The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
How Many Ex Officers
How many of you in vol. dept have 10 ex cheifs 15 ex capts. and 30 ex lt. all trying to tell you what to do at a scene. Here in my dept. damn near everyone is a ex something and they all want to be the boss. I have even had them try to override the officers we have now. I understand that experiance counts alot in this bussiness im not new to this. Just trying to get some insight of how many go thru this also.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Andy Entwistle on
-
I am going on record to say this does not HAVE to be a problem, and I'm sad that it is for so many of you. Six of our 27 members are past chiefs and many others are past officers. I am a brand new asst. chief. But you know what? They are the first ones to come up and say 'what do you need?' at a fire scene. They know how tough it can be to run a scene, and I also find that when there's a bummer job, like directing traffic out of sight from the scene, they go without complaint while some of the newer guys whine about missing "the action". Just the other night, at an accident, one moseyed up to me and said "Chief, did you think to check the pole yet?' "Looks fine to me.' I said and he pointed upward. While not damaging the actual pole, the impact had jarred the electical wires right off the insulators and they rested on the bar. I would have completely missed it.
All of your ex-officers can't be jerks - it just isn't possible. So when this happens again, take the guy aside later and tell him you appreciated the input but that you'd rather he give it straight to you from now on - to help you grow and so as not to confuse the firefighters. How is any true former FF officer going to refuse that? Just like the new platoon leader and the old platoon sergeant, for those fellow ex-Army guys.
Anyway, bottom line, I don;t know how to solve your problem but I know for a fact it can be a better way, so try whatever you think will work. And even if you only convert a couple, it's a good thing.
-
Permalink Reply by Mick Shelley on
-
Very well put Chief Andy
-
Permalink Reply by FIRE BEAR on
-
well some of them are the type to try to control the scene but will step down when told to do so we got maybe 5-6 of them that are major pain in the asses (we got one we call god that should tell you had bad that one is ) me im not an officer anymore never been one here and dont want to be im just a firefighter and i did get one to stop just by listoning to him this is funny at least i think so we had a small kitchen fire well when it came time to load the hose i went to walk the line 1 of these exes told me not to worry about it it would come out as they loaded it i went to tell him that i had the last one and he just yelled at me and told me not to worry he knew what he was doing so i said ok and laid the hose back on the ground i walked over and told the cheif to watch this cause it was the end of the hose and the nozzle was off the cheif was laughing so hard cause he had just heard what the guy had said well you should have seen the look on his face when that end came up and all the water landed on him hell he hasnt told me what to do since and yes here the officers are elected every year
-
-
Fire Bear, That's very funny, are you sure you don't want to be an officer ????
I think you would make a fine Officer
-
-
I understand, I don't beleive I would do again myself, To many politics involved
-
-
well not only that its just that here im new to the dept. i come from a paid dept. and here its vollie 2 whole diffrent worlds that i noticed
-
Permalink Reply by Just Plain Craig Moyer on
-
As an ex-officer I would not ride the seat. I always let the younger guys do ity even when we didn't have an officer. Not that I couldn't run a scene but the newer generation needs the experience. I told them that I won't let them get anyone hurt but they were in charge. I just offered "advice" as needed.
-
Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
-
No, sorry Bro, not a problem in my Department. Do you guys elect you Chiefs from the ranks? And they serve for a term? How about some policy about leadership and who's in charge. Sounds like a problem waiting for someone to step up and say enough!
-
Permalink Reply by Fire Chick on
-
we have very little exs.. but the do what they are told by officers.. it is usually everyone below trying to run everything.. they act like they are officers....
-
-
ok heres what i mean about this just went thru it yesterday at a big brush fire we went mutual aide had to get a ride into the area where the brush fire was when we got there our LT. told me and another ff to grab indian packs and get the hot spots we had a ex cheif up there with us and when we started filling the packs he came over and told us not to bother with them cause we had 2 lines being used to do that and to just start turning hot stuff over so we went to the LT. and asked him if his orders had changed he just looked at us and said i just told you what i wanted not even 5 mins ago so we told him what the ex cheif had said and this LT. delt with it right there on the spot the ex got mad and went back down the hill and we didnt see him again till it was almost over he was mad at the LT. me and the other guy cause he said nun of new what we was doing well me i got 15 years as a paid ff the and am a former officer i also have wild lands training the other guy has 25 years experiance and he is both right now paid and vollie and our LT. has 10 years so we told him we preety much do know what we are doing we was following our orders and we was doing our jobs and this was with only one ex there i wont go into what happened at the station with another one
-
Permalink Reply by Trainer on
-
Ahaaa department politics ain’t it fun.
First off line officers should never be voted on; this position needs to be earned with training respect and an ability to be a leader, which some people will never be. Organizational officers are positions that anyone can fill and are voted on annually. We do vote on chiefs and ass chiefs, this is however is NOT a popularity contest with the trustees having final say. There has to be some common sense here, our chiefs are there till they no longer want it (who the hell wants it anyways) or they screw up so bad they get demoted. Now with that said; ALL departments need a CLEAR chain of command…end of story.
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Next ›
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
