. But Phil has been on the job for three years and should know the rider policy. We had riders at my station just about every shift, and when someone asked if they could bring a rider, I never reviewed the rider policy with the person or agency asking. My normal response was just to ask them if they were in on chow for the day.
Phil probably didn't review the rider policy with his girlfriend either, and could be just as shocked as you are at the way she is dressed. I would give Phil a small amount of time (5–10 minutes) to usher his friend away and inform her that she needs to go home and change into something more appropriate for a ride-along. A casual, disgusted look from the company officer might speed this process along. But the important thing: Give Phil a little bit of time to fix the problem himself. If Phil does fix it himself, I would promptly sit him down and give him a great big "atta-boy" for recognizing the situation and taking such a responsible action.
If Phil doesn't take care of the problem in a timely manner, you're going to have to help him. Keep in mind that Phil is a good guy and does an excellent job for you — he just might not think there is anything wrong with the way she is dressed (all of the women in Phil's life might dress like that, lucky fella).
I think all of the reader responses addressed fixing the problem, but I would handle it a little bit differently, keeping in mind that Phil is a good guy. I wouldn't want to embarrass Phil in front of his girlfriend or embarrass his girlfriend in front of Phil. I would discreetly get Phil's attention and talk to him alone. I would start out by stressing that his girlfriend was completely welcome to ride along that shift, but she must change clothes. I would wait to hear Phil's response, good or bad. If he understood my concern just from those words and fixed the problem, great. If he still didn't understand, I would use the "Mrs. Smith" angle and tell him that, even though nothing at all was going to happen in the station, the last thing you needed was a citizen's complaint (or many) about a stripper riding around in fire truck all night. Hopefully, Phil would get it at this point and take care of the problem himself.
If he didn't get it, I would then have to talk to her myself. I would do this in the most polite manner possible and, like response No. 1 suggested, I would start out by telling her that she was more than welcome to ride along, but she must be dressed more appropriately (I would explain the proper attire), and she would need to go home and change into something more suitable.
After she was gone, I would then have a little informal educational talk with Phil about the rider policy and why it's in place. Phil's a good guy and he would get it. Hopefully, it would never get to this point, but if it did, you're going to have to fix it, or you might end up talking to your battalion chief about a complaint. Even worse, you could end up on the FireRescue1.com news page.
