As a chief officer or company officer, you are faced with numerous decisions every day. In many of these situations, doing the right thing comes naturally. Often the answer is obvious. For example, one of your firefighters asks you if he can skip the assigned training for the day because he has to catch up on his personal business. (He works as a realtor on his days off.) Almost all of the company officers out there will say no. That was easy.

However, life doesn't always provide supervisors with the easy decisions. There are other decisions we are forced to make that will require us to take a minute, evaluate all of the factors and actually go through a mental checklist on before we can provide an answer. Here's a hint: If you are thinking (even just slightly) that it isn't the right thing to do, then it probably isn't. Sometimes our gut instinct should be acknowledged and considered a part of decision-making.

The method I use to help me make these difficult decisions is the “headline test” — will I be proud of the decision I made if it appears on the front page of a national newspaper the next day? Will I be proud of that decision if it makes the lead story for the evening news and my family, friends, co-workers and supervisor are all watching? In short, will I be proud of the decision I made, or will I (and my family, friends, co-workers and/or supervisors) be extremely embarrassed and ashamed at my lack of leadership, foresight or thought process?

Pros and cons

When using the headline test, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it the right thing for the department?
• Is it the right thing for your personnel?
• Is it the right thing for your customers?
• Would you be willing to read about yourself on the front page of the newspaper participating in this activity (after the fact)?

If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, then the action probably is the right thing to do. If you can't answer a firm “yes” to all the questions, then it probably isn't the best thing to do.

Here is another scenario: You are a newly promoted chief officer, and your crews are constantly testing you to see just how far they can go. One of your captains asks you if he can go watch his son play in a baseball tournament at one of the local high schools. He would be taking the engine company with him. First you're happy that the captain at least took the time to ask your permission, because many folks believe that “it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.” When you take a minute to think about the request, you realize the high school isn't in the engine company's first-due area; it's in the second-due area.

This might not seem like a big deal, but let's run it through the headline test to see if it will be acceptable.

Is it the right thing for the department? Now I'm having a hard time trying to convince myself that allowing this to occur is the right thing for the department. I can't see any benefits, except for possibly good public relations, by having the fire engine and firefighters hanging out at the high school, showing off the fire engine, and talking about fire safety and public education. This is assuming, of course, that they would be doing those things and acting in the best interest of the department. However, odds are they won't. Instead there's a very good chance that their presence could backfire and be looked upon negatively. Either way, it probably isn't worth taking the chance.

Each department has its own unique culture. Something like this might be totally acceptable and even welcomed by the community. You need to know what is appropriate based on your department's culture and past practices. But this doesn't pass number one of the headline test.

Is it the right thing for our personnel? Without a doubt, this would be the best thing for the captain who asked to be there, but would it be best for the rest of your personnel? That is hard to say. There are personnel who really have no desire to go to such events, unless it is a required part of their job, while others would like to take advantage of similar opportunities.

Worst case

Let's take it a step further: A structure fire occurs, and because your crew is out of the first-due area you add an additional four minutes to your response time as the second-due engine. You put the on-scene firefighters in an unsafe position because they had to wait for your arrival to back them up. Four minutes may not seem like a long time, but in the fire service it can mean the difference between life and death.

While you as the chief officer may feel your personnel will benefit by allowing the time off, would your peers (the other shift chief officers) also allow this to happen? If not, and someone from another shift happens to be at the game and sees this, he or she might complain. Now you have put that chief in a hard spot, when he or she was the one trying to do the right thing in the first place. It leads to potential inconsistency and perceived playing of favorites.

Does this pass headline test? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but it certainly doesn't do the greatest good for the greatest number of personnel.

Is it the right thing for our customers? Unless crew members were spending the majority of their time discussing fire safety and public education, showing off the fire engine to the kids and the parents, passing out sticker badges to the kids and the like, then it probably isn't the right thing for the customers. There is a good portion of our society that still feels like firefighters are overpaid and underworked. In some departments, this may be true; however, as we know in most departments, this is not the case. Either way, it really doesn't matter what we think — it matters what the public thinks because they are paying for us to be here.

It wouldn't be uncommon to have parents at the baseball tournament who are out of work or who work but are paid much less than the firefighters watching the game. What do you think they are going to think? Do you think they are going to be thinking positive thoughts about their firefighters now? I don't think so. They're going to be jealous that the firefighters are getting paid to basically watch a ball game. Will it entice them to pay more taxes or back the local firefighters union the next time that we want to renegotiate our contract? Probably not.

