Male firefighters—for the most part—never think twice about seeking such positions, especially promotions, before they’re “ready.” Female firefighters, like their counterparts in most other professions, don’t actively seek promotions and the like until they feel they are “ready.” For the most part this is because of the male-centric aspect of our fire service culture that requires that a female firefighter has to work twice as hard and be twice as good as their male counterpart to “prove” themselves as being “worthy” of promotion.
Read More »Tag Archives: fire service culture
Engaging Our People in the Fire Service
People--especially those who enter the fire service--generally want to be successful and feel like they are making a contribution to the organization. Lack of clarity from their organizational leaders, and especially their first-line supervisor, in the form of clear expectations can be a significant "roadblock" to their success.
Read More »Rethinking Fire Protection Strategies
Fire departments, large and small, continue to devote the large majority of their resources to big equipment, e.g., today’s engines and aerial apparatus, without a closer examination of the fire risk in their communities. And they’re doing so with less available staffing than ever before.
Read More »The Stigma of Firefighter Suicide
So how do we in the fire service become better at recognizing that one of our own is “drowning”? How do we get better at asking for help? How do we get better at providing help?
Read More »Stop Sexual Assaults and Rape on Women Firefighters
I, for one, am growing very tired of words like, "wrestling, grappling, struggling, etc.", being used to describe the misogynist attitudes that still exist in too many fire departments four decades after some of the first female firefighters came on the job.
Read More »Firefighter Recruitment for Today
I’m seeing more postings on social media platforms, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, promoting social media infographicfirefighter employment opportunities in various locations around the USA and Canada. That’s a good thing, for sure, because if people don’t even know about the opportunities that are out there…but I don’t think that using social media to promote job announcements is any kind of “silver bullet” for fire service organizations looking to attract quality people to their “tribe.”
Read More »PTSD Sufferer/Survivor: The Challenges Moving Forward
Going public, speaking about it before groups of firefighters, having a “speaker” Facebook page for those who wished to follow my journey and how you can heal from PTS and PTSD, this created a whole new barrier for me in searching for a new job.
Read More »What They Don’t Know, But We Do
We're not "carrying the day" with effective public fire and life safety programs that provide the factual information about residential fire sprinklers. We're allowing the builders and developers to promulgate the "half-truths" and myths.
Read More »Resistance to Change in the Fire Service
Let me introduce you to the “sacred cow” in the North American fire service: interior firefighting. Once again we hear the same tired arguments against changing our default tactics for combating structure fires...
Read More »Having PTSD is not a “Fireable” Offense!
With a clearance from the doctors and a personal determination to return to work earlier this year, things were looking up for Nathalie until her employer decided they did not want to risk taking her back and abruptly terminated her employment cutting off all income and support. How shameful is that?
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