Assignment - 3

[jscottCCFD]

Early in my career here we had a Firefighter that wasn't meeting expectations and was close to being let go. My self and another FF took this employee and worked with him every day for a month or more until he was well trained in his job. It wasn't difficult, This person just had no fire experience and needed help with the basic things. He was good in the EMS side of things. So we just started from scratch and worked our way through the packet. It took a little longer than most people but we got it done and he did well from then on except he had this thing we called " Tone Terror", whenever the tones would go off he would almost go into SVT. There was nothing we could do about that. Sometimes it's good for all of us to not overlook the basic things and to refresh our selves on them. I know we will get the stair chair out and work with it from time to time cause if you don't, it can make you look pretty silly on a scene. Just things like that to make life a bit easier.
Kevin Stevens

Kevin, I remember this very well.  This employee did not lack the proper amount of intelligence needed for this job.  But he did lack the proper mental toughness that is appropriate for handling any given emergency that could be encountered while on shift.  The mental foundation/ability to process calls (during the emergency and after) is a given trait that people must possess.  It is hard to train a subordinate on how to operate equipment properly when their brain turns to soggy cereal as soon as the tones drop. 

[Tony]

David,

I agree with your issue.  Some people get overlooked and kind of lost over the years.  That being said, it does take tracking or documenting different issues.  Once a list of issues is made, presented as a training issue rather than discipline, it is usually received much better. 
Complacence also comes into play.  I feel for you, I've had similar issues with certain people. The fact of holding grudges rather than taking it as constructive isn't right.

[Tony]

Kevin,

Good job at mentoring the person.  Unfortunately, one person cant change how others brain responds when they are called into action.  That issue is more on the persons ability to control his anxiety and learn coping mechanisms.  We can recommend different techniques, but ultimately its up to the individual to find a way or find another line of work.   

[nunz]

I won't pretend to have a lot of experience in counseling employees as a supervisor, but I have seen many situations that relate to this topic.  I worked with a firefighter that had many years of experience and was in the twilight of his career.  The supervisor we worked for ignored the problem of him being lazy and making excuses for poor job performance.  It was easier for the supervisor to place the burden on the other crew members than to deal with an uncomfortable situation.  After many frustrating months working as this guys partner I realized he wasn't necessarily lazy or unmotivated.  He had been shuffled around the department and felt under valued which led to him being unmotivated.  His supervisors didn't deal with the issue and sent him to a out laying station and had little expectation for him.  After I took the time to talk to him and recognizing he wanted to be more active I started helping him work on updating his skills. I was also able to have him teach myself and another member of the crew from his many years of experience.  It led to the "senior firefighter" feeling like he contributed to the crew and gave him buy in.  The firefighter and I had set expectations for each other as partners and both were able to meet them.  We became a great team and I was glad I didn't write him off as many had.

Good job on helping this guy to an outline station and forget about them, out of sight out of mind. This is a job were we depend on each other and we need to look out for each other. Our lives may be in these peoples hands one day. So making sure people are up on their skills is an important part of our job. Also letting people know they're appreciated and that they're doing a good job may seem a little petty, but to some people it's what some people need every once in a while.

[brian.petry]

First I want to make clear, this is prior to the Fire Service and in a food service field.

I was a supervisor of about 30 people when a restructure/relocation project took place within the organization.  I went from the supervisor to one of the grunts being supervised.  I had an employee that fit into most of the categories the article mentioned.  As his supervisor, he caused me more heart ache than any one else.  After the restructure we were considered equals.  I was driving into work one day and noticed him in front of me.  He was smoking weed on his way in.  It was obvious and when we reached the parking lot, it was even more clear.  I had him dead to rights, this problem was now gone.  All I had to do is let him in the back door and open my mouth.  Instead, I grabbed him prior to reaching the back door.  I said "it looks like your not feeling well and that you just need to go home for the day".  He looked at me with this blank stare, and I said "that is what I am going to tell them when I get inside, that way I don't have to tell them the truth about what I saw on the way in".  He simple got into his car and drove a way. 

I thought at the time he would return the next day and be thankful to me for helping him to see the light of day.  Not the case, he simple showed up sober and continued his normal behavior for the next week, then he continued more of the same just not with the sober part.  The truth is, you rarely can change attitude and lifestyle like that with a single encounter.  I followed the golden rule.  I stand by my decision.  However, I learned that doing the right thing doesn't always work out the way you want.  That's OK, keep doing it,  you will always outweigh the bad with good, by far.