Think about this: While this fire engine is out of its first-due area, the mayor has a heart attack, goes into cardiac arrest and dies before the engine finally arrives, 10 minutes after the mayor's wife first called 911. Had you been at your station, it would have been only a six-minute response time, and there is a good chance that the crew would have successfully resuscitated him. Had the crew been in quarters and arrived in six minutes, would they have saved the mayor? That is a hard question to answer because there are so many variables, but they would have at least had the chance to do their best. Being four minutes out of their first-due area took away the majority of chances that person had to survive.

Does it pass the headline test? No.

Would you be willing to read about yourself on the front page of the newspaper participating in this activity (after the fact)? Let's continue with the last scenario. The mayor's widow discovers that her closest fire engine wasn't in quarters at the time she called 911. She investigates and finds out where the fire engine was. She goes ballistic and calls the newspaper and her attorney.

This will hit the papers and the TV news, especially because the mayor just happened to be very popular and very political. I know I wouldn't want to read or hear about myself in the media after having either participated or approved this event. I would feel terrible, not to mention concerned for my career with the department.

Does it pass number one of the headline test? No.

Never black and white

What did the headline test tell you, the chief officer being asked to make this decision? It told you to not allow this captain to do what he is requesting to do. Does that mean we should never allow a crew to do something like this? Of course it doesn't.

There may be situations and/or communities that allow a crew and a fire engine to go to such an event. Could we do something differently to make this an acceptable situation? What if the captain making the request worked out an agreement with the engine captain of the first-due area of the high school? This would make sure both first-due areas are covered, but there could be a problem if the move-up crew isn't familiar with the other first-due area and is delayed to a call.

You as the chief officer approving this option would probably be acting in the best interest of the department if you reminded the crews to be on their best behavior, to post someone at the fire engine, to make sure their radios aren't so loud that they are distracting, and to not be so obvious that they are there to watch the game. Have the crew bring out their medical gear and be ready for any injuries. That way at least they look like they should be there, and if an injury or illness occurs, they're ready to go to work.

Let's now take it a step further. We need to be aware of the general public while on and off duty. Ultimately, they are the customers that keep us in jobs and have come to rely on us for more than fighting fires. The general public is fickle and picky and typically scrutinizes everything government does. In some ways, I really can't blame folks, especially when I hear of stories of overspending, inefficiency or incompetence. I work hard to earn my living, and I understand the need to pay taxes to help support the infrastructure of our society; however, I don't like the idea of my hard-earned money going to waste. That said, the general public is always looking at all forms of government, including the fire service, to see if we are giving them the best value for their hard-earned dollar. The last thing taxpayers want to hear about is a negative story in the news that relates to their local fire department (or any fire department for that matter).

We need to remember we work for the general public, and our working conditions, wages and benefits, and ultimately our quality of life depends on doing our jobs to the best of our abilities and continuously doing what is right for all of our stakeholders. One poor decision by a company officer or chief officer can lead to serious mistrust and negative opinions of not only the fire department that person works for, but of every fire department across the nation.

For example, there have been some recent stories of sexual misconduct occurring in the fire service. Obviously the company officer had to make some decisions for these situations to actually occur. You can argue that maybe the company officer wasn't aware of what firefighters were doing, but ignorance isn't an acceptable excuse in today's world. A supervisor is expected to know what his or her employees are doing, and he or she is ultimately responsible for employees' actions.

Making a difference

Chief officers and company officers have an obligation to act in the best interests of the community, the citizens they protect, the employees they supervise, the department as a whole and the fire chief. Using the headline test to assist you in making decisions, especially the ones that your gut instinct is telling you is just not the right thing to do, will help you do your job to the best of your abilities.

No one said it is going to be easy being a chief officer or company officer, especially with all of the decisions we have to make on a daily basis. If you don't want to make decisions and aren't comfortable being accountable for your actions as well as the actions of a crew, then you probably should rethink being a chief officer or company officer.

Remember, when we as company officers and/or chief officers make decisions, those decisions have the chance of making the headline news. This won't happen after every decision we make, but we shouldn't look at it that way. That's like saying you won't wear your seatbelt because it won't really help you unless you get into an accident, and most people rarely are involved in accidents. Always prepare for the worst-case scenario, and you will be ready if it occurs. The next time you have to make an ethical decision, the headline test will provide you with another tool to do what's best for everyone, not just the person requesting you to make the decision.

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Steve Prziborowski is a 14-year veteran of the fire service and currently serves as an acting battalion chief for the Santa Clara County (Calif.) Fire Department. He is also an instructor for the Chabot College Fire Technology Program, where he has been instructing fire technology and EMS classes for 13 years, including more than four years as the Fire Technology Coordinator. Prziborowski is an executive board member for the Northern California Training Officers Association, currently serving as the first vice president and scheduled to be president in 2007. He is a state-certified chief officer, fire officer, master instructor and hazmat technician, as well as a state-licensed paramedic. He has an associate's degree in fire technology, a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master's degree in emergency services administration.