You know there is a lot of talk about aggressiveness in today’s fire service. This is a coveted and complimentary term apparently. While I am not a big fan of the term it relates to wanting to do everything we can to make a rescue or do our job to the best of our ability. That I get and I am all in, I just wish there was a better term.

The term I will not tolerate is arrogance. There are some members of the fire service today that have arrogance as a trait. The arrogance may be caused by many of a variety of circumstances that might include the department and size that you are a member of, your level of training and education, or just a positive personal attitude that is being portrayed rightly or wrongly and being cocky.

I write this article because I am currently watching someone on social media that is destroying their personal and professional reputation by exhibiting this behavior. I have never engaged or had any contact with this member but his interaction with other members of professional departments and different ranks without any compunction.

It is interesting that the person displaying this behavior has no idea how they might be being perceived. More importantly I am not sure they care or even if they notice.

My thought for all of us today is that we tale a moment of self reflection and make sure we do not display arrogance.

Arrogance is not compatible with the fire service in general. It does not compliment the team concept. It does not generally support departmental mission and ideals. It does not endear us to the public we serve.

Think about it for a minute, if you want to be known as aggressive, so be it….but do not let yourself be known as the one who is arrogant.

Just sayin’