Please Suck Less

In the fire service when the firefighters are not performing it is the Lieutenants and Captains fault. If the line officers suck it is the fault of the Battalion Chiefs fault and the fault continues up to the chief. The same is true for the civilian world. This is called the chain of suck.  Hold your people accountable set the example and provide expectations. Don't allow your people to only point...

Do you know people who just seem mad at everything on the job. Nothing is ever good. The get fixated on thing that can't be changed overnight. They are constantly bitching about thing they can't control, to the point that it affects their job. These people can tear a shift apart.  Challenge these people get them to explain why they are so angry all the time. At the end of the day, it may be time f...

Do you work with employees who suck? We all do. How come they keep their jobs and the good employees leave because they are fed up. If your a manager or work in HR, pay attention to whats going on. Morale is in the toilet and you can't be bothered to fix the problems. You lose enough good people and you could be next. Stop Sucking do your job!

As a firefighter and/or an officer. you need to take you position seriously. This means on the fire ground. If you are the Rapid Intervention Company you take that task seriously. Full PPE SCBA and tools.  If you are in the station make sure the apparatus is checked and clean. All your tools need to be clean and ready to go. The station must be clean (bathrooms, loung, engine room, kitchen...)  Vo...

It cost money to run the fire service. Things are expensive in the fire and rescue world. Fire apparatus is no longer 100's of thousands of dollars but a million plus. Our equipment and tools are expensive, a set of turnout gear is $5500, and our training continues to cost more and more, because we are asked to do more and more.  When a citizen calls 911, they expect a well-trained well outfitted...

You graduated the academy and you got your station assignment. You are ready to embark on  the best job in the world. So what can you do to be a productive part of your new shift? In this epsode I will lay out what you the rookie can do to be productive. I offer advice to the senior shift members to help turn out the best rookies.

So, a little off script this with this episode. I want to talk about the troubles I am hearing in the Healthcare field. Bad employees, no discipline for bad behavior, crappy managers, blind administrators, and arrogant Board members. It is no secret that the waiting times in the ER to be seen or for an ambulance to off load patients is astronomical. The is no relief in sight and it keeps getting w...

You say you take care of your people, but your people know it is Bull $h! T. if you did take care of them they would not be leaving and or trash talking you and the company. Take the time to appreciate the people who work hard and care about the job.  Take time out of your day to meet the people face to face and tell them thanks for the work they do. Buy them breakfast or lunch or both. A little g...

I am an optimist. I do my best to see the good. People don't just show up to work and think "how can I be a POS today?" I believe people want to be good at their job and be an asset to the shift, but when Officers or senior firefighters don't correct bad behaviors, people fall into a routine of sucking. If you're an officer and you have underperforming people on your shift, it is your job to fix i...

Be loyal to your organization. Show some respect where you work. Stop trashing your department. Too many times we hear people who bash the system, trash talk how things run. These people may have legitimate complaints but fall on deaf ears because they never have solutions. There are those who just bitch to bitch, these people are never happy no matter what.  If you don't like something work on fi...

In combination systems, career and volunteers work together to provide excellent service to the citizens. That's the way it is supposed to work. unfortunately, it does not always work that way. There are organizations that fight against each other. Career personnel want to get rid of the volunteers and volunteers refusing to work with the career. In the end the interior fighting makes the organiza...

I don't buy into the "customer service" model of the fire service. It is BS. We are not selling goods. The citizens are not our customers. We are not salesmen. Our job is to be the best at mitigating emergencies. That means we train; we show up when the call comes in and we protect lives.    Just because you don't agree with men does not make us toxic. Men need to be masculine. Being masculine is...