“Hired Guns”

Hired guns, ax men, snipers, and sharp-shooters. We've all heard the names they've been called, those people hired from outside the organization, usually for management positions. In fire departments, it is a particularly volatile subject. The grapevine rumor that goes around, almost without exception, is that the outsider has been hired to "lay down the law." Is there any truth to this type of fire station hype? And whether or not there is, can you successfully hire someone from outside the organization as a battalion chief or shift chief?

在消防,雇佣的实践从outside the organization is still relatively new. It has been commonplace for the positions of chief or assistant/deputy chief. For the position of battalion chief or shift chief, however, it is still considered a radical management decision, because this person must walk the fine line between management and shift personnel of which, in truth, he is still an integral part. When the rest of the administration goes home at 5 p.m., the chief of the shift has to stay and be able to communicate and function with his crew.

The shift chief, typically, has the inherent task of deciding what action to take with an employee in a professional or personal matter. In other words, he has to decide where the buck stops. More often than not, if the shift chief is worth his salt, the buck should stop at his office. After all, he is the one who gives the nod to the fire chief for his employees' promotions or the thumbs up/down for disciplinary actions. He is also the one who has to decide what to do when the employee confronts him with a personal crisis in the middle of the night, say a sick baby at home, an accident with the rescue truck, or some other can't-wait crisis. The shift chief makes the decisions on who will or won't go into fires or other hazardous atmospheres; staffing; and who steps up into higher positions (acting out of title) when the driver, lieutenant, or captain is out for a day. He is responsible for these and numerous other operational decisions.