So here I am acting assistant chief. I have one person who was injured on duty over 3 months back. A back injury. He has been pressed into "Light" duty assignment back here at work. Of the likes at the moment we have no "light" duty. However, Management and Personnel have stated that dispatching is considered light duty.
I am in a what will soon to be bitter argument over this whole mess. The man, who is clearly uncomfortable has to sit in a 10x10 room all day (16 hrs) and work as dispatch. I have stated that this person is absolutely useless and needs to either be under someone else's direct management or be sent home. This comes to no avail and will not be acted upon.
So fast forward to today. We are on duty, He is talking about his injury and how uncomfortable he is and so on, I asked if the doctor prescribed any medicine to him. He said yes, Vicodin and muscle relaxers... I said fine. Have you taken any today? He stated he did. Although I feel it would have been in my rights to send him home, I did not. However I DID document the fact that he told me. I will ask him the same question on my next shift. I will make it a safe assumption that he will state once again his consumption of prescribed pain medication, This time in front of the fire chief. At which point I will reference the drug free workplace regulation, Which by the way does not make distinctions of illegal and unacceptable drugs OR prescribed medications which could alter the actions and result in compromising the overall mission.
Here is the deal. My position as acting or full time assistant chief is not predicated as being a yes man. It is predicated that we all return home to our families safe and live another day to work. If he is on medicines to where he may be too stoned to catch a mayday call or miss pertinent information on a dispatch that could result in one of us getting injured or killed in the field, then I dont want him. Send him home until he is 100%.
Someone is not getting the whole story here and I stand as a liable manager if this continues. If I do not get results from the fire chief to 1, create an SOP that specifically defines the task analysis of light duty and/or remove this person from duty based on his use (not abuse) of prescribed drugs while on duty, I with all due respect will have to follow this up the chain of command post haste.
I put this out here because I need feedback from people here who may be more experienced in the management field. I am sure I am doing the right thing. It is scary to do the right thing because I can foresee politics playing a role in this in the long run. But I owe a duty to this person to make sure he does not aggravate his injury on my watch, and to my people for their safety.
