Harassment at the Station
Harassment at the Station is a very big issue among departments. Not long ago I read a great article by Nozzlehead, and the focus of the article is a homosexual firefighter whose station is in a gay community and his fellow firefighters make fun of GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgender). You can find this article here: http://www.firefighternation.com/article/command-leadership/being-gay-firehouse
Now me, being a straight male and living in a straight community I don’t deal with much harassment of that type. Wait, back up. Straight community? No. You can’t call a community that. Members of GLBT are humans too. You can’t classify them into a community. Just like you can’t classify by religion, race, age or political views. This article will focus on all of that, and what you can do if you encounter these types of harassment.
First off, I’d like to talk about religious harassment in the station.
Everyone has different religious views. There are 313 religions that the United States of America recognizes and allows anyone to observe. From Christianity to Satanism! I’d rather not give my view of anything I post so I can be as unbiased as possible for what I write. But out of those 313, if you can’t respect at least one of them that’s not your own, then you’re in the wrong profession. Even dealing with patients and bystanders at calls. But in the station, if you can’t respect someone on their religious views, then just leave.
If you’re a person whose feelings are hurt because someone doesn’t respect your views, don’t worry. I’m sure there are thousands if not tens of thousands of people somewhere else in the world that follow that religion along with you. If you encounter someone at the station that doesn’t like your religion, don’t even be friends with them. It’s their loss because chances are, you’re an awesome person.
The next category I’d like to talk about is racism at the station. We are all culturally diverse and of different races. Whether black, white, Asian, Native American, we’re all human beings. Yes, blacks and whites have feuds. Yes, Whites and some Asian countries have feuds. Yes, Whites took the Native Americans land back when Columbus sailed to the United States. But none of those reasons should affect how you get along with your co-workers at the station and how they treat you. I know many people of a lot of different races. They’re all my friends. I work with people of different descents. That hasn’t stopped me from befriending them.
If someone has an issue with you because of your race, whether you work in a mainly white community and you aren’t white, or if you’re of the Hispanic decent and get treated poorly, talk to those people who treat you poorly. See why they treat you the way you do. There might be another reason other than your race. Race isn’t as big of an issue as it used to be. Maybe you did something wrong to them and they’re mad at you. Or maybe they did something to you that they regret and they feel differently than they used to. Talk to them.
Another form of harassment is due to a person’s age. You would think ”This is such a stupid reason to hate someone”. Well you know what? You’re absolutely right. Yes, there may be older members of your company. But they have so much knowledge. They can teach the younger members. They may not be able to do physically strenuous activities, but they can be part of rehab or do EMS. I’m not knocking them saying they can’t perform tasks like go into a structure fire or preform a vehicle extrication. But I personally wouldn’t want to see them get hurt.
I myself, have been... Let’s say… not as much harassed but told I can’t do certain things because of my age. Yes, I am a 16 year old. I’m a Junior Firefighter for my towns’ volunteer department. I’ve been told that I can’t do certain things. Obviously for the well-being of myself and others as well as for the safety of us. But when I talk to people, they don’t think I can do what I do. So do you know what I do to prove them wrong? I show them that I CAN in fact do those things. Around the station, I always act mature and courteous to my fellow firefighters and the Chief.
If you are harassed due to your age, don’t confront them. Do things that prove them wrong about you. If you’re a younger member like myself, never horse around in the station. Always act mature and courteous to others. And most importantly, respect everyone you come in contact with. Whether it be a patient, an owner of a recently destroyed home, vehicle etc., or a fellow member. You never know how these people will impact your life. So if you always show them respect, you will give yourself a better name, and there will be no harassment towards you because of your age.
And the last of the topics of harassment. Politics.
I don’t think I’ll say much about this. Your views are your views. If you’re a Democrat, good for you. If you’re a Republican, even better. If you’re an Independent, great.
If you honestly don’t care at this point in time, welcome to the club. Things are going downhill so fast with our government that I don’t even want to think about politics anymore.
I hope this article helped you, even in the slightest.
I give credit to Nozzlehead from the article link in the beginning for inspiring me to right this.
All thoughts in this post are purely mine and influenced by no one but myself. Like them? That’s awesome. I really appreciate that because this is only my second “Article” I’ve written.
Hate them? Well sucks for you. I’m trying to help people and get my messages across.
Hope to see you reading these in the future as I post more.
James Kleban
The Fire Rookie
https://twitter.com/The_Fire_Rookie
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