This week for our Fire Officer class we were instructed to
read a passage from our textbook and an article called “Counseling: Listen,
Don’t Judge”. The common themes of both these passages were techniques of
disciplining through counseling.
The idea of disciplining through counseling is
for you to sit down with your supervisor in private and talk about what you did
wrong and the consequences that could come. Another part of the counseling is
to determine the corrective measures that need to happen. In the article
“Counseling: Listen, Don’t Judge” they talked about a fire officer’s role of
being a counselor for when one your firefighters are having trouble at home or
with someone else in the department. This role of the counselor was to be a
person they can talk to in confidence. You are not necessarily supposed to give
advice because you don’t know the entire situation instead mostly be there to
listen to them.
The main point of counseling is to be able to sit down and
discuss a matter in private and resolve an issue without having to go to
drastic measures in terminating someone or making it a scene for everyone to
see.
