Each of us entered the fire service for different reasons. Some of you dreamed of a career in the fire service since watching Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto calling rampart on Emergency! I still remember “Squad 51, KMG365.” Maybe you are truly an “old salt” and were inspired by Rescue 8.
There are those who view firefighting as a family tradition. How many of you are second-, third- or even fourth-generation firefighters, belonging to the same department as your father or grandfather?
Then again, perhaps you were like me. I never dreamed of being a firefighter while growing up. I got into the fire service because I needed a job, and my hometown department—the Aliquippa, PA, Fire Department—was hiring. Next to pursuing my wife, applying for this job was the best decision I ever made.
Although our backgrounds and reasons for joining the fire service may be diverse, our reasons for staying are probably universal. At the top of that list is a desire to serve, fueled by a passion for the service.
Passion and loyalty
It is the passion for the fire service that led you to read this article on a website that focuses on the art and science of firefighting. It is the passion that makes you train, study, sacrifice and strive for perfection on the job. It is the realization that others are depending upon us to intervene in their circumstances and bring them to a successful outcome that drives us to be the best at what we do.
Along with the passion comes loyalty. We are loyal to our communities, our fellow firefighters and to our organizations. We proudly fly the flag that identifies our organizations. Look at the vehicles of firefighters in your community. I am giving odds that there is something on that vehicle that identifies their department. It may be a vanity plate with the station name and number, or it may be a special state-issued license plate with a Maltese cross. Here in Pennsylvania, you can identify a volunteer firefighter by the emergency lighting package on their privately owned vehicles. Some vehicles will rival the lighting of the UFO from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Along with the vanity plate and lighting package are the myriad stickers, reading things like “I fight what you fear,” “Walking where the devil dances” and “Busting mine to save yours.” I am willing to bet a large number of you are wearing something that identifies who you are or the organization to which you belong as you are reading this.
Loyalty is a good thing. The fire service needs loyal and committed people to lead, to follow, to analyze and reduce the risks faced by our communities and, of course, to respond. However, are our loyalties misguided? To what shall we be loyal—the organization, the community, the mission? I argue that we should be loyal to our mission (i.e., our purpose) more than our organization. If we remain loyal to our mission, we are loyal to our community and our organization by default. Unfortunately, leaders have become so vested in their organizations that they sacrifice their mission for the sake of the organization. When this happens, the organization, the community, the leader and, most importantly, the customer or the constituency suffer.
Image over mission
Every formal organization should have a mission statement. The mission statement identifies the reason the organization exists. The purpose of the organization is to fulfill the mission. Unfortunately, with too many organizations, the mission becomes subordinate to the organization.
Perhaps the greatest example of this is what we see happening in the Roman Catholic Church. Recent accusations and subsequent investigations that confirm a subculture of pedophilia among certain priests are contrary to the mission of the Church. It is not the Church’s fault that pedophiles exist. It is the fault of the Church that it sacrificed its mission, its purpose, for the sake of the organization by covering up these actions, transferring the violators to a different unsuspecting parish and, in general, protecting these individuals. Somewhere, somehow, the image of the Catholic Church became more important than the mission of the Catholic Church. The loyalty of the leaders became misguided.
The Catholic Church is not alone in this shortcoming. For decades, Penn State University masked reported abuse of underage boys by assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The mission of Penn State University reads in part “… improves the wellbeing and health of individuals and communities through integrated programs of teaching, research, and service” (Penn State University, 2016). It further states, “We provide unparalleled access and public service to support the citizens of the Commonwealth.”
The point is that the leaders of both organizations placed higher value on the image of the organization than the mission, or purpose, of the organization.
The consequences of this misguided loyalty include embarrassment to the organization, a loss of credibility, civil judgments, the loss of trust, damaged reputations, anger, bewilderment from the constituency and even criminal convictions. The image that the leaders of the organization worked so hard to protect is now tainted for generations to come.
The fire service is not immune. Service, protection of life and property, and professionalism are all common themes in the mission statements of fire departments around the world. We too value the image of our respective organizations. There is an old saying, “If you have seen one fire department, you have seen one fire department.” Although our mission and purpose may be the same, each firefighting organization is unique when it comes to culture, and history.