Side Note:  when I was renamed the manager again, I FIRED him first chance I got>>>>

While it can be agreed that "doing the right thing is often the most difficult," standing by your decision is admirable. It sounds like the employee/ peer never took a look in the mirror and asked himself why he was always being held back or why he was never the go to guy by management to get things done. What it appears this boils down to in my opinion is lack of initiative on the part of the employee and management played a part in this by not mentoring him. It is important to note as a supervisor that we can only steer an employee in the correct direction it is up to them to have the drive and take initiative to make the necessary corrections to change the opinion of others so they can excel in their chosen profession.

[brian.petry]

Lazy Lump description is very accurate.  Over the years have also learned that an employee that has been determined by others to be lazy, may in fact not be lazy at all. 
My narrative is based on previous employment as a production supervisor building new homes.
New home construction finding general maintenance type of people is hard to find.  We were going thru interviews in search of people experienced in handy man type of work that encompassed having knowledge in various aspects of home building and the ability to make repairs as needed.  At this particular time we needed someone that can do interior trim, cabinets, drywall, labor work etc.  After interviews hired a gentleman that met the objectives we needed based off resume and experience. 

First few weeks everything seemed ok.  He was given list of work that needed done, naturally the task were more labor to see his work ethic,  then getting into more detailed jobs as he proved he wanted to work and seemed competent to do the jobs given.  Over time kept noticing jobs not getting complete they way they should and everything taking longer than should take.  This is know giving the impression he is becoming lazy.  After talking to this employee about his progress it became more evident his experience did not match his resume.  That explained why he seemed to be lazy, but in fact he was trying but did not know how to do certain things. 

Fortunately the number of houses under construction slowed down and I had more time to spend with him and was able to teach him and because he was actually not lazy, he put more effort into learning and made a valuable employee.     

I learned that expectations are different for everyone although the same people have the overall general expectation.     

It sounds like exactly what happened is what needed to happen with this employee. Sometimes employees are afraid to admit that they do not have the knowledge to complete a specific task for fear of getting in trouble or fired. It is apparent that after taking the time to teach the employee what he needed to know that his knowledge was better and tasks were then completed. The expectations for most people are the most important item that a supervisor can be upfront about. The second most important thing is that the supervisor takes time to learn each employee and identify weaknesses and assist the employee in making changes to those weaknesses either knowledge/ education or mentoring. Especially in the field that you are speaking about here sometimes the best way to train up on something is to have the employee see one, do one, and teach one. Personally, I find this approach one of the best ways to teach. Seeing a task done by someone who is knowledgeable in the task, performing the task while being evaluated shows the mentor exactly where the weaknesses are, and teaching the task to another person gives the employee some introspection as to where possible weaknesses maybe and the best ways to overcome them.

[dgerspacher]

When I was a station lieutenant I supervised an individual that was an inherently lazy employee.  Laziness was something that extremely irritated me.  I would passively and jokingly comment to the employee about their laziness in hopes they would get the hint.  One day, we were loading supply line after hose testing and this employee was nowhere to be found.  I found the employee talking on his cell phone and I blew up.  I yelled irrationally at the employee.  After my temper tantrum, I found out that the employee was having a small family emergency that they needed to attend to.  Talk about feeling like an ass.

This employee situation was handled inappropriately by me.  I have learned through higher education and experience that supervisors and managers should not have a one size fits all approach to handling personnel problems.  My passive approach may have worked with a different individual; however, it didn’t work with this particular person.  Instead, it led to me acting unprofessional.   In this situation, I should have had a formal coaching approach with this individual.  The employee did perform better after we had a conversation, I apologized for my behavior.  However, it is unknown to me if I breached trust and respect from that employee.

I have been guilty of being to passive in some situations and thinking an individual would get the hint and need to realize some people are not reached that way. It also lead to a build up of stress in me to when I addressed the issue I went overboard on the particular situation due to all the other issues I should have addressed earlier. The best we can do is to try and learn from our mistakes.

[dgerspacher]

The Excuse Meister:

We hired a new career FF years ago that came to us from a previous full time position at another area department.  While training and running this new hire through his orientation packet he would make common and expected mistakes of a new hire.  The problem was that every mistake that was made was followed up with a combination of his standard excuses. 1) I did it that way because that's how my old department did it.  2) Flat out denial that a mistake was made. 3) Debating with whomever was training him that the way we were doing things was wrong.  After several conversations with this employee from both peers and supervisors, he was notified that the excuses need to stop and he just needed to own the mistake and learn from it.  After several months of poor performance and consistent excuse making the entire crew sat down together and tried to figure out why this employee had an excuse for every mistake.  We identified two areas that we believe contributed to him making excuses.  This individual was part of the millennial generation and he seemed to feel threatened or made uncomfortable with corrective actions or constructive criticism.  He also seemed embarrassed about making mistakes furthering his need to make excuses.  This employee never changed his excuse making and ended up not making probation.

