When was the last time you chatted with your fire service friends or coworkers and recruitment and retention wasn’t part of the conversation? It was probably pre-pandemic. This hot-button issue was a constant topic of conversation during hallway gatherings and seminars at this year’s FDIC, the Women in Fire’s Leadership Conference and CFSI’s annual symposium. While there are pockets of success that we should learn from, most fire departments are still struggling to get and keep members.
The results of the recent FireRescue1 What Firefighters Want survey show that this issue isn’t going away any time soon, and the problem is becoming more and more pressing, as too many departments are rapidly losing members.
Problematic leadership is everywhere
When asked to identify the key factors impacting retention of experienced members, 49% of the more than 1,300 active firefighters who responded to the survey signaled poor agency leadership as a driving factor. Furthermore, nearly 33% of survey respondents reported that they have considered leaving the fire department. What’s important to note here is that they aren’t considering leaving because of their age, the work, the calls or grouchy coworkers; they are leaving because of their bosses, specifically their fire chief’s personal values or leadership skills. And 20% reported that they have considered leaving due to their feelings about their direct supervisor, which includes company and chief officer positions.
We routinely say the fire service is the best job in the world, yet members are willing to leave because so many of the leaders whom we entrust to improve and maintain the fire service are simply terrible at what they do – sometimes at their own hands and sometimes because they were set up to fail. If you’re wondering, the data was clear that the problem exists across volunteer, career and combination departments. In other words, no, your organization is not immune or somehow special. Organizations of all shapes and sizes are affected by bad leadership that damages their reputation and ability to attract and keep talent. That damage then affects the department’s ability to provide service to their community.
Variations of the quote “people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses” abound in the discourse around corporate culture. While not everyone agrees with this sentiment, this much is known: It is destabilizing, expensive and time-consuming to continually replace people that leave. One of the contrarian views posits that people leave their jobs because they find the work uninteresting or boring. This is likely not the case for the fire service but should be a caution. Do we challenge our employees with new and meaningful change, or are we simply doing the same thing the same way every day/month/year? Do we create systems that allow us to leverage the talent of our members on special projects or tasks?
This is one of the foundational roles of a strong leader – ensuring that people are challenged and connected to the service they provide. And yet, the very people entrusted to fix the problem are potentially a huge part of the problem.
For the career fire service, bad bosses are often created because we didn’t prepare them to be bosses, particularly in the places where it matters – solid fireground operations and solid fire station (people) operations. This is often based in lousy or non-existent promotional processes, poor preparation of candidates (preparing to take a test is not the same as preparing to do the work), or systems where promotions are based on favoritism, poor agency politics or even seniority. In volunteer systems, the problems are often similar – people are thrust into positions where they are unprepared or ill-equipped to execute.
Notable in the survey is the correlation between wanting to leave the department due to poor agency leadership and the systems where the fire chief is elected. Popularity contests are a lousy way to select the person who will lead your emergency service organization, particularly when there aren’t thresholds for education, experience or other measurable knowledge, skills and abilities for the position. We cannot scream about the need to increase the professionalization of the service, demand better support from our local, state and national leaders, and then treat the selection of our leadership like it was a superlatives category for the middle school yearbook (assuming yearbooks are still a thing).
The mirror and measuring tape
How do I know if I am the bad boss? First, ask yourself if you have enabled a culture or environment of honest feedback. When someone indicates your performance wasn’t 100% meeting expectations, do you listen, pivot and improve, or do you revert to a position of defensiveness?
Understanding the rigid rank structure of the department, it is difficult to enable honest and accurate feedback across the organization. It’s simply unheard of in some organizations for anyone to question or even offer the idea (in person, to their face or even in a memo) that the chief (or other officer) isn’t 100% correct all of the time. The result is the fire service equivalent of “the emperor has no clothes” from the Hans Christian Andersen parable from 1837. If you haven’t read it or your grade school memories are failing you, take a minute and review it. The lesson for fire chiefs and supervisors of any rank is that when you surround yourself with “yes-people,” it often leads to absurd and embarrassing results. Creating a culture of honest, sound feedback and an open exchange of ideas is vital for success. Think of it as the in-station equivalent of crew resource management. We don’t want the chief/officer to fly the plane (fire department) into the ground if there is information or efforts that can prevent it.
Every fire chief or fire service leader should have a mirror and a tape measure.
