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What do your Vol. FFs call your Chief?
(I'm assuming there's no doubt in a paid dept.)
I have always called ours "Chief". In the station, on the phone or if we meet at the grocery store. As in "Chief, can I do this?", or "Sure, Chief, I'll take care of it." And I say to other firefighters, "Hey, the Chief wants us to clean that." I call our two assistant chiefs "Chief" unless it's third person and I say "Car 2 wants that bay cleaned."
Anyway, the other day, one of our new 19-yr olds said to me, "Dave told us to do this", and I hear them go to him and say, "Hey, Dave, can I do this?" And it drives me crazy even though he never seems to care. Now I know a lot of the older guys knew the Chief when he was just young Davy and I give that some leeway. But it just seems to me that in an organization like a fire department, the Chief should ALWAYS be "Chief", and not Dave, until he's not Chief any more. I about bit my tongue in half not jumping on that young FF the other day.
So here's the question - is it just me? Is it just the unreasonable side effect of 22 years in the Army, and something my sore tongue will have to get used to or, just maybe, could I be on the right track?
I have always called ours "Chief". In the station, on the phone or if we meet at the grocery store. As in "Chief, can I do this?", or "Sure, Chief, I'll take care of it." And I say to other firefighters, "Hey, the Chief wants us to clean that." I call our two assistant chiefs "Chief" unless it's third person and I say "Car 2 wants that bay cleaned."
Anyway, the other day, one of our new 19-yr olds said to me, "Dave told us to do this", and I hear them go to him and say, "Hey, Dave, can I do this?" And it drives me crazy even though he never seems to care. Now I know a lot of the older guys knew the Chief when he was just young Davy and I give that some leeway. But it just seems to me that in an organization like a fire department, the Chief should ALWAYS be "Chief", and not Dave, until he's not Chief any more. I about bit my tongue in half not jumping on that young FF the other day.
So here's the question - is it just me? Is it just the unreasonable side effect of 22 years in the Army, and something my sore tongue will have to get used to or, just maybe, could I be on the right track?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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The Chief is "Chief" or Unit 1 on the fire ground & at any activity. If he calls me on the phone & says "This is your Chief" I know he means business. If he says "Hey, Its Hammer" I know it isn't urgent. He is Chief Clark doing business. Our jrs refer to him as Chief. We call each other by last names or nick names around the station. The Assistant Chief is Unit 2 and is usually addressed as such by the younger members or as AC. Unless he says "I'm George." I often affectionately call him Ass Chief. Our Deputy Chief is Unit 3 or DC. There are times of formality & others are more informal. In the middle of the night trying to get the equipment ready to go back out what we call each other may not be worth repeating. We all tend to get slap happy or silly.
A new jr called our Chief "Hammer" the other day @ a function & was corrected very quickly by his peers.
The name Brumfield as to be qualified with either DC or Chief Brumfield and Lt Brumfield. Thank goodness my name changed when I married or there would be 3 of us. Usually I'm just Jen. All the officers are @ least 10 yrs younger than I am. Most of them were jrs under me in the 80s & 90s and I do often slip & call them by their old nicknames. Come to think of it the past 4 Chiefs fit that category. My pet name for the Chief I worked for from 1985 - 1996 was "O'Wise One". Which stuck or shortened to "O' One" like the unit number 01.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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If I came to visit your dept, I would address your officers by their rank. That's just the way it should be. You could easily have a captain 20 years my junior, but I would still call him Cap. I might call any level of chief, BC, AC,DC Chief.