Those damn millennials! Just joking (mostly) Making mistakes is something we are all guilty of at one time or another. I have also made my fair share of excuses when I have screwed up. Learning from the mistakes is the tricky part. When it comes to training an employee a raw newbie who is willing to listen to criticism is much easier to work with than an experienced one with an excuse for every time they do something wrong. 

[twilson21]

I once had an employee (not at a fire department), that could be labeled in all of these categories.

I was given a middle of the road employee, whom had received okay evaluations year after year, proving she could do her job without direct supervision all the time.  After watching this employee work for several months and not seeing any “actual usable” product from her desk, I realized that this employee’s past supervisors did not help her or any would be supervisor by just letting her skate by.  Her past bosses didn’t have the balls to give this lazy, unaccountable, poor performer the rating she deserved.  This employee had been doing this same job for many years.

I set up a coaching session and gave her exactly what my expectations were from her, I informed her the work she was putting out was not correct, and we would revisit her products in three months.  In three months I met with her again and she still didn’t have a clue so we discussed this issues and set a date to meet again in 3 months.  She did not get any better and I moved her out of my section into an easier and less stressful job.

I learned that by giving people a “pass” and powdering their evals, does not help them or anyone else, even if this troubled employee is no longer working for me.

Undoing another supervisors (multiple) mess can be daunting.  The employee has been given a pass for so long they don't know any different so it's hard to for them to recognize that they are failing let alone correct the situation.  I agree with setting expectations and a time frame to achieve those expectations.  Did you ever follow up to see if she improved in a less stressful job? 

[twilson21]

When I was a station lieutenant I supervised an individual that was an inherently lazy employee.  Laziness was something that extremely irritated me.  I would passively and jokingly comment to the employee about their laziness in hopes they would get the hint.  One day, we were loading supply line after hose testing and this employee was nowhere to be found.  I found the employee talking on his cell phone and I blew up.  I yelled irrationally at the employee.  After my temper tantrum, I found out that the employee was having a small family emergency that they needed to attend to.  Talk about feeling like an ass.

This employee situation was handled inappropriately by me.  I have learned through higher education and experience that supervisors and managers should not have a one size fits all approach to handling personnel problems.  My passive approach may have worked with a different individual; however, it didn’t work with this particular person.  Instead, it led to me acting unprofessional.   In this situation, I should have had a formal coaching approach with this individual.  The employee did perform better after we had a conversation, I apologized for my behavior.  However, it is unknown to me if I breached trust and respect from that employee.

Probably not the only time you felt like an ass.  It's good you recognized how and where you went wrong with this.  It's easy to react the way you did because of this employees past behavior.  I'm sure you apologizing helped the situation because you owned your mistake.

[klalich]

Several years ago I was responsible for an employee with a horrible attitude. They were competent at their duties but only wanted to do something on their terms. The situation was made more difficult as this person had several past supervisors that did nothing about the problem. Everybody complained about this person but nothing was ever done so this employee felt I was just picking on them and did not like them. It was very frustrating and I admit at times I did not handle the issues properly as they were very good at drawing me into arguing with them. No paper trail existed on this person so I was even questioned by my supervisor if I was treating them unfairly.
This situation was difficult because it involved their attitude (especially towards me) and not performance. Poor performance would have been much easier to address and deal with. It was not easy but I stuck to what I felt was right.
It has been several years since I dealt with this issue and to this day this person still "trashes" me as they truly believe I was unfair to them since it seemed no other supervisor had an issue with them.
What I learned most from this is if a problem employee gets passed from supervisor to supervisor they get harder to fix.
 

I agree it is very hard when you are given a problem that has been passed through many other supervisors, which was a very common practice.  As an employee it is a morale killer for your crew if it isn't addressed.  It is hard for the employee to understand because it was never brought to their attention, and hard for the crew because they are held to a different standard.  Doing the right thing isn't always the popular or easy choice. 

[klalich]

Problem......Lazy Lump

I believe most people that I have supervised over the last 20 years all want to do a good job. But on occasion including my-self will become lazy from time to time. I had a guy that worked for me that always did a great job with every task that I had ask him accomplish. But what I didn't know was that when I wasn't around he would not do a thing except play on his phone and the computer. Other team members would complain that if I was not there he would do as little as possible and would find every excuse not to work. I noticed that if I did not give him an assignment every morning he would do nothing at all but sit around and wait for me to come back in and he would jump up and act like he was doing something. So I pulled him into the office and I told him what is co-workers were saying about him and also what I had observed over the last couple of weeks. I explained to him that he was letting the team down and that he needed to start pulling his fair share and that is behavior is not acceptable. He agreed and after that day I had no complaints are issues with this employee.

