The Unwritten Rule

To be effective, codes of conduct must be written down, & enforced consistently

First, let me say “Greetings from Granbury” to all of you. And thanks for the many e-mails I received from you while I was not writing regularly. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and feelings with me, both those who said, “If you’re ever up my way, look me up,” and the ones who said, “If I ever see you in my city I’ll kick your ass.”

Now on with it.

Every department has standards of conduct and performance—standard operating procedures/guidelines (SOPs/SOGs), codes of conduct, whatever you want to call them. They’re required so that everyone knows what’s expected. First, if your department doesn’t have written standards, you need to get them written ASAP. The lines must be clearly drawn for what is and is not acceptable behavior and performance. As well, codes of conduct are required to ensure consistency in performance reviews and disciplinary actions.

If your department does have these documents in place, are you living by them? To be sure, I do not agree with a zero-tolerance policy for the vast majority of issues, but are you living by the spirit of the standards your department has established? And where hard-call policies are in place (such as harassment policies), are you living to the letter of these policies? If you’re a company officer, are you holding your troops to this standard? If you’re the chief, are you holding your officers accountable?

When you let a violation of safety practices or personnel conduct slide, you create a new standard, even if it’s never written down. And now, regardless of existing written policy, you have a new policy. The instant one of your subordinates sees a detrimental effect to their person, feelings or paycheck as a result of your new standard, you may get the opportunity to explain your new standard in court, and you will surely get to explain it to the chief.

Let me give you an example: Every third day your company officer goes to work. And every third day he arrives at 6:00 a.m. (shift change time). This has been going on for years, but it’s a clear violation of the written policy requiring that personnel arrive 15 minutes prior to shift change (which is paid time). You discuss the issue with him, and he tells you that if he has to be in the deer stand at 4:00 a.m., he’s there at 3:30, but his mind just won’t motivate him to get to work on time for some reason (job dissatisfaction is not an issue). His peers and subordinates certainly discuss the issue. Often it’s a contest in the morning to see who can tell the funniest joke about it.

To date, there have been no repercussions. And more people are showing up at the last minute for work, generating more overtime. When you try to hold these other personnel accountable, the complaining starts immediately: “If the CO doesn’t have to be at work on time, why does anyone else?” Suddenly, what seemed like an issue of you being flexible on one rule for an otherwise competent company officer becomes an issue of standards and fairness that may travel right up the accountability chain to the chief, and pretty soon, the written standard is meaningless.

The problem is even worse for departments without written standards. Every time you do something, or a subordinate does something, and there are no direct negative repercussions, a new minimum standard is set for the performance of that task/action. That’s not so bad when the person performing the task is your go-to guy who performs above the minimum standards. Unfortunately, all of your personnel may not perform to the high level of standards that you expect (but haven’t documented). If the action is offensive and not addressed immediately, your personnel get the impression the action is acceptable, and—worse still—that you could care less.

If you don’t have written policies and you decide to take action against the obvious offense, you get the “I didn’t know” or the “It ain’t written down anywhere” excuse. The offenders won’t listen to reason. Their lawyers don’t give a rip about your reasons.

I’m not advocating being a hard-ass. Ask anyone who knows me: I enjoy a good practical joke and a light, jovial mood around the fire station as much as anyone else. But you must, for the safety and wellbeing of your troops, expect compliance with the standards and take appropriate actions to correct noncompliance. Start by leading by example.

Scott Cook is chief of the Granbury (Texas) Volunteer Fire Department and a contributing editor for FireRescue.