Gordon Graham here with my monthly thoughts for you to consider as you peruse the website of the Credit Union and look at all that is going on in the financial markets that without a doubt has negatively impacted your net worth. I will say this quickly and move on to other things. This is America – and we have faced tremendous adversity in the past and have recovered. We will recover, although I do not know the duration of this current economic mess that is now global in nature.

But the mere fact that you are on this site tells me that you are one of the smart people in the U.S. who understands the value of saving – and here is a stereotype for you – but if you are taking the “savings” thing seriously you also hate having debt and have or are in the process of reducing debt and preparing for your well deserved retirement.

And for those of you who have retired from the fire service, congratulations and I wish you a long life and trust that you have sufficient assets to take care of yourself and your family forever.

And I know this is getting somewhat boring, but it seems that in every column I am thanking you for your great work. And once again, October ended up being a nasty month on the “wildland” front and Mrs. G and I sincerely appreciate all of your great work.

And please don’t misunderstand this thought. We (Mrs. G and I) do not live in a “wildland” area. Risk Management is not a class I teach, it is a way of life and do you really think I would build my house in the woods? Nope, I was just a bit smarter than that. So as long as we do not have a tsunami, I am in good shape. And according to my sources in NOAA the likelihood of such an event falls into the “you are more likely to be struck by lightning” or “there is a chance I will get rich in the lottery” category and I don’t worry about those things so there you have it. Again thanks!

So what to cover during this brief conversation with you? There are so many thoughts racing around in my head these days with the aforementioned economic issues, the looming elections (and by the time you read this we will have a new President), the pending pandemic, terrorism and those related issues and many other things. You have to wonder why people actually run for the “Presidency”. Whether you like Mr. Bush or don’t like him – you have to think that he is grateful that January 20 is coming soon.

So I want to focus on one issue today – and undoubtedly it will generate some comments but it needs to be said. There is no longer room for hazing (and related activities) in fire service operations. The consequences are just too great – and the benefits (rumored, presumed, or otherwise surmised) are outweighed by the tremendous risks involved in this type of activity. And seeing as how I have my Risk Management hat on right now – I am asking you to eliminate that risk and do away with this type of behavior.

Now I am acutely aware that many Fire Chiefs have said the same thing, but all too often there is a disconnect between the “written rule” and the “actual behavior” that goes on within an organization. This is not limited to the “hazing” issue – but is present in so many other aspects of public safety operations.

I am aware of many police departments that have well written pursuit policies – but for some reason the policies are not really followed by street cops. And while speaking of vehicle operations, Dallas Fire Department ran a red light (at apparently some speed) and T-boned Brian Loncar last May.

And if you are not familiar with Mr. Loncar, he is the number one plaintiff lawyer in the great state of Texas, and he is the guy (sort of like Larry Parker here in California) who has the billboards and advertisements all across the state stating. “if you have been injured in an accident, come see me”. My guess is this is the wrong guy to get involved with in an intersection. I mentioned this case in an earlier piece, but it came to mind recently when I was talking to some Texas firefighters who still (and I believe mistakenly believe) that the “red lights and siren” are carte blanche to do what you want to do!

My further guess is that DFD has a policy regarding clearing intersections when the signal is red – and my guess is that the language is something like “stop and look both ways” and not to get bogged down on this but the word “stop” is not all that ambiguous and Webster will tell you that it means “the cessation of all forward movement” and that seems clear to me.

And my guess is also that there was a Company Officer in the right front seat who had “ratified” past behavior of a similar nature by ignoring the behavior – and the deviation became the norm and red light running became the accepted practice over time even though the written rule was pretty clear.

So now back to this “hazing” issue. If you do not have a policy that prohibits this type of behavior – you need one for a lot of different reasons. Some of the workplace violence events we have read about over the last few years may have been caused by this type of behavior directed at an employee who later decides to get even with those who participated in his (and it usually is a man who does the WV stuff) hazing.

And if you take a look at some (perhaps most) of the terrible high school shootings we have witnessed over the last few years – bullying (another inappropriate behavior of similar ilk to hazing) was present and the aggrieved student decided to get even with those who perpetrated the behavior.

But there is a better reason to get and keep this nonsense out of the workplace. It is just wrong! And all this talk about how it “builds team spirit” is wrong-headed thinking. These inappropriate behaviors can have negative consequences for life – and should not be part of a professional organization like yours. If you want to build team spirit, get out and regularly train on high-risk, low-frequency company activities.

I chose this as my topic for this piece today because of a conversation I had with a “dad” at a conference recently. I was talking about “harassment” issues and he came up to me after the program and waited until I was alone and started to tell me about the lifelong dream of his son to be a firefighter and that dream was solidified after September 11 and his son was accepted to a department (and the location or name of the department is not important) and he was so proud to graduate the Fire Academy and that after a few shifts he told his Father he hated the fire service and wanted out.

And indeed he did quit – and when pressed by his dad regarding why he quit – after all the work he did to get hired – it all got down to the constant hazing during his probationary period. And I will tell you that I was pretty shocked by some of the things that his dad told me were going on in that department – and if I wrote about the specific behaviors I would probably get a “complaint” for just describing the behaviors which were filled with “sex” and “humiliation” overtones.

Now before you dismiss this as the whining of some ex-cop, let me ask you a question. Let’s assume what Dad told me is true – or perhaps mostly true. If that was your son or daughter I believe that would be a big deal to you. You would not tolerate it then and you should not tolerate it now.

You belong to an extremely noble profession. Please keep it that way. Do not allow these bad behaviors to occur in your workplace. And if you are the Company Officer or Chief Officer – lay down the written rule and please enforce it consistently.

Anyhow, I promise to be more upbeat in the next piece. Until then, please take the time to work safely.

Gordon Graham
Co-President, Lexipol

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 7:25 am and is filed under FD Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.