Your Reputation – Worth Investing In
Today more than ever we live in a society focused on the wide world of finances. The
news is overflowing with articles, stories, and breaking events surrounding investments,
dividends, capital gains, stocks, Wall Street, and on and on. We all know how important these
things are for our futures, and it’s no surprise that unless we plan on saving for the future we
will be working until the future and beyond. Everyone wants a happy and financially stress free
retirement and it may be safe to say the majority of us are willing to make sacrifices now in
order to get there. But while we work in the best career there is, there is another very critical
investment we need to be focused on which sometimes gets overlooked: our personal
reputations.
Just like saving and investing our finances, it’s much easier if you get started early. And
just like saving and investing, the more you put in the greater the dividends that will come back
to you.
Let me explain. I have not been on this job for an incredible amount of time, a mere 18
months to be exact, and I am in a position at work to have my mouth shut and ears open all the
time so I can learn this job and be as successful as possible at it. I graduated the Salt Lake City
Fire Recruit School with nine other eager firefighters. Over the past year and half we have all
made decisions, or “investments”, that have impacted our reputations on the job. I have seen
some of my fellow recruits have great success, or “return”, on their reputations by working
hard and constantly looking for ways to go the extra mile. I have also seen my classmates
squander their time and make poor decisions that have already labeled them as lazy or unfit for
the job. This has made it so crews throughout the department do not want to work with them
because they are unable trust them. Those who have made these “bad investments” now have
to dig their reputations out of deep hole that could take even years to fully overcome.
How then does a firefighter invest in such a way to then enjoy a positive reputation
throughout their career? Here are seven lessons, or investments, that I have seen work that I
know can be applied by any firefighter in any fire department anywhere.
1 – Don’t Gossip – EVER
The fire service, while being the greatest job on the planet, is home to way too much
gossip and backbiting between its family members. When you spend so much time with people
in the same house, in stressful situations, personalities will collide and confrontation will
happen. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem comes when after the conflict is
resolved the discussion is continued to be brought up among those uninvolved in the court of
public opinion. Don’t be that guy. Realize people make mistakes and strive to forgive them for
it; we will all screw up at some point. That’s life.
2 – Pet projects are like gold mines!
Every shift you work have a pet project planned around the station. Whether its
cleaning….well…anything, sharpening and maintaining all the tools on the truck or engine,
polishing the fire pole, organizing the kitchen cupboards, scrubbing the stove, deep cleaning the
showers or folding the towels and putting them next to the showers these things will be
noticed. Get creative and stay busy. Sometimes the crew will see you doing things and
sometimes they won’t but they will all notice a positive difference when you’re around and that
is what matters.
3 – Learn to cook
You don’t have to the next top chef to cook at the station, you just need two or three
things you can make that are good enough, things that you enjoy eating. If you need help ask
your crew, they will be willing to help, in fact it isn’t so much that you are cooking or even what
you are cooking, but the fact that you stepped up and volunteered to take care of the crew.
That is big and they will notice; a well-played investment.
4 – A clean engine is a happy engine and a happy engine is a happy crew.
Some crews have routines and particularities about cleaning the apparatus and it is
important to learn them, but it’s equally as important to make sure you go above and beyond
those routines to make sure your engine/truck is always clean. I don’t mean rinsed, or even a
quick wash, I mean a deep clean. The windows washed, the chrome polished, the bell (if you
have one) should be like a mirror, the tires should glisten, and the rims sparkle. Yes this stuff
takes time but you’ve got an entire career to look forward to. That’s plenty of time.
5 – No one should beat you to the phone, door or dishes.
Answering the phone and door with a sense of urgency will be your badge of honor.
Don’t get beat to it, ever, and if you do that person better have you hanging on their back to
get to it. I’m not encouraging poor judgment, but if you make a mad dash to the phone and
door when it rings then, again, it will be noticed and your crew will see how seriously you take
your place as the new member of the crew.
And that goes the same for dishes. Last to grub, first to scrub should be your mantra
especially as a new firefighter. The kitchen should become your domain. Never leave a dirty
dish, never have an empty coffee pot, always have a clean kitchen. A clean kitchen also means a
happy crew.
6 – Don’t Complain/Stay Positive
There will be nights you might get up 5 times for the same false alarm or have to go pick
up the same drunk that you have been on countless number of occasions. Maybe it’s a call at 2
am to your districts nursing home for a patient who says their knee hurts and wants to have it
seen right away. Regardless of what it may be try not to gripe and complain. Not only will it just
put you in a negative mood and make your own life miserable, but you will seem pretty foolish
in front of a crew whose been responding to those type of calls for years before you were even
considered being hired. What right do you have to complain? Just remember how many people
who would do anything to have your job be glad you got it instead, the good and the bad.
7 – TRAIN and STUDY
Think you’re salty because you ride around in a big shiny engine that gets to drive down
the wrong side of the road? Every year there is over 100 firefighters who die in the line of duty,
which is the worst statistic of the job. A lot of the time, if not most of the time, they are veteran
firefighters who have experience and training on the job and yet they still gave their lives to the
job. How much more at risk are you on a fireground? Whether this is true or not, it’s how your
crew feels about you. They don’t trust you yet, they can’t. Prove it to them by studying all you
can about the job and train every chance you get so it becomes second nature when it counts.
It will build bridges with your crew which will last your career.
Those are the seven investments to live by that will all but guarantee your career will
have been well vested by the time you are ready to leave it behind. Reputations begin to form
the first day you show up at the station and last your entire career. Whether they are a blessing
or a burden is totally up to you.