Beyond the Smoke: What Is Driving People Away from the Fire Service?

Leaders must lead with humility and a biased disposition toward introspection. Often, organizational challenges are minimized intentionally or unintentionally or dismissed altogether. However, a reality that all of us must confront is that many professionals quietly are leaving the profession—not because of the calls themselves but because of dysfunctional leadership behaviors.

The National Volunteer Fire Council reports that 70 percent of agencies face staffing and retention challenges. Although many reflexively cite red herring causes, such as operational demands and generational changes, increasing evidence suggests that leadership practices within organizational culture drive this trend. Micromanagement, emotional manipulation and the breakdown of trust are core contributors.

How have we collectively found ourselves in this predicament? These issues can be framed through the lens of psychological contract theory and toxic leadership theory. In doing so, we gain a clearer understanding of why firefighters at all ranks are taking the off-ramp early.

The damage of micromanagement

Micromanagement in fire departments often appears under the guise of enforcing standards, but it can be an early indication of distrust and a desire for (excessive) control. According to Peter G. Northhouse, who authored “Leadership: Theory and Practice,” authoritarian leadership styles, although, perhaps, efficient on the surface, often lead to disengagement and stifled innovation. Further, according to Edward Deci and Richard Ryan in “The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior,” micromanagement has been shown to erode job satisfaction and diminish a sense of autonomy and purpose.

The results of the 2022 study, “Disengaged in Turnout Gear: An Exploratory Study of Organizational Withdrawal in Mid-Career Firefighters” (Journal of Fire Service Leadership), indicated that mid-career firefighters ranked micromanagement as one of the top reasons for considering departure from their profession. What shouldn’t surprise us is that study participants bemoaned a workplace environment in which trivial infractions drew more scrutiny than actual performance and outcomes. Multiple experts state that this not only erodes morale but also breaches the psychological contract that’s the foundation of employee-employer expectations.

Gaslit

Another term that I have become familiar with in the fire service is gaslighting. It’s a manipulative tactic that undermines an individual’s confidence in that person’s perception of reality. According to Dr. Robin Stern, who is the author of “The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life” (Harmony Books), it is damaging particularly in hierarchical systems, such as the fire service, where challenging authority is discouraged culturally. Tactics of gaslighters include blame shifting, revisionist narratives and isolating those who speak out against them. The authors of “Organizational Betrayal and Gaslighting in the Firehouse: A Departmental Climate Survey” (American Journal of Emergency Leadership) found that 34 percent of fire service personnel reported feeling gaslit by a supervisor. These experiences were associated significantly with burnout symptoms, including emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Sean Hannah, P.D. Harms and Seth Spain wrote in “Leader Development and the Dark Side of Personality” (The Leadership Quarterly) that gaslighting leaders often display narcissistic or Machiavellian traits, which are components of the “dark triad” that’s associated with toxic leadership.

Slow collapse of trust

From all corners of our profession, trust is elicited as the foundational secret to organizational success—or failure. Although it seems obvious and is a repeated mantra that trust is central to effective team performance and a healthy organizational culture, not everyone can establish and maintain trust. James Davis, Roger Mayer and David Schoorman tell us in “An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust” (The Academy of Management Review) that trust is built on perceptions of competence, benevolence and integrity and seems to be the guiding consensus for success in the fire service. However, when leaders are inconsistent or act punitively, those pillars collapse. Multiple experts believe that a culture that’s devoid of trust stifles communication, limits collaboration and fosters a spiral of distrust, a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle that generates fear and erodes psychological safety. For the fire service, this dynamic can be deadly, resulting in silence when feedback is needed most.

Deep wounds of moral injury

Although much attention is placed on trauma from emergency responses, internal stressors often inflict deeper wounds. Moral injury, which is defined as psychological harm that results from betrayal by leadership in high-stakes environments, is increasingly common in fire departments, Brett Litz and his fellow authors contend in “Moral Injury and Moral Repair in War Veterans: A Preliminary Model and Intervention Strategy” (Clinical Psychology Review). The Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance’s “Wounds of the Spirit: Moral Injury in Firefighters” reports rising incidences of burnout, emotional withdrawal and suicidal ideation, all of which are linked to leadership betrayal. Central to her work, Dena Ali of the First Responder Center for Excellence thematically emphasizes that the core issue isn’t emergency calls but rather organizational culture.

A way forward

The fire service needs more than policy tweaks. It requires reorientation of leadership norms. These issues aren’t relegated to small departments nor are they isolated in metropolitan agencies. Searching for a collective path forward, several best practices have emerged:

Lead with vision, not control. According to Bernard Bass and Ronald Riggio, who authored “Transformational Leadership” (Psychology Press), transformational leadership emphasizes empowerment, vision and ethical modeling, to counterbalance toxic command-and-control habits.

Hold leadership accountable. Bruce Avolio and William Gardner write in “Authentic Leadership Development: Getting to the Root of Positive Forms of Leadership” (The Leadership Quarterly) that institutions must adopt anonymous peer reviews, 360-degree feedback and leadership development strategies.

Build psychological safety. In “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth” (John Wiley & Sons), Amy Edmondson argues that effective leaders create an environment where people feel safe to speak up.

Use exit interviews strategically. Insight from departing personnel can help to identify root issues that hinder retention. Equally important would be to conduct stay interviews to elicit why people are staying with the agency.

Reforming leadership is crucial

Firefighters aren’t leaving the job because they are soft or uncommitted. They are leaving because the leadership culture in some departments undermines their sense of purpose and well-being. Micromanagement, emotional manipulation and broken trust aren’t abstract leadership failings; they are existential threats to organizational survival. Reforming fire service leadership isn’t optional; it’s a matter of survival. By embracing the currency of transparency, cultivating trust and empowering personnel, leaders at all levels within the agency can foster a culture that retains talent and sustains our sacred mission.