I do agree with you that most people want to do a good job and be productive.  The further I have gone in my career I have realized the importance of clear expectations.  I find it more difficult to support the employee meeting those expectations.  Every employee is different and how you reach one employee doesn't translate to the next one.  I think being honest with their situation is always the best way to go.  Hopefully out of the respect of an honest evaluation they can become an effective member of the team.

[Kevin Stevens]

I won't pretend to have a lot of experience in counseling employees as a supervisor, but I have seen many situations that relate to this topic.  I worked with a firefighter that had many years of experience and was in the twilight of his career.  The supervisor we worked for ignored the problem of him being lazy and making excuses for poor job performance.  It was easier for the supervisor to place the burden on the other crew members than to deal with an uncomfortable situation.  After many frustrating months working as this guys partner I realized he wasn't necessarily lazy or unmotivated.  He had been shuffled around the department and felt under valued which led to him being unmotivated.  His supervisors didn't deal with the issue and sent him to a out laying station and had little expectation for him.  After I took the time to talk to him and recognizing he wanted to be more active I started helping him work on updating his skills. I was also able to have him teach myself and another member of the crew from his many years of experience.  It led to the "senior firefighter" feeling like he contributed to the crew and gave him buy in.  The firefighter and I had set expectations for each other as partners and both were able to meet them.  We became a great team and I was glad I didn't write him off as many had.

This seems to happen often, the easy fix is to send them to an outlying station and then it’s all  good, but I believe the folks at the outlying stations need to be solid because you’re on your own for bit till help arrives. I believe everyone here has good qualities and everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, that’s why we work as a team. If we could just all realize that we are all here for the same reason and help each other out from time to time life would be much better.

[NBaldridge]

The problem:  under performer.
When I was a first line supervisor at another department the job performance of a 3rd year firefighter was brought into question.  His performance was described as slow and unenergetic.  He required to be told when, where and how to preform day to day tasks.  Now his fire and EMS skills were on par with his peers and as a person he was a good guy.  The Chiefs were considering terminating his employment but first wanted to give him a chance to improve.  At the time I was not his supervisor, so I volunteered to take him as my firefighter.  I called him in to my office and had a very frank discussion on how the Chiefs felt and what could happen if things didn’t change.  At the end of our meeting he told me he had no idea that he was doing anything wrong, or was in need of any improvement.  He was honest in his regret and wanted to work towards positive change. 
The solution: 
He and I worked on forming a 90 day improvement plan.  He was given small goals each shift to meet and larger goals to meet by the end of each 30 days.   Before the end of the 90 days he had made great improvements and was taken off the plan early. 

What I learned:
While I was working with him it became very clear that no one had ever informed him of the department’s expectations.  He came to work and took calls, and that was it.  He felt if something needed done, someone would tell him.  He wasn’t undermanaged, he was over managed.  He had his hand held and was never encouraged to take the initiative.

Mike,

Kudos for taking the time to mentor and define the expectations.  Clearly defining both the department's and your personal expectations are key to being able to truly judge someone's performance.  Most of the time, I believe we get complacent with conveying our expectations to experienced personnel because we assume that they know how to function, however sometimes that experience may only just be years and not true experience.

[NBaldridge]

The problem:  lazy under performer
This employee is a seasoned ff with many years on the job.  They have a wealth of valuable knowledge and often times could be a great contributor to the crew.  The problem was that this employee seemed to think that since they were "seasoned" and had newer people under them, that they could slack and not meet minimum requirements.  In this case "seasoned" did not imply mastery of skills or high performance as most would think.  Often times this employee was seen in the back of training's and would never participate unless forced to.  When they were forced to participate, their attitude would be terrible and often affect others attitudes.  This could fall into another problem category but to me this was lazy (and selfish) which then lead to under performance. Due to this employee not participating and staying up to date on skills, abilities and new techniques, their performance on actual calls was seen by myself and other members of the crew as poor.  They would use old methods on calls while others were using more up to date methods.

What I learned:
Although i agree that as you near the end of your career you should be able to relax a little and let the new young guys take over, i also feel that you still need to pull your weight and set a good example for the new guys to want to portray.  Once i addressed this with this person, they seemed to understand and not realize that this was happening.  They also did not realize how this impacted others.  No excuses were made.  Performance was brought back up to acceptable and a slight attitude change was noted.

Agreed that a "seasoned" employee should be able to relax at the end of their career, however they also need to not only maintain but also update their skills and knowledge to the ever changing advancements of the fire service.  There is no excuse for using old techniques in the current day and age of technology at our fingertips.  Come on, use that electronic device for something other than crushing candies.