Notice its empty ?

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:26 pm

Maybe they would ask for the same amount of respect as we do?............ :shock: just a thought!!

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:21 pm

Maybe they would, but if they do not come and talk to us how do we know what they think

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:21 pm

See I'm in the postition to have them working on the same floor as our team, they are on the whole very nice and chatty. I as you never got to see or hear them when I was on station until I had a problem and had to phone and winge at them. Can't be nice for them.

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:55 pm

It does also go the other way, last week my crew managers was sick whilst detached on a training course, this means you are unable to edit any of the Stars with someone detached, it comes up with a warning telling you that only a Station Manager or above can change it.
Anyway long story short this person from training rings up to ask why I have not updated stars to show this person sick, I explain the above, with that I get a load of abuse about how "you" lot at stations dont do anything right, with that the bells go down and I try to interupt her in mid flow, explaining I need to go we have a fire call, with which see continues to go on and on telling me its not a real call its one of the blokes pressing the button to make out its a shout.
She must have missed her chocolate break thats all I can think!

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:44 pm

Oh what fun :lol:

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:48 pm

She sounds like a bag of laughs, Ian!! Either that or she's married to a fireman as she knows the old trick of dropping the bells to get rid of, ahem, undesirable callers! What department did she work in? I might invite her to our Christmas bash!

Learner User Online: Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Posts: 96

You should've just put the phone down on the necky *****!

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:45 pm

Just a quicky, anyone know any non operational personnel that could put their point of view across?
Just wondered if there was a reason why the Brigade runs the way it does and the civvys implement thigs that they do, I mean, you must have a goal (musn't you?), there must be some greater good coming from the way the Brigade cocks up oops sorry, runs things?
Isn't there?
please?
Anybody?
Just a thought, there must be someone out there who knows a civvy (

)

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:07 pm

I agree with some of the sentiment contained within the messages above but as it seems unlikely a non-uniformed individual will reply, I will take up the mantle for our colleagues in the offices.

I worked for a while in Special Operations Group, which was a mix of uniformed personnel (mainly ADO rank and above) and non-uniformed personnel. From my limited experience of working with the individuals in that department, I can say that they were all professional, hardworking people who knew what was expected of them and delivered. It irked me somewhat to arrive as a newly promoted Station Officer to be spoken down to by a 23 year old graduate who had the equivalent rank of Divisional Officer; after all, how many fires had she put out? How many unfortunate victims of drunk drivers had she extricated? How many times had she sweated beneath a tube train trying to jack it off a jumper? But I quickly found she was in the minority and the other non-uniformed personnel were very nice, and in the case of one, would have made an excellent firefighter had he chosen that path.

I witnessed calls come in from station based personnel who, when they discovered they were speaking to a non-uniformed person, were rude and patronising beyond belief. I hated working in an office and detested the nine-day fortnight but stuck it out for a year and then managed to get back to Battersea when Bill Buddle retired. But in that year I enjoyed working with my non-uniformed colleagues and had a few good nights down the pub with them. They were committed and professional, and really not that different to us.

Ultimately, every employee of the LFEPA operates to ensure the big red trucks go out the doors when they're needed, with a crew of competent, professionally trained staff. Some of the people in support roles, both uniformed and non-uniformed seem to forget that. But equally, some of the big red trucks contain incompetent, unprofessional half-wits who care nothing for their training or performance. And don't get me started on how the phone gets answered at fire stations at times!!

One more point about civilians. The term 'civilian' is used under international humanitarian law to identify persons that are not members of a nation's armed forces. I accept that a colloquialism exists in the emergency services, but essentially, as members of the LFEPA, we are all civilians. You're either uniformed or non-uniformed.

.....unless you served in HM Forces, in which case 'once a squaddie, always a squaddie'!!

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:16 am

As always Dave a well thought out reasoned response to the post. In most walks of life there are good and bad including our own non uniformed and uniformed.
The question must be then why have they not posted a reply? Is it because they feel that some how they may get berated by uniformed personnel or they just don’t care enough about the job to spend their off duty time surfing the web?
And in case any non uniformed members are reading this it is not a dig just a question, I feel if there was a greater understanding on both sides then perhaps we could somehow move this in a positive direction.
Perhaps we could have a sort of job swap for a day. My partner works for the Home Office and they have an “out of office experience” were they can spend time with another department seeing how her work effects that department.
Perhaps non uniformed personnel could visit a station for a day and watch and see what we (in particular the watch officers) have to deal with; likewise we could spend a day with them.
Just a thought.

Merry Christmas