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Permalink Reply by Jason on
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thats my probelm i am a 22 y/o captian and the older ff dont think they have to list to what i say be cause the older or they know more why should they listin to me is what they say..but its mostly others that come to or district for manpower when we need it. now yes in the station we vote for our captains and batt chiefs and i was voted a captain the captain was kicked off the fd for some of his actions and the chief assigned me the captain stop because he felt i could do the job and do it good.but you know when i ask someone to go do something on a sence and they tell me they dont have to because there more they been fighting fire longer then me frustrates me.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Redden on
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The way I see it our Chief has been w/our dept for 22 yrs. She's been chief for 10 of them. She has earned the name of "Chief". If not for her tenure at least for the position she holds. It's a matter of respect even out side the dept. Would you walk into your Doctor's office & say "Hey Sam, I've got this hemrroid problem! Would you take a look at it for me?"
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Permalink Reply by Spanner 122 on
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I call all officers by their rank. it's called Rank Respect, they earned the stripes, volunteer or not, they should be called by their position. Capts who have been on the job for 30 years and have known the Chief the entire time still call them by Chief. We have one exception, one Chief has a nickname and that's what most people call him, it's just as much about respect as calling him Chief. I, of course, still call him Chief.
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Ooooh:
I LIKE the undertones of this thread.
It gives me goosebumps.
However: I have not been chief for 6 years; yet, people still refer to me as chief or "RC"(retired chief).
I guess it goes back to that "respect" thing. See blog:http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=889755%3ABlo...
When I was active, any guests that would come to our station would address me as "chief".
Some called me that always. Some would call me "chief" once in a while. But, when someone else asked, "where's the chief", everyone would point to me.
So, everyone at least knew who the chief was.
And that works well when there's an incident or a pie eating contest.
TCSS.
Art
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You are right you should call them by their rank. And I do too "most" of the time. But some of these guys I have known since they were children & they change unit numbers now & then. Their old nick names often come to mind & it comes out. NEVER on a firescene & very very rarely in public do I address them other than professionally.
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Permalink Reply by Steve on
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I believe they should be called chief when on officail business. I however don't think it matters when just hanging out. I personally think you know if you have someone's respect, no matter what they refer to you as. I call ours by his first name unless on official business than i use chief. The man knows reguardless of what i call him, he has my respect.
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Permalink Reply by Dustin Castle on
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I and everyone at the station calls our Bill which is his name. I mean if its a professional setting such as fire or an event in the town I call him chief.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Eades on
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Our chiefs have routinely been addressed by the firefighters by their names, though I have not felt it to be disrespectful. But it also depends on the mores of the community you are living in--ours is very liberal, and people on the island frequently call the Dispatch center I work at looking for "Sheriff Bill." It drives me nuts for the same reasons. I tend to call our Chief "Chief," and do the same for all Chiefs in the county but one--he sternly informed me that he is to be called "Steve."
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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Holley on
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Even though i am much older than him it's Chief or Sir. It's a sign of respect to a person who has achieved their goal. He returns it with respect also calling me sir often. I consider him one of my best friends.
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Permalink Reply by Judy on
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Our fire fighters and Officers call me Chief, I.C., Command...on the fire ground, and Chief in the hall. When I leave the hall and fire ground, they call me Judy. We live in a small town and it's important for me to be able to be a person as well, to be able to cheer my son on in a soccer game, or have a drink at a social function. However I'm always aware that I'm the Chief (no matter what I'm called) and as such am held to a higher standard by the public on the whole, I can't yell at my son to kick the other teams ASS and I can't totally cut loose regardless of the function.
The community expects more and certainly deserves a 'Chief' regardless of the setting I'm in, as a result I get treated like the Chief by the guys... they know they can count on a certain behavior no matter the situation.
When additional fire stations are responding to assit my crew at some incident, the attending fire fighters have a hard time trying to decide what to call me, regardless of it being viewed as polite... Ma'am doesn't go over well with me! Then there's my favorite, where they don't know what to call me so they tell their sector commander that they will follow "her" orders!
My advice is when in doubt ask how the person would like to be addressed. Regardless of what I'm called on the fire ground, I except orders to be followed and carried out with an acknowledgement to me that it was understood and followed...Roger works GREAT! : )
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