Dealing with a FF working three jobs.

Have any of you guys ever had to deal with someone that is obviously working too many part time jobs?

There was a time when our department had a policy against working the 12 hours before your shift, but as of the last edition that policy has been dropped. Now I am faced with a fire fighter that is obviously abusing this freedom. He has been working at a local hospital ER the 12 hours prior to his shift almost every shift. To top things off he is in paramedic school the day after his shift. I know this only allows him to work the day before his shift but it seems that he would rather work the night before. The biggest problem is that he is obviously experiencing sleep deprivation. I know I'm going to have to deal with it very soon, but I just wanted to get some insight from others who may have dealt with similar problems.

I feel pretty sure that I have grounds for at least a written reprimand/documentation due to his performance at work. He consistently comes in an promptly falls asleep. Our policies don't allow him to go to the bunk room, but he will fall asleep while in a chair sometimes even when I am talking to him.

What do you guys think? How would you handle it?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Patrick Twohig on April 12, 2008 at 12:11am

I would sit him down and see what outside circumstances are affecting his life outside the station. It is very dangerous to work with employes that are sleep deprived. We use to have live ins here at the station. It was very obvious to the officers that after about a week they were a danger to thierselves, us and the public. I have sufferefd teh effects of employees working to many hours, it cost me a shoulder injury that kept me out of work for six month, and left me with 30% disability. The investigation that followed cited a lack of sleep. Also if the guy is going straight to the bunk, than he is not pulling his weight around the station. If the policies don't allow you to go straight to sleep then maybe the officers need to be an officer and not a friend, an easy trap to fall into, and enforce the policies. As always if nothing else works peer pressure will kick in, since deadbeats aren't well acceptted in the fire service. Lets hope something changes before he ruins his our some one elses life.

Permalink Reply by Lt.leatherhead on April 26, 2008 at 5:48pm

Sadly enough I understand the position this fellow is in when it comes to having enough part time jobs to make end meet. I think the best way to come at this will be to sit the guy down and talk to him about his performance and let him know that he's lacking on the job. Watch his performance after your talk and see if he's starting to kick it in the butt a little bit or if he's still comming in and crashing. If it keeps up i'd have to say that a verbal reprimand or whatever your first line of disaplinary actions may be might open his eyes up to the fact that you're not playing around.

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