How would you handle a sniveling firefighter with a bad attitude?

 Click here to read the solutions to the July Personnel Problem of the Month: Getting Down to Basics

Problem to Ponder

You're the captain on an ALS engine company in a depressed area of town. You've worked on this company for the past two years, and you have a paramedic/firefighter — let's call him Dave — who joined your company about two months ago. Dave is kind of a sniveler. He's the type of guy who always thinks he's getting screwed. So far, this attitude has not rubbed off on the other company members. Then one shift, while the crew is doing physical training at the station, you get an ALS call for a 68-year-old female with difficulty breathing. Upon arrival, you determine that this is not really an ALS call. The patient had a close friend who just passed away, and she is very upset.

Upon learning this, Dave reads her the riot act and informs her that the fire department is not a counseling service, and someone else in your response area could be dying while you're babysitting old ladies. How would you handle this?

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 September issue of FireRescue.

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Solutions to July's Personnel Problem of the Month: Getting Down to Basics

Making the Cut

Help sub-par performers step up, but cut them loose if they can't hack it

Last month's problem involved drilling with a probationary firefighter (Stan) who turned hoselay evolutions into Chinese fire drills (see "Getting Down to Basics," July issue, p. 107). Let's take a look at two responses I received for this problem.

The Reponses
1) "Stan seems to be an otherwise good employee and deserves every opportunity to succeed. Depending on the internal capacity of the organization in question, Stan should receive remedial training either at the company level or from personnel in the training section. The company officer and/or training officer would also need to conduct some sort of baseline skills assessment to determine if Stan is deficient in other essential skill inventories. A decision would also have to be made to determine if Stan should be temporarily removed from the field and placed in a different assignment until his skill levels are deemed acceptable. As a company officer, one would hate to take drastic measures too early in this scenario, yet one cannot jeopardize other members' safety while trying to cover for another member.

"If Stan cannot perform essential skills at an acceptable and measurable level, then provisions must be made to help him find success in another line of work. However, if Stan simply needs a little extra help mastering these essential skills, then it appears that Stan, as an employee, would be well worth the extra effort to help ensure his success in the fire service. Getting to the root of the problem would be key to improving Stan's performance. Is it just nerves, or perhaps a learning deficiency? Could it be something as simple as a preoccupation with a non-work-related problem?

"The organization would need to work closely with Stan in a reassuring manner, providing an accurate assessment of why Stan has problems performing and giving him every chance to overcome his obstacles."

2) "Not all is lost here. It is early in Stan's career. If he has been through the academy already, we need to talk to the instructors there and see how he functioned. If they let him slide through, then we might have a bigger problem. If it is just the jitters from being with a new crowd, then we need to work Stan into the loop and maybe place him with a senior guy who can be a mentor. This might also be a good time to determine Stan's love for the job. If he truly loves the service, you can work as hard as he does to help him improve. If he does not care, then you must do your job as an officer and help the department, and Stan, move along."

Feedback
Training problems affect two groups of people — members who are off probation and members who are still on probation — and each group's problems are dealt with in a totally different manner.

Here's how I would advise you to handle this situation: When you return to quarters from your recent training fiasco with Stan, briefly document all the things that went wrong with your training session (this is where you'll have to do a lot more work than Stan). Be very specific, noting the times that were violated and the individual skills in each evolution that were inadequately performed; also document Stan's level of fitness as being an issue. This document will serve as a rough draft for the letter you will write for Stan's file. Remember, the goal here is to help Stan reach a "meets standards" level and succeed in the department — not to fire him for having one bad day.

Then discreetly ask Stan to come to your office to give you his view of the training session. This will tell you whether Stan is in the real world or in the twilight zone, and if this is just a training problem or if he's also got an attitude problem. Hopefully, Stan will apologize for his poor performance without any excuses and ask for help.

I've always had the most success dealing with problems when I was totally up front with the person experiencing the problem, and I always appreciated people who treated me the same way. As such, review the list of deficiencies with Stan and tell him that his performance was totally unacceptable. Also let him know how you're planning to proceed. End the discussion by telling him that you're going to write him up for the morning drill, and you'll talk to him again later in the shift.

The next step in the process: Call Stan's training officers and find out how he performed in the training academy. Stan probably did at least an OK job in the academy or he wouldn't be on your company right now; if there were any other issues, you should have been informed of them prior to him showing up. Also ask if there were any sub-par performances documented on any of his monthly gradings. For new company officers, this would be a good time to ask more experienced officers for advice on how to proceed in dealing with Stan, as they can help put together action plans that deal with these types of situations.

After talking with the academy folks, call Stan's previous station captain and ask if he had any performance issues, either during training or on calls. Make sure you document any deficiencies noted by the captain.

The next step in this process involves a whole lot of writing. You need to write two separate pieces of documentation: a letter of unsatisfactory performance and an action plan for improvement. The letter of unsatisfactory performance must include all of the goof-ups that happened in the morning drill. It must be totally factual; leave out any personal feelings toward Stan. The action plan for improvement should include several suggestions for solving the problem. It should look something like this:

• Stan must review the 10 basic hoselay evolutions each shift and once on his days off.
• The company will perform 2 to 3 training evolutions each shift and once on his days off.
• Stan must attend a 4-hour CE once a week at the training academy under the supervision of a training officer.
• Stan must meet with a peer fitness trainer and have a comprehensive fitness routine prepared for him.
• Stan must follow this fitness routine and perform all the work necessary, on shift and on his days off.
• Stan will have a final evaluation that will include myself and the training academy staff prior to leaving this assignment.
• Stan has 4–6 weeks (for example) to come up to minimum standards.

After preparing the documentation, meet with Stan, tell him about the calls you made and review both documents with him. Make sure he understands them and then ask him to sign them. Reassure Stan that you really want him to succeed but that the pressure's on him to perform; if he doesn't, he'll be back in this room signing more paperwork.

Your job at this point: Do everything you can to help Stan succeed. Take Stan out to drill every shift and document any further poor performances. If the daily drilling doesn't happen, and you take Stan out to drill a month later and his performance hasn't improved and you write him up for it, you'll have a tough time proving why he should be fired, if it comes to that. So, stick to the action plan. It's the only hope Stan has for improving his performance, and it's the only thing that will provide you with a means of eliminating Stan in a fair, proper and legal manner if he doesn't.