VOLUNTEERS CORNER | By THOMAS A. MERRILL
For MORE THAN a decade now, I’ve discussed the importance of serving as a professional volunteer firefighter and running our volunteer fire departments in a professional manner. In Fire Engineering, online, on the speaking circuit, and now in a book, I have outlined why it’s so important. I’ve emphasized ways to create and enhance a volunteer member’s professional image and a volunteer department’s professional culture.
On occasion, some challenge my use of the word “professional” in reference to volunteer firefighters and volunteer fire departments. They believe that the word can only apply to someone being paid to do a job or an organization staffed with only career personnel. So when I’m confronted, I will refer to various dictionary definitions of the word, and I’ll point out that many of them make no mention of it having anything to do with earning a paycheck or being one’s chosen career field. I see a wide range of definitions, including the following:
- Relating to work that needs special skills and qualifications.
- Showing a high level of skill or training.
- Doing your job well.
- Characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession.
- Behaving in a correct way.
- Exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace.
- Being reliable, setting your own high standards, and showing that you care about every aspect of your job.
- Being organized and holding yourself accountable for your thoughts, words, and actions.
Certainly, all these definitions can apply to firefighters everywhere—both paid and volunteer. Now, to be fair, and as the naysayers have pointed out, some dictionaries do define a professional as someone who is paid to do the work. I fully acknowledge that. However, accompanying that definition are many others including those outlined above. What I like to say to my volunteer friends is, “Let’s concentrate on all the parts of the definition that can apply to volunteers.”
Remember What’s Important
Definitions really don’t matter to the person needing help or stopping by the firehouse to have a question answered. It’s actions and behavior that really matter.
When all is said and done, people will remember that in their time of need, kind, caring, and competent firefighters showed up and helped take care of their problem. Likewise, when they interact with a group of firefighters out in the community, they will simply remember how they were treated and how the firefighters carried themselves. These choices are within every firefighter’s own direct personal control.
Remember also that being considered professional has nothing do with the size of a fire department, the age of its fire equipment, or how many runs it responds to. Professional firefighters are found in professional volunteer fire departments large and small and in rural communities, bedroom communities, and urban environments. No doubt, there are some paid fire departments that probably cannot be considered professional, while many volunteer fire departments are nothing but professional.
Let’s look more closely at some of these definitions and how they can easily apply to the volunteer firefighter.
“Relating to work that needs special skills and qualifications.” The work of any firefighter certainly applies here, and there is no difference delineating the best way to handle the range of incidents firefighters are called to handle. Handling any type of call—EMS, fire, and rescue—requires special skills. Technical standards for each need to be understood and met. And, certainly, firefighters need to be certified to do much of the work required of them.
It’s safe to say that all firefighters everywhere spend a substantial amount of time in their academies and local training centers getting the certifications required for them to handle the work successfully. Citizens simply expect the firefighters protecting them to be skilled, proficient, and qualified to handle whatever their reason for calling happens to be.
“Showing a high level of skill and training.” There’s no question about whether the work of a firefighter requires special skills. Those skills need to be worked on continuously so the firefighter can maintain proficiency. When a civilian is confronted with an emergency and yells, “Somebody do something,” that is you, as a professional firefighter, they are referring to. Citizens needing help call 911 and simply say, “Send help.” There is no 912 or option for callers to specify whether they’re asking for the paid service or the volunteer service.
No matter the reason, callers expect the responding firefighters to exercise the training they have received and skillfully mitigate the situation. Firefighters are either trained and ready, or they are not. There is no faking it. They cannot simply walk into the firehouse and pretend to be ready. They need to actually be ready. The way to be ready is to have gone through a quality, professional training program and to be professional firefighters who support and attend training. When a job is handled successfully, it means the firefighters have showcased their high skill level and demonstrated that their training was taken seriously. And they’ve shown that the training and preparation have paid off.
“Doing your job well.” A good training program supported by firefighters regularly attending and participating helps lead to a successful outcome. Competently handling the customers’ calls for help applies across the board to paid and volunteer fire departments. Regardless of the reason, they expect the responding firefighters to put their training to work and successfully take care of whatever the problem is. It must be recognized that the ultimate credential for a professional fire department is performance on the fireground, or at any emergency scene for that matter, and quality performance comes from quality training. When done successfully, citizens have nothing to say but, “Job well done.”
“Characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession.” The technical standards outlined in the definition here were mentioned earlier, with a focus on training. The ethical standards, however, apply to firefighters embracing the long-established values of trust, pride, honor, integrity, empathy, and compassion.
It’s no secret that, for the most part, the fire service enjoys a favorable reputation and is consistently ranked as one of the most trusted organizations. This trust has been earned by previous generations of firefighters exhibiting nothing but ethical behavior while delivering selfless service in both paid and volunteer organizations.
