I recently attended a one-day conference with about 150 firefighters present. There were four instructors, and the planners were nice enough to give me a small speaking part in the program. In the audience, there were about a dozen young men and women all in the same uniform sitting together and attentively taking it all in. The group was a soon-to-graduate fire science class from a local community college. They were completing a two-year program that would prepare them to go out in the brave new world and compete for an entry-level fire department position. Their academic boss probably thought it would be a positive experience to get to hang out for the day in a conference context. I was sitting in a place facing them so I could watch their reaction as the program proceeded.
When I was gainfully employed by a fire department, I really enjoyed having a conversation with our academy recruits. It was always educational for me to listen to them describe how they fit into and felt about the system at the very beginning of their career. Given our relative ages, it was to them a lot like having a conversation with their grandfather.
I was in the department long enough to visit with them at the start of their career in the recruit academy and then attend their retirement ceremony at the end of their career. It was common for them to remember and mention something we discussed during our conversation when they were in recruit school. I guess, as a boss, we should pay attention to what we say because it may live forever.
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