Today’s lecture will aim at providing some typical answers given by firefighters about their social relationships at wor

1. Today’s lecture will aim at providing some typical answers given by firefighters about their social relationships at work

2. I am going to do this by presenting some of the data I have collected • This will use the actual words of the people I interviewed

3. I asked a potential recruit, • “do you expect to change when you join the fire service ?”

4. Ken: aged 17 gave an interesting answer: • Probably the same way as I did coming to this college. I changed slightly, just a bit, yunnoo, to get in with people. • Like you do here, you don't come and just, don't go in straight away. I suppose once you have been there you loosen up a bit more. You just become yourself.

5. Lee, another potential recruit to the fire service, • Not bullying as such, but piss taking and all that sort of thing at the station. I don’t think it would be bullying, just a wind up like…like everyone does at college.

6. If these two potential recruits gained entry to the fireservice could it be because they understood that they will need to ‘fit in?’

7. The LFCDA initial guidance form asks applicants: • Have you worked as part of a close knit team?. • Are you prepared for the demands of working in a disciplined uniformed service in which you will have to take orders from other people?

8. The LFCDA application form is filtering for people who ‘fit in’ what do recruitment officers say? • Frank, an officer who interviews applicants: • "Would like to look for people like us, but not allowed.” • Duncan, a Station Officer: • [was looking for]“intuition, teamwork and stickability, obeying and understanding orders.”

9. So having ‘fitted-in’ with the entry requirements, the recruit is put in a uniform and arrives at training centre.

10. TED, aged 23, 1 years service. • The first few weeks were pretty hectic coming from the building trade. I suppose the discipline really. Cos if you didn’t want to do something in the building trade, you said I am not doing that. But this was all like, ‘yes sir, no sir’.

11. So to gain access applicants: • ‘fit in’ with recruiter’s beliefs; • ‘fit in’ with an application form; • ‘fit in’ at training centre.

12. On arrival at the watch, what is the first thing a recruit is told? • The training are saying ‘you are learning the correct way and make sure you keep it going like this’, but then from actual people in the job you find out you don’t. …You just ‘fit in’ with them basically.

13. Watch Officer, aged 27, 7 years service, looked back at when he joined. • From training centre, all that really went out of the window completely. You had really to start all over again. And that was without trying to ‘fit in’ with the watch, yunnoo

14. And how do recruits ‘fit in’ with the watch • Duke a senior firefighter • You are not an individual; You are coming in straight away to be part of a team”.

15. Jim a leading firefighter • Well it’s the tradition. They need to be able to ‘fit in’ without being lairy and start telling you how to do it. If they have got a good idea, I listen, but I don’t like people who come along and tell me. Yunnoo, very loud and trigger happy”.

16. A firefighter tells it as it is • Just keep your head down and keep your gob shut for a little while .. and see what happens”.

17. So recruits have now ‘fitted in’ with: • an application form; • recruiter’s beliefs; • training centre; • And now they are expected to forget what they learnt at training centre and ‘fit in’ with established firefighters. • What do they say?

18. Jack, aged 27, one years service: • Keep your head down, and ..and be quiet, and what have you. And then gradually.. yunnoo..like, yunnoo, you feel allowed to be yourself a bit more.

19. Richard, age 26, one years service: • I have been biting my tongue with a lot of it while I am on probation; I think it is a requirement. Em, you just take it and say nothing. There is a lot of stuff that is a bit unfair, but that is the way it is.

20. Richard cont. • I would like to think I would like to treat someone slightly better than I would be treated myself. Not that I have been badly treated.So I asked him why did he put up with it?

21. Richard cont. • One, I don’t want to make it worse for myself. And two, I think it is a bit of respect for the blokes who have been in the job longer than I have.

22. Ken, 20, seven months service: • What they are saying is‘keep your head down, keep enthusiastic, ask questions and be busy’. And that, and that is what I am doing and I spoke to the leading firefighter he says ‘that, at the moment, I seem to have the right attitude; doing really well’.

23. Roger, aged 23, 1 years service: • Kept me mouth shut, kept me head down sort of thing, tried to get on with my work and that and do what ever I was told .. the senior members and that. You have just got to ‘fit in’ with them haven't you?

24. Roger cont: • Yeah, you have heard stories and that, of people who come in and mouth off and that. They never really shake that in The Job; once you get known as a tosser.

25. Ray, aged 24, four years service. • I think with a lot of people, they are expecting to be asked. It is a bit to do with your coming in as an outsider on to their sort of territory. And obviously they have got experience and knowledge they could just tell you. If you have got to go to them and ask them, it shows you respect them.

26. Colin, age 26, six years service • There are sheep and there are shepherds, or a shepherd. And a lot of people only see that way and anything that this person says is always right. And they have got to have their own minds and you get appreciated for it at the end of the day.

27. Colin cont: • If people realise that you don’t mind standing out from the crowd, at the end of the day you will gain respect. It will take time, but you do gain respect at the end of the day.

28. So I asked Colin “how did the ‘shepherds’ operate”? • Just overpowering..it’s hard to explain, ‘come on lets do this’ and it just rolls. Starts, it’s like a snowball and it just gets bigger and bigger and you get caught up in it as it rolls and gets bigger. And that’s the only way I can explain it in our watch.

29. This paper has provided only the briefest of glimpses at the pressures on firefighters to‘fit in’. • an application form; • recruiter’s beliefs; • training centre; • with established firefighters.

30. Questions • What is this process of fitting-in • Could this happen anywhere else • What is the end result of this behaviour • Explain informal culture