The Slump

If you do this job long enough, you’re likely to experience a time, or times, when it seems as if you can’t catch a “good” call.  I’ve been somewhat spoiled for much of my fire service career, as I was a live-in at my VFD for 8 years and got hired with a career department at a young age.  These two factors placed me in a firehouse very frequently thus greatly increasing my chances of going to “good” calls.  Well, as is the case with many folks, life has changed for me in the past few years and I have other responsibilities in life besides the fire service.  With that said, I don’t get to be at the firehouse as often as I used to be and lately I seem to be in a “slump” for good calls, or at least what I consider to be a slump. 

It seems like everyday I’m at work my VFD is taking in good calls and with the exception of a few instances, the other shifts are picking up the good calls at work recently.  This is extremely frustrating! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish for bad things to happen to people.  However, bad things do happen and when they happen, I would like to be able to put my skills to use to help fix whatever “bad things” are happening.  I think most firefighters who are in the fire service for the right reasons would agree with this mindset and relish the opportunity to put their skills to use and help someone.  Besides being demoralizing to an individual or a company, slumps can affect operational effectiveness if not dealt with properly.

If not dealt with properly, slumps can increase complacency and/or laziness.  Folks who are experiencing a slump may get in the mindset that their skills won’t be tested or used during their shift or duty crew.  Once folks get in this mindset, it’s easy for them to sit around and focus attention on everything but operational performance.  It’s incumbent upon fire service leaders, formal and informal, to keep the troops focused and not allow complacency or laziness to set in.  The time you have available because you aren’t running good calls can be used to conduct good training.  As I often preach, second to operating at incidents, proper training is the best way to become operationally efficient and effective. 

Additionally, slumps can cause unnecessary animosity within the firehouse.  It’s often said not nearly as many petty firehouse arguments would occur or silly policies be created if companies were going to fires everyday.  Folks wouldn’t have the idle time to focus time and attention to, in the grand scheme of things, petty items.  Again, it’s incumbent upon the formal and informal leaders to keep the troops focused on the important items.  The time folks spend arguing or complaining about silly policies can be better spent placing time and attention to your tools, apparatus, or firehouse.  Getting everybody involved will likely increase firehouse morale and camaraderie.

While slumps can be frustrating, it’s important to stay focused on our job.  As we are all aware, at any point your slump can come to an end and you will be expected to perform in an efficient and effective manner.  In 1965, the baseball great Willie Mays had a 0-24 slump and ended up winning the NL MVP.  This is a testament to remaining focused and understanding your slump will eventually come to an end.  You may not have run a fire in 2 months, but in 2 minutes you may be responding as the first due Truck Company to a house fire with kids trapped.  Are you going to be ready to perform in an operationally efficient and effective manner?