“Behaving in a correct way.” Polite behavior and proper social decorum are sorely lacking in society today. People seem to be more socially awkward than ever, and many lack the skills or desire to carry on a civil, informal conversation with others in their company.
It has also been said that people today are very angry, hostile, and judgmental. Events in the news seem to regularly confirm that. However, I believe a professional firefighter can be the exception to this trend. Firefighters are regularly provided with opportunities to show the world that there are still good people. When citizens are having a bad day, they may look to firefighters for support and help. Well-mannered behavior coupled with real kindness, true compassion, and genuine empathy are universal traits that convey true professionalism. All firefighters should consistently display them.
Opportunities to exhibit such decorous mannerisms exist far beyond the big fire or emergency call. Every day when they are out among the public, firefighters can behave appropriately and treat people with kindness. Well-mannered behavior and learning how to engage with people in a respectful and polite manner should truly be a part of every professional firefighter’s identity.
If firefighters genuinely don’t like people, maybe the fire service isn’t for them. Professional firefighters accept the fact that they are going to be dealing with people of different personalities and thought processes. Their emergency call may not be an emergency in their mind, but they still must offer competent and compassionate service and show true empathy for the citizen having a problem.
“Exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace.” A professional fire department sets good boundaries for acceptable organizational behavior and never tolerates bullying, harassment, sexism, or discrimination. All members are taught to understand that there is no room for bigotry and prejudices in our firehouses and personal biases cannot be allowed to interfere with the mission of the fire service, the treatment of fellow firefighters, or the public they are sworn to protect and serve.
“Being reliable, setting your own high standards, and showing that you care about every aspect of your job” and “Being organized, and holding yourself accountable for your thoughts, words, and actions.” Simply put, these definitions expound the ownership mentality. That mindset should definitely apply to any firefighters who consider themselves professional firefighters.
Understanding Ownership
Ownership is an attitude that all firefighters of all ranks and tenures—and from all department types—can and should embrace. They need to take ownership of the fire service, their home fire department, their firehouses, and even themselves.
Ownership of the fire service means that the firefighters understand the long-standing and positive reputation the fire service has enjoyed for generations. They endeavor to never bring dishonor to their department or the fire service by upholding the previously discussed values of pride, honor, trust, integrity, and compassion.
Professional firefighters should set high standards for themselves. Their personal standard must be a commitment to train to be as prepared as possible for what call it is they are summoned to. They commit to being physically fit and able to perform the job defined by that term firefighter. And professional firefighters understand that every action they make and every word they utter is made as a firefighter. Every time they are out in the public, every community event they attend, they understand that they are representing their fire department as well as the entire fire service. Whether they like it or not, how firefighters act and treat people most definitely impacts the reputation and professional image of their department.
Ownership also applies in the officer ranks and is a key component for being an effective fire service leader. In Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s book, Extreme Ownership, they remind the reader that good officers exercise ownership for absolutely everything under their command. It might be hard for some to embrace but, as they point out, there are no bad units, only bad officers. It is directed at the leaders and officers in any organization.
With this type of ownership, the organization leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame when things go wrong. As they describe it, on any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leaders. Leaders must own everything in their world. Leaders must acknowledge mistakes, admit failures, take ownership of those failures, and develop a plan to overcome them.
Fire service officers need to take ownership of their duties and responsibilities as well. If you happen to be the officer designated to fix the broken piece of equipment or stock the EMS kit, ownership means you are taking responsibility for getting those required jobs done.
In the volunteer ranks, officer ownership applies to all sides of the organizations, not strictly the firematic side. If you are the department secretary, you must take ownership of the minutes by making sure they are completed accurately, done in a timely manner, and filed according to your department guidelines. If you are the treasurer, you must pay bills accurately and on time.
A key aspect of the ownership mantra is consistency. Many jobs throughout the firehouse must be done regularly. Officers and firefighters might start off doing the job on a regular basis as required but soon grow tired or bored and begin taking shortcuts or, worse, no longer do the job as thoroughly as they should. Ownership means doing the jobs you are responsible for in a consistent and regular manner. No role in any fire department escapes ownership responsibility.
Those are just a few of the definitions of the word professional. But definitions should not really concern you. How you act, perform, train, and respect others should. Collectively, as professional firefighters, let us all concentrate on what we can control. Let’s each offer professional service and work hard to be true professional members of our organization.
ToM MERRILL is a 41-year member of the Snyder Fire Department in Amherst, New York, and fire commissioner for the Snyder Fire District. He served 26 years as a department officer, including 15 years in the chief officer ranks and five years as chief of the department. He has given fire service presentations throughout the Western New York area as well as at FDIC International. He also is a fire dispatcher for the Amherst Fire Alarm Office.
