"What you permit, you promote, and what your promote becomes your standard."
-Battalion Chief Tiffanye Boyd Wesley Arlington Co. FD

The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service is a large organization, career and volunteer, that has been brought together to execute a mission that is both inherently dangerous and critical to the public good. We are, in many cases the last line of defense between people and disastrous outcomes.

As the Operational Doctrine (ODS) highlights,
"Many of the people assisted by MCFRS personnel are in a vulnerable position; they are either unable to resolve the issue at hand for themselves or they are unable to advocate for themselves. In some cases, personnel will need to act as a gateway to other agencies and services. In other cases, personnel will need to be advocates for those who cannot advocate for themselves.

Personnel must never lose sight of their role as public servants and the importance of advocacy to that role. They must remember that whenever they are operating as MCFRS members they represent themselves, their crew, their chain of command, MCFRS, and the County Government. All personnel have a duty to demonstrate integrity, empathy, and compassion, especially when the situation is challenging. This reality places a demand on the moral center of personnel."

Without a doubt we are facing challenging times. As we continue to do our work we have experienced first hand the impacts of COVID19 on people and society. We have also watched our County, our State, and our Country, experience heart wrenching and difficult discourse around some of our most basic social and political structures.

It is impossible to come to work and magically forget that there is a big world out there full of problems, issues, and ideas. But when we do come to work the most important thing that we can do is to ensure that we are part of a workplace free of discrimination and harassment.

This is important for three core reasons:

1. It is simply the right thing to do. We cannot engage in discriminatory or harassing behavior and meet the mandate of the ODS. If we are called to be advocates for the public how much more so are we called to be advocates for one another? Advocacy and harassment cannot co-exist in the workplace.

2. It is what is required to build cohesive teams. Each one of us could, at a moment's notice, be separated from certain death only by the person sitting next to us. Each of us could, at a moment's notice be called to place ourselves in between another person and grave danger. It is unwise to believe that the same teams who are separated by race, politics, or gender and the lunch table, will somehow be magically united when the moment comes. The public demands the best from this service and the best can only be delivered by cohesive teams.

3. It is what is required by laws, regulations, and rules. Unlike many of the things we are called on to know and remember the notions of discrimination and harassment are remarkably consistent across all levels of government. While there may be some variance place to place on what holds up in court everyone is clear that discrimination and harassment are not acceptable behaviors.

We are not alone in this venture. The Chief of Staff of the Army expressed a very similar sentiment at at recent workshop saying, "If we have an Army that is cohesive teams, where everyone treats everyone with respect, everyone takes care of each other, we represent the diversity of the nation, and everyone feels included – everything else follows," He went on to say, "...And I would argue that if everyone's treating everyone with dignity and respect, and they're taking care of you," the problems he'd outlined "would not happen, and they can't happen." -source

This training is step one in a multi-year effort to re-calibrate the culture of our service. We intend to do this by reinforcing those parts of our traditions that should be reinforced and by correcting ourselves where we have drifted off course or have taken things too far.

Executing the Plan for 2020.

For this refresher we want to start at square one. We are focusing on what harassment means, how we expect personnel to react to it, and how to report it. We recognize that these are not easy issues to navigate so we have made every effort to provide clear text that helps each of you to understand where we stand as an organization.

Everyone is required to participate because everyone is responsible for ensuring a workplace free from harassment. Even though each individual will need to sign onto the Tech Training Site to complete a learning assessment we encourage station officers to use this material as a focal point for discussion of the organizational expectations.

Objectives for 2020.

Complete an online EEO refresher that focuses on:

• What protected classes are.

• What harassment is.

• What types of discussions/conversations are appropriate for the workplace.

• Appropriate supervisory interventions.

• How to file an EEO complaint.

The refresher has been completed when:

• Personnel have reviewed the material.

• Station officers have engaged their personnel in a discussion of the expectations.

• Individuals have successfully completed the learning assessment.

There are two main parts of this refresher and the learning assessment questions are drawn from all parts.

Part One. Review Material. A review of harassment and of applicable Federal, State, Local and organizational policy

Part Two. Scenarios. These two scenarios will provide an opportunity to discuss the information in context.

Part Three. Learning Assessment. MUST be completed individually to receive credit for completion.