Originally Posted by firesorter

and as for the military personnel they are queuing round the block to join us when they leave active service.

Originally Posted by Simon 69

Shut up Pete.

Originally Posted by PG

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your viewpoint this is rarely the case nowadays.
The organisation is now as much a proactive one as a reactive one. (**** me! I’m starting to sound like one of them now!!) For many, many years the fire service has provided forms of community work, be it attending fetes, fitting smoke detectors or school visits. Throughout these times it was just something we did however it is now a legislative responsibility to provide a level of Community Fire Safety that based on local strategic plans will actively reduce fires, RTCs ect.
Last set we had work experience kids in, 2 nurseries, 1 school visit and half a dozen home fire safety visits. It all sound cooshie but it’s all about educating people not to have fires now. This takes up a huge percentage of our sitting around time.
The business management ideology has well and truly hit the fire service and many may well think this is a good thing and in some respects it will be. No longer will there be the promotions within the old boys network just because your face fits (well less chance of it) but this is leading to Brigades recruiting potential managers as opposed to practically minded firefighters (you’ll rarely find a tradesman as a recruit now) this in turn has the potentially useless operational firefighter pushed into promotion as they are seen to be better suited to run Health and safety forums, HR workshops ect. These managers however will eventually end up taking charge of a shift of real world firefighters who should pay heed to these book based fireground managers …..a recipe for disaster.
Do I have the right to complain about how things are managed if I am not willing to be a manager myself? Been there, done that in another job and tbh I wouldn’t thank you for a manager’s job. We are now seeing people join the job and leaving a short time later something I never though I’d see but it’s a sign that either people are disillusioned with the job or indeed the wrong people are being recruited now.
Politics is now a big part of the organisation. The Chief officers are now so far removed from the job and the feelings of the workforce that as long as they are collecting their Queen’s Fire Service medal and are able to cut costs year on year to justify their massive pay, they will be content to cut the quality of service to the end user…..The general public.
There is often the argument that the job is dangerous blah, blah, blah. Sure, the potential for danger is there but to be honest with the amount of training we do day on day these risks are dramatically reduced. This training again takes up a lot of time.
I can only speak for my station but we sit with rescue fire appliances, an aerial appliance, a mass decontamination unit, a hazardous materials unit and a heavy rescue unit which responds to RTCs, building collapses, chemical jobs, ect. Now it’s not every day these are used but this is not to say that the equipment sits idle. We have to familiarise and train with the literally 100’s of pieces of equipment as much as we can so as to be 100% proficient with it when called to use it. It’s fastly becoming a case of jack of all trades, master of none.
It’s OK, I can hear you say it!! If this is the case then why not train instead of getting some kip. A valid point but most fire stations are within the middle of cities, I’m sure many residents would complain about noise. This will no doubt be addressed when Brigades roll out the Integrated Risk Management Plans (See told you they were speaking business bullsh!t now) It will ultimately see less fire cover, the scrapping of minimum time turnout targets and fire stations relocated to retail or business park areas, further away from life risk (not to mention freeing up valuable real estate) once the managers make the statistics work for them as opposed to the public.
I love my job, there are very few jobs out there where the camaraderie and strong family feeling can be had at work and as much as I see the job going to ruin I will try to remain positive about it all. The job satisfaction I get surpasses anything else I have done professionally and I hope it will continue like that until I retire.
I realise this is a little disjointed but I'm typing as I think and it may have wandered off somewhat from the original point but hey, that’s what SN is all about!


Oh, and occasionally we get to go to fires……or failures as management like to call them

Originally Posted by pslewis

Shut up Simon

Originally Posted by Leslie

Even those working for the providers of mass destruction must have seen some of that in their own organisations too!

Originally Posted by Prasius

Unfortunatly, yes. Although the MOD tends to dictate from Whitehall rather than come to where your actually doing the job.

Originally Posted by Simon 69

Pete, you're being a ****. Stop it.

Originally Posted by Leslie

An interesting insight PG, thanks for all that. I have seen exactly what you describe about those in senior positions being more interested in their own careers and future honours etc. at the cost of the actual efficiency at doing the very job in question.

I think that sort of thing is endemic throughout most organisations these days-to the detriment of the jobs and the people at the sharp end.

Even those working for the providers of mass destruction must have seen some of that in their own organisations too!

Les

Originally Posted by Simon 69

Is that something to do with amateur radio Les? Ive been trying to help Pete to help himself for quite a while...

Originally Posted by firesorter

blah blah fukin blah get a fuggin life nad better still a real job or die you old codger ****

Originally Posted by firesorter

pissed yes on duty no enjoyiong one of my menat days of at your expense, dooo you know what? your my best mate you ar4e tjhe rst aaaaarrr fugg emmm i love you man XXXX

Originally Posted by firesorter

I Lewis anyone taht infracts him infracts me, C`MON yer fuggers!!!!