Nearly 40 percent of the Fairfax County Fire Department’s rank-and-file firefighters who participated in a survey reported that they had experienced or witnessed bullying.
That was among the findings of a survey conducted by a management consultant group hired to analyze the Fairfax County Fire Department’s culture following last April’s high-profile suicide of firefighter Nicole Mittendorff.
The company issued a 53-page report encapsulating its findings, the Washington Post reported.
Mittendorff killed herself shortly after she was the target of extremely sexist and derogatory comments that appeared on a website. The person or persons behind the comments have not been identified, though published reports have noted the possibility that firefighters from the same department were involved. Whether the comments contributed to suicide also remains unknown.
News of Mittendorff's death, plus a series of lawsuits by other women alleging harassment and discrimination served to prompt a national debate over the treatment of women by fire departments, as well as why so few women choose to become firefighters.
The report noted that firefighters had expressed dissatisfaction with the top ranks over a belief that poor leadership was helping to fuel a negative culture. The department’s discipline process also was viewed as inconsistent and unfair. (Some even expressed concern over possible reprisals against those who chose to speak out.)
Fire Chief Richard R. Bowers Jr. acknowledged that he is working to remedy the problems highlighted in the report.
“It is clear from the results of the cultural assessment of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department that we have some challenges ahead,” he said in a statement quoted by the Washington Post. “I take these results very seriously.”
The department already has implemented some changes based on concerns raised over Mittendorff’s death, he added. Policies regarding how sexual harassment claims are investigated were revised, for example.