As members of these unique and, to some extent, competitive organizations, we developed a strong sense of loyalty to the organization. So much depends upon the firefighting organization having an impeccable reputation; this includes retention of members, funding and, ultimately, sustainability. With so much at stake, it is easy to see how the mission and purpose of the organization can become subordinate to the image of the organization. The transgressions that will lead to the destruction of a firefighting organization will come in two forms—the normalization of deviance and the “Buddy Box.”
Normalization of deviance
The normalization of deviance is the violation of rules, policies and standards, which, when there are no immediate consequences, become accepted as the norm. This is analogous to Russian roulette. You may squeeze the trigger while the weapon is pointed at your temple without consequence, but eventually you will find the loaded cylinder and suffer the consequences.
A common example of normalization of deviation is a person who does not wear their seatbelt while driving or riding in the apparatus. Although it is a violation of the motor vehicle code in almost every state and should be a violation of the policies and procedures of every fire department, the individual will not wear the seatbelt for a variety of reasons, even knowing it is against the rules. However, since there were no immediate consequences for violating the rules (i.e., no reprimand from supervisors, no citation from law enforcement, no injuries from an accident), not wearing the seatbelt on future trips continues. If a substantial amount of time elapses without consequence, the action becomes the norm. If this behavior is not corrected by the department leadership, it not only becomes the norm, but by inference it becomes the policy of the organization.
Tolerated and accepted actions that will damage the firefighting organization include, but are not limited to, performing tasks for which members are not properly trained or equipped, responding to emergency incidents under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and the misappropriation of funds. An internet search of any of the previously mentioned actions will reveal a multitude of incidents involving fire departments from across the country. If you drill into each incident, you will most likely find the behavior or actions were ongoing for a period of time. Leaders and other members of the department knew this activity was occurring, and knew it was wrong. However, they chose to ignore this behavior, cover it up, and outright accept it, because correcting this behavior may alert the public to the misbehavior, thus tarnishing the image of the organization. They placed the organization before the mission. Then the hammer fell on the loaded cylinder. Now they face more severe consequences than if this behavior was addressed formally and properly when the first violation occurred.
“Buddy Box”
The “Buddy Box” is another issue that is placing fire departments in a negative light. The “Buddy Box” is filling your alarm schedule or run-cards with departments that you built an allegiance with instead of the closest department. There are a multitude of documented cases where a fire department requests assistance from a community where the responding units must drive by departments that are much closer to the incident. Sometimes we act like organized gangs. We each have our “colors” by which we are identified. Colors come in the form of the color and style of our turnout gear and our highly customized apparatus. We each have our territory identified by the jurisdiction in which we serve. Heaven forbid another organization should enter our territory without proper invitation.
It is often stated that we live in a litigious society. We risk litigation responding to emergencies based on the nature of what we do. We often make split-second decisions with life or death hanging in the balance. An attorney, and the public in general, has an infinite amount of time to analyze our split-second decisions. A bad decision can prove catastrophic to our organization and each of us as individuals. A fire that results in the loss of life or severe damage to property, in which the nearest department is bypassed for a department we prefer, is a self-inflicted wound. With everything that is stacked against us, can we afford this?
Too often when asked why a department does not like a neighboring department, you will receive a myriad reasons. One community was bordered by a full-time department. The fire department was afraid the quick response times associated with a full-time department would embarrass them, and their community would no longer support them.
Most members do not know why they cannot get along with their neighbors. Many of these disputes have transcended generations, with animosity that will rival the Hatfields and the McCoys. In protecting the image of the organization, the leaders of these fire departments have forgotten their mission. In times of emergency, the color of the apparatus, turnout gear or patch on the sleeve is irrelevant. What is important is the mission. The purpose of the organization is to protect life and property. The “Buddy Box” is contrary to the mission of the firefighting organization.
Look in the mirror
Self-evaluation is one of the most challenging responsibilities for a leader and an organization. Admitting your deficiencies is a bitter pill to swallow, but the risks we face are too great for us not to take this responsibility seriously. We need to ask whether our actions as an organization, and as individual members, are supporting the mission of the organization. If not, we must make the necessary and sometimes painful decisions to align our activities with the mission of the organization. Correcting bad behavior now is far less painful than the consequences if the bad behavior is publicly revealed years later.
Reference
Penn State University. (2016, January 29). Penn State Behrend. Retrieved from https://universityethics.psu.edu/penn-state-values.
