Cultural Diversity and ‘the Standard’: A Solution-Oriented Approach to Finding Balance

Can diversity and a reasonable standard for performance in the fire service peacefully coexist? Can departments recruit firefighters who represent their community and possess the ability to perform the job at a high level?

Diversity’s value

I’ll defend standards of performance below. First, I want to underscore the importance of diversity.

There are practical aspects to a diverse workforce that help you to fulfill your goal of saving lives and property.

Early in my career, I was assigned to a territory that had a large Latino population. I took Spanish classes to be able to communicate with the community. The payoff was being able to ask on EMS calls, “Where is your pain?” and “Do you want to go to the hospital?”

At three in the morning, with heavy fire showing, there are some extremely tangible benefits to communication. Having someone on the crew who can ask, “Is anyone still in the house?” or “What window are your children in?” is invaluable. Politics aside, this is the time to be concerned about compassion and humanity.

Closely related to this is responding to female patients who were injured in domestic assaults or were raped. How important is it to have a female crewmember with you then? If you didn’t, would you hope that there would be a female medic on the ambulance? I did.

My reality is that I worked with some women who absolutely could perform the physical tasks of the job, and they often brought perspectives to the station that were needed. Two of the best engineers and some of the better firefighters who I had as a company officer were minorities, and I cultivated lasting memories with those people. I am a proponent for diversity.

Unintended effect of compromise on performance

What about “the standard”? The physical, intellectual and emotional skills to perform at 2:30 a.m. in 60 lbs. of gear under stress? Remember that?

We must be honest. We must talk about the elephant in the room. We must admit that the elephant that we allowed in has made some big messes that had to be cleaned up. Placing a priority on diversity over performance has done damage to the fire service.

We manipulated, lowered and, often, totally disregarded physical and academic standards. We did it decades ago for white males, and we did it more recently for a society that has placed a higher priority on diversity than on their safety. There will be no fixing it if we never acknowledge it.

Not so long ago, society didn’t care that predominantly white men climbed off of that fire truck. Then, society went to the other extreme, kicking and screaming for underrepresented groups to be better represented—a needed and noble cause to be sure, but not at the cost of people being able to perform when they climb off of that fire truck.

Here is the real tragedy for the underrepresented when the standard is lowered: Underrepresented groups are represented far too often by incompetent individuals. This fuels the perception that those from X group or Y group who can do the job also are incompetent.

Dragging people out of fires is the definition of the mission. Diversity over performance has become a systemic infection in many agencies. Here is the irony: Old man fire has altered its standard as well. Fires burn hotter and faster and are more dynamic today. Smoke is more toxic and flammable than it was in the past. Construction fails faster than that of decades past. Meanwhile, society demanded diversity over performance, and we compromised.

Integrity

Read the departmental values of most any fire agency. Nearly all of them list integrity as a foundational principle.

Sometimes, doing the right thing comes at a cost. Signing off on mediocrity or incompetence or capitulating to a society that doesn’t understand or an administration that forgot the dangers of pushing down a dark, hot hallway isn’t integrity. The problem is too many decision-makers signed off on this. Ambition trumped integrity. They knew that saying “no” would come with a career cost. They sold out.

Many who are reading this are nodding. That first sip of Kool-Aid burnt like a shot of cheap tequila, but they got used to it. It’s harsh but true: Many became so drunk on the premise that their consciences shut up completely. The folks who sleep in our communities and the members who get on the rigs are paying the price for it.

If we are to find a balance between being reflective of the populace in the community and putting competent people on the fire apparatus, we must have leaders who genuinely empathize with underrepresented groups and have a goal of filling positions with people from those groups. That said, these same leaders must have the integrity to accept the career costs of refusing to lower the standard or the backbone to at least express their disagreement to a training chief who is adamant about hiring an applicant who got a 64 on the written or whose physical ability test (PAT) time exceeds the maximum time that was set.

Realizing this honorable goal of finding balance takes a few more steps than previously.

Equitable resources

Prior to the testing process, I suggest offering an orientation that familiarizes applicants with what they will be tested on: reading comprehension, mathematics, communication skills. They should know what to expect from a PAT. Tell them how to prepare for those events through a suggested fitness program.

We can take it further. At the orientation, offer trainers and tutors for those who need to improve in those areas. Find some people locally who are willing to tutor in academic skills and personal trainers who have some fitness knowledge and make them available.

You must offer these resources to everyone. When you only offer them to women or minorities, you wind up with the same result as what occurs from lowering the standard. The naysayers will claim that more of X group were hired because they were coached or tutored. To be candid, the rumor will be that they were given the answers to the test or had their PAT times fudged. We have a long way to go to restore trust in testing processes.

Retention

After your department completes a hiring process and manages to get more qualified female and minority applicants, you must address retention.

How will you ensure success through recruit training and a career? Mentoring is offered to everyone, regardless of protected class, although it might be more encouraged for certain candidates, regardless of protected class, who are struggling. Further, mentors must have the mindset of building on victories and successes, not “running someone off.”

Serving as a mentor can be great for retired firefighters. They proved to be reliable, and they know the job. The transition out of the firehouse can be difficult, and this is a chance to ease out of station life while allowing them to stay connected.

What of the folks—male, female, red and yellow, black and white—who didn’t possess the skills but were allowed in despite that? They, too, must be mentored and coached up. The people who opened the exit door at the theatre to let them in without paying owe them that much.

With these members’ success as the objective, the documentation, both positive and negative, must begin now, too. If working with these members earnestly and compassionately to bring them up to the standard fails, the documentation should tell the tale. If it all is done in an unbiased manner—thoroughly, accurately and objectively—there should be no fear in letting the legal chips fall where they may.

Sentimentality can’t be your compass. Leadership must have the integrity to sincerely wish them well in their next endeavor if leadership knows that it did everything to enable those folks to succeed. Keeping those people on the job is a disservice to everyone.

The fix

We can dig ourselves out of this hole. We can restore integrity to hiring standards. We can have a workforce that mirrors the makeup of the community. We can find balance. We can achieve high performance standards with diversity. However, it means that the folks who have a collar full of bugles must replace sentimentality, career aspirations and biases with integrity, strength and genuine desire for fair representation in their department.