Breaking the News
How to inform your personnel about layoffs

By John Sullivan

Note: This article is part of a special FireRescue magazine series on the economy and its effects on the fire service.

After a recent Board of Engineers meeting, I had the inauspicious task of telling the firefighters on my shift that our department will face a tremendously difficult fiscal year in 2010 and what the ramifications of the new budget will mean for all of us. In this economy, I know many of you are in the very same position.

Worst-case scenario, our department is facing a 15–20 percent budget reduction for the next fiscal year. That’s a $6-million hit on a $30-million budget; that’s 63 layoffs out of 400 firefighters, and oh, by the way, there’s no overtime money for hiring anyone back to cover the people who are leaving. They (the budget gurus) took that money first.

If I could spin that news into something positive, I could go to work for one of those Wall Street investment firms that are trying to justify their million-dollar bonuses while we’re sending them billions of dollars in bail-out money. But I can’t find many, if any, positive things to say about our current situation.

Is the Glass Still Half-Full?
I’m generally a “glass-half-full” kind of guy. I don’t usually get caught up in doom-and-gloom scenarios, which many of our fire station lawyers like to throw up against the wall of the firehouse just to see what sticks. But this time around, I’ve had a more difficult time keeping a positive attitude about the looming budget crisis and the outrageous number of firefighter layoffs we’ll be facing very soon, barring some fiscal miracle.

I know that this recession, or downturn or possible depression (now I know why they call it that—it stinks) is a national and even global problem. And I know we’re not the only department facing a gigantic budget axing, but it doesn’t matter, because it affects my department and my brother and sister firefighters. (I’m very possessive of my firefighters, as I believe all chiefs should be!)

And because they’re my family of firefighters, it’s hard to look them in the eye and tell them that they’ll soon be unemployed, but “don’t worry, we’ll save your spot for you!” Little comfort when the mortgage is due and the wife is in her second trimester.

Luckily (or not), I can empathize with these young firefighters. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I was that same firefighter facing the lay-off notice. I had a new house and a young family to provide for, so I distinctly remember how it felt to be “on the bubble.” For the first 5 years of my career, I was told every year at budget time that I was going to be cut. It stinks.

I was fortunate to have been spared each of those times, but many brothers and sisters weren’t so lucky, and now many more of our young, strong and eager firefighters are about to become unemployed.

What Do You Say?
Simply put, when you’re the one who has to relay the bad news about layoffs, you tell the truth. My mother always said, “If you tell the truth, people can accept just about any news.” (Well, mom, it still stinks, but as usual, you were right.)

After the Board of Engineers meeting, I sat down with all my folks, looked them in the eye and told them the truth as I knew it: We will have layoffs, but what the final number will be, I don’t know—hopefully somewhere short of 63! The layoffs will affect the way we do business, we will need to adjust our responses, tactics and deployment strategies, but we won’t adjust our priorities—life safety is still No. 1, and that includes us. Reduced staffing, rolling brown-outs and the increased average age of those who are left will become safety issues for us as well as the citizens of our communities.

And that was the whole truth. It wasn’t pretty, fair or right. It was simply the truth.

Mr. Positive vs. Station Lawyer
After I sufficiently depressed everyone in the room, it was time to bring back the old me, Mr. Positive! And being Mr. Positive, I said things like, “Hey, we’ll still do what we have to do!” (This is one of those phrases that’s subject to interpretation, but there’s no “wrong answer,” so it works for everyone.) And “We’ll still respond to fires!” Of course, these aren’t the sort of answers or quotes that give specific details or inspire generations of firefighters, but as their chief, I was obligated to look on the bright side for a moment.

Unfortunately, my friend the station lawyer had been lying in wait for me to finish and had a dozen questions for me. For example: “Chief, so what you’re saying is if we have a fire after all these people get laid off, we won’t do anything different? I can’t see how.” Selective hearing isn’t exclusively practiced by 15-year-old daughters when dad has something to say. It applies to firefighters sometimes too. So in reply, I began with, “What I said was ... ” You can fill in the rest.

The point: You must be prepared to answer the what-ifs (and the station house lawyers), and if you don’t know the answer, don’t just make something up; that will come back to haunt you for sure. Instead, be honest about it: “I don’t really have an answer for that yet. What do you think we should do in that situation?”
And remember: Many of the what-ifs will thankfully never come to pass, but you should always have a contingency plan for them, just in case.

Hold On!
I read a quote recently from Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, who said, “Striving, thriving leaders have hope and benefit from the energy, optimism and expectancy that it produces. They reject despair and the resulting depression, pessimism and dissatisfaction that it produces.” Chief Cochran reminds us all that we must not give in to the temptation of despair and become another conduit for doom and gloom. Simply put, I found his words to be inspiring. Of course, we don’t have to prance around like Little Mary Sunshine when our people are faced with so many difficult days ahead. But we do have to maintain our focus, our vision and our commitment to servant leadership.

Maintaining our sense of hope flies in face of common sense sometimes, especially when the ship appears to be sinking, but great leaders are borne from difficult times. Not the ego-feeding narcissistic leader, who’s simply an opportunist, but the true leaders, men and women who practice empathy, honesty and integrity as a way of life for the benefit of others.

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem called “If” that has as much application today as it did 100 years ago. He said in part: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too … yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”
Simply put, true leadership cannot be measured in gold bugles; it’s measured in the hearts of those who are impacted by these difficult times.

Conclusion
Remember mom’s message: Tell the truth, no matter what. After all, our greatest asset is our people, and as such, they deserve honest answers during tough times. Give them the courtesy of an honest appraisal, and let them own their reaction to it, whatever that may be.

As their leader, it’s your job to remain a positive figure, because believe it or not, you are a beacon of hope.

District Chief John F. Sullivan, EFO, is a 22-year veteran of the Worcester (Mass.) Fire Department (WFD), currently serving as an operations chief for the WFD and as an instructor/examiner for both the WFD and Massachusetts State Fire Academy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Fire Science and a master’s degree in Public Administration. He also serves an adjunct professor at two Worcester colleges in the Fire Science division and has served on the National Fire Academy’s FESHE and TRADE committees. Chief Sullivan lectures nationally on firefighter safety, and is the current director-at-large for the IAFC’s Safety, Health and Survival section. He has collaborated on several projects with the National Fallen Fire Fighter’s Foundation and is a member of FireRescue magazine’s editorial board.

View the other articles in this series:
Analysis of Staffing Cuts by Fire Fighter Close Calls

Training During Tough Times

Demonstrating Your Department’s Value

Creating Revenue in a Down Economy (on the FRI blog)