One more last working class hero

their trauma around the mess table by planning how they could have done the job better and by making jokes out of the
ironies that occur at the job.
However, discussions can also be about politics, nights out, sex, sport, families, cars, do-it-yourself, fiddle jobs –
the list is endless. But even more than that the watch contains a considerable experience of life and firefighters bring their
problems to work to get advice. These problems may involve buying or repairing a house/car or the best way to winter
geraniums. There will be little the watch does not have an opinion on, nor prepared to share and nothing is sacrosanct.
Colleagues will give advice on the most intimate situations and now I have left the fire service new work colleagues are
often shocked by how intimately I am prepared to talk. Sharing might be paternalistic on a watch, but it is also similar to
the way that women operate in their networks. As a place where pride in The Job meets the personal, so to speak, the
mess table becomes a source through which firefighters develop their understanding of the world. In a simple aside, since
my retirement, when I am discussing something with my wife, she has frequently said, “don’t you think you should run
that past the green watch?” Joking apart, I realise what she means 66 .
1.9. STANDING-DOWN
Standing-down time relates to when firefighters only duty is to attend emergency incidents, or to carry out essential-work
necessary to maintain the operational efficiency of the station. Firefighters have established national embarkation lines
over definitions for essential-work in The National Joint Council Conditions of Service (1993, the Grey Book 67 ). At a
typical wholetime firestation, standing-down differs between the day and night duty. On day duty, firefighters stand-down
for two 15-minute tea breaks, 1-hour at lunch and 1-hour towards the end of shift. On night duty there is a 1-hour supper
and breakfast-break, and 6-hours between 1200 and 0600. Whilst standing-down firefighters are ‘free’ to relax and can
play cards, darts, table tennis, snooker, pool, sport or watch television; at nights they can sleep ‘fully clothed’ in the
dormitory 68 .
1.10. COMPARISON WITH SIMILAR ORGANISATIONS
In many ways, the fire service stands astride two types of working class employment: it is para-military and yet
industrialised. When protecting the public from fire, firefighters operate as self-disciplined military style units and yet,
firefighters’ resistance is able and does challenge formal regulations at these and other times (see Chapters 3-5). As a
group, firefighters are similar to those in many other working class organisations. Many of these are fast disappearing, but
in recent history would have included engineers, miners, printers, shipbuilders railwayworkers 69 and similar nonuniformed
groups of skilled working class industrial labour 70 . However, in many ways the fire service may prefer to be
compared with the military or the police.
Military
During my research, I spent time amongst the Armed Forces, apart from single meetings I have on separate occasions
spent residential time with the Royal Marines, Royal Navy, Guards, Infantry and the Parachute regiment. This has
given me an insight into how men in the various wings of the military operate (see: Dawson 1991, 1994; Barker 1992,
1994, 1995; Dixon 1994; Barrett 1996; Owen 1996; Higate 1998; Holden 1998; Karner 1998; Dyer 1999). Evidence
gathered during this phase of the research supports a view that when men in uniform work together they can act in
very similar ways to firefighters. Most importantly and somewhat surprisingly, I also found that even in organisations
that uphold the strictest military discipline men will form up in informal hierarchies to resist their officers.
Police
As with the military I have spent considerable time during my research in close contact and residence with the police.
At first glance, the police force/service may appear as a similar job to firefighters, but its intended service is different.
The reality is that the firefighter, whose skills manifest themselves in the manual work of firefighting, is very different
work to policing, which is white-collar work that involves constables upholding the Queen’s peace through a range of
non-manual duties. However, the police, similar to other uniformed workers, form up in informal hierarchies. And
the outcomes is that police constables’ informal hierarchies organise, often in resistance to their officers, how their
work is done. As Macpherson (1999) and Reiner (1992) suggest, the police can organise according to their own
political motivation. Apart from racism and sexism, this can involve the police turning their service into a force, by
reacting rather pre-empting. Policing then becomes manual labour, when the police use their right to legitimate
violence to physically control a social situation (see Reiner 1985; Smith and Gray 1985; Graef 1989; Dunhill 1989;
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66 Later in the thesis, I shall develop the idea that firefighters may actually use the watch and the understandings they form through their informal
hierarchy as a way of knowing the world. The watch can be seen as a primary reference group for wider understandings and opinion forming in general.
Within this context I have no difficulty in seeing firefighters working within their informal hierarchy as acting to defend an ‘occupational community’
that occurs when “people who work together choose to establish a form of relationship amongst themselves” (Salaman 1986: 75; see Hart 1982: 182:
233).
67 The term ‘Grey Book’ is a reference to the colour of the cover of the book that records the decisions of the National Joint Council (which comprises
representatives of National Organisation of Employers Local Authority Fire Brigades and Fire Brigade Union) regarding the conditions of service of all
firefighters.
68 Most firefighters will strip to their underwear.
69 See: Strangleman 1998, 1999).
70 See: Braverman 1974; Willis 1977; Devaney, 1982; Giddens 1982; Strangleman and Roberts 1999; Cockburn 1991a; Collinson 1988, 1992, 1994,
1998; Grint 1998; Blum 2000.