New officer. Help wanted.

As officers, how do you prepare your firefighters to become officers? Firefighter can move from FF III to Lt. by taking a test. As officers are you doing a disservice by not working with your people? Are you ensuring that the day they are promoted they have the tools to function? Many station officers are putting fighters who are on the promotional list in the officer’s position on the apparatus, while riding behind them to give guidance. This is a time old and great practice. When we think about the job as an officer we understand that running calls is a small percent of the job. So I ask, what are you doing to prepare your members to become an officer? The administrative work, the employee problems, station issues or apparatus issues. This is a small glimpse of what an officer may deal with on a day to day basis. In reality our new Lt. could be detailed to a station to be the Capt. for the day.

Allowing firefighters who are on the promotional list to ride the front of the apparatus is great, but as officers we need to make sure they get the whole picture. OCS gives them a small, brief picture of the job, but you as the supervisor can expand on the job and give them a better chance to stand on their own once they get the call.