Please Suck Less

So, a little off script this with this episode. I want to talk about the troubles I am hearing in the Healthcare field. Bad employees, no discipline for bad behavior, crappy managers, blind administrators, and arrogant Board members.

It is no secret that the waiting times in the ER to be seen or for an ambulance to off load patients is astronomical. The is no relief in sight and it keeps getting worse.

It seems that management does not care, and all the good workers are fed up and are leaving the business in droves.

It is time to revamp the system from the top down. To the Managers, and Board of Directors go talk to the people who are closest to the issues and figure out how to fix the system and bring in and keep the good employees.

You graduated the academy and you got your station assignment. You are ready to embark on the best job in the world. So what can you do to be a productive part of your new shift?

In this epsode I will lay out what you the rookie can do to be productive. I offer advice to the senior shift members to help turn out the best rookies.

It cost money to run the fire service. Things are expensive in the fire and rescue world. Fire apparatus is no longer 100's of thousands of dollars but a million plus. Our equipment and tools are expensive, a set of turnout gear is $5500, and our training continues to cost more and more, because we are asked to do more and more.

When a citizen calls 911, they expect a well-trained well outfitted professional group of people getting off the apparatus, be you career or volunteer this is what the public expects. Not only is it our responsibility to give them that, but it is our job to continually educate the politicians, so they understand why our budgets increase every year.

Force the politicians to meet you on your turf. show them what you are required to do, then literally put them in our shoes and put them through the paces of firefighting.

Open your fire stations to the public so they see what you do and why it is so important for them to donate.

Don't let the political figures cut our budgets hold their feet to the fire and be vocal to your needs.

I am an optimist. I do my best to see the good. People don't just show up to work and think "how can I be a POS today?" I believe people want to be good at their job and be an asset to the shift, but when Officers or senior firefighters don't correct bad behaviors, people fall into a routine of sucking. If you're an officer and you have underperforming people on your shift, it is your job to fix it.

As a chief officer you demand your people to do their job with skill and precision. That comes from constant training. As a chief officer, what are you doing to maintain your skill? Your department needs to develop training that measures a chief's skill and allows them to perform on the training grounds so they can be skilled on the fire ground.

I don't buy into the "customer service" model of the fire service. It is BS. We are not selling goods. The citizens are not our customers. We are not salesmen. Our job is to be the best at mitigating emergencies. That means we train; we show up when the call comes in and we protect lives. Just because you don't agree with men does not make us toxic. Men need to be masculine. Being masculine is not a crime, it is not a bad thing. The term Toxic Masculinity is BS dreamed up by wacko mental defects. There are men out there who are prone to violence and are shit bags. Those are not masculine men, they are immature boys, but to lump all men into this category is wrong. I urge all men to embrace your masculinity and be a good person.

In combination systems, career and volunteers work together to provide excellent service to the citizens. That's the way it is supposed to work. unfortunately, it does not always work that way. There are organizations that fight against each other. Career personnel want to get rid of the volunteers and volunteers refusing to work with the career. In the end the interior fighting makes the organization and the citizens suffer.

There is strength in numbers these two entities working together can accomplish great things. there is no room for discord in the system and if the riff is from the top then the top needs to go. We are all here to do the job and when we do it together the system becomes great.

Why do unions gravitate towards a certain political party? Most of the time the answer is "we have always done it that way" At best that is a crap reason. All politicians suck and will promise you the moon and stars, but don't deliver yet election after election they keep supporting the same party. It is time for the heads of the local to listen to their members, who elected them to run the union in the first place. If your members want you to break the cycle and support a different candidate, then so be it. Stop blindly throwing you support to the same trash election after election.

Be loyal to your organization. Show some respect where you work. Stop trashing your department. Too many times we hear people who bash the system, trash talk how things run. These people may have legitimate complaints but fall on deaf ears because they never have solutions. There are those who just bitch to bitch, these people are never happy no matter what.

If you don't like something work on fixing it. Speak to your leaders respectfully and offer solutions. You will find people listen when you speak with facts and not feelings.

So, if things are not great, ask yourself what can I do to make it better.

This month I welcome Dr. Shelley Wheeler back to the show. This show is all about making decision on the fire ground. We offer advice to the new officer on making critical decisions with little information.

We discuss Recognition Prime Decision model. This model is what firefighters use on the scene when we have little information. This model is rooted in knowledge, skills and experience.

This month i talk with Capt. Mike Burkett. Mike is a Captain with the Baltimore City Fire Department assigned to Truck 5 and an instructor with Capitol Fire Training. 

Mike and I discuss being the Truck boss.

• Crew expectations
• Operating in commercial and residential structures
• Searching vacant 
• training to keep your crew sharp

Sleep deprived, anxiety and inflammation ,CBD is helping first responders as well as nurses and doctors cope with the stresses our work hands us. Jon Vought and I discuss the stresses our job has. John is the owner of Rescue 1 CBD. His product is 100% THC free. Jon and I dig deep into what his product is, what it does and how it is helping. Feel free to contact Jon on:

Instagram @rescue_1_cbd

YouTube @rescue1CBD

Web site rescue1cbd.com