- The purpose of the mirror is not to impress yourself when you look at your bling. Rather, it is to see behind you to understand who is following you. You are not leading if no one is willingly following.
- The tape measure is useful to gauge your success. Have we improved the department’s ability to serve the community? Note that I did not say simply improve the department, as everything we do must have a tangible benefit to the people we serve.
Speaking up
Not surprisingly, survey respondents highlighted poor agency leadership as one of the least-satisfying aspects of working in the fire service. When asked why they selected poor agency leadership as their #1 least-satisfying aspect of the job, survey respondents offered important insights into their experiences. A few quotes stood out.
“Leadership cares more about themselves than their personnel.”
There is a simple order of priority within our organizations that must be crystal clear: First, the fire department exists to provide service to our citizens. Second, the members (firefighters, officers, trainers, CRR personnel, etc.) exist to ensure that service is delivered to the citizens in an effective, equitable, safe and sensible manner. Bosses exist to ensure that the members have everything they need to do both. Period. It’s not about your ego, your status, your big office, or your fire SUV. If you are uncertain whether this describes you, try this: If you spend more time agonizing about what important decisions mean to you personally than what they mean to the department and community, you’re doing it wrong.
“Antiquated administration.”
It’s not your job for life, you have no divine right to that position, it’s not ordained in the company/community charter, and you shouldn’t be doing it the same way you did when you started in that role.
When was the last time your attended training? Challenged yourself with something new? Attended a conference? Refreshed something that you hadn’t done in a while?
If you can’t recall the last time you tested your brain with something new, it’s time for a change. This is particularly critical for key issues impacting your department and the greater fire service – issues like recruitment and retention. The universe, for both career and volunteer fire departments, has changed dramatically. Applying the same approaches your department used in 1984 to your approach in 2024 will predictably fail. Understand that this is not agism but rather an acknowledgement that all of us have a tactical and technical obsolescence that is rapidly approaching. It approaches faster if you do not remain invested in education, training and personal professional development. If that sounds like too much work, or if you’re just not interested in changing, that’s OK; the fire service still has a role for you to fill as the angry old guy that sits in the back of the room during the monthly meeting and gripes about how it isn’t “the good old days” (whatever that was) as more and more members join the ranks, looking over their shoulders at you and shaking their heads.
“Expectation of leadership without formal training.”
One of the worst things the fire service (or any group) can do is place people in leadership positions without training them for what they are actually going to do. How well do we train our new officers to discharge the duties of their new position? Do we simply give them a login to do fire reports and a new helmet and send them on their way?
We also have an often-misplaced expectation that those members who are good firefighters will automatically (and without training) be good officers. Expecting this transformation to occur without the same level of preparation that went into them becoming good firefighters is irrational. Using Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000-hour threshold, it takes over 5 years to get “good” at something. There’s no magic in fire officer and leader development, so we should assume that the same developmental time is needed to become effective in their role.
Final thoughts
Myriad reasons contribute to the decision to join the fire service. Be it family, friends, the nature of the work, support for or from the community, or simply the desire to do something meaningful, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to choose to be a member of the fire service. Similarly, there are myriad reasons people leave: demands on time, poor compensation, change in community location, retirement or the emotionally draining nature of the job. What shouldn’t be on that list: poor fire department leadership.
If you see your department in any of the examples above, it’s time to start making changes. Even if you don’t feel like this applies to you, carefully contemplate the impact your officers (from chief of department down to lieutenants/first line supervisors) have on the conduct, contribution and cohesion of the department and their company. If you wouldn’t want them as a supervisor or leader of your daughter, son, niece, nephew, favorite neighbor – really anyone important to you – then it’s time to make a change.
If you see yourself as part of the problem, then you’re already on your way to finding a solution. Take a deep dive into why people aren’t productive, contributing or sticking around. Once you find the problem, get to work fixing it. Don’t know where to start? That’s OK, the survey analysis ahead continues to dissect and offer lessons about what firefighters want (and need) in 2024.
Gordon Graham on professionalism in public safety
It’s important that first responders don’t take their public image for granted; prove your commitment to public service every day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Oates is the CEO of the International Public Safety Data Institute. Prior to being appointed as CEO, he served as chief of the East Hartford (Connecticut) Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree from Franklin Pierce University, a master’s degree from Oklahoma State University and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program. Chief Oates is a longtime contributor to the NFFF’s Everyone Goes Home Program and serves as a member of the Behavioral Health Advisory Committee created by the First Responder Center for Excellence.
