One more last working class hero

Captains of industry consistently presented ‘heroic’ images…depicted and portrayed themselves as ‘hard men’ virile
swashbuckling and flamboyant entrepreneurs.
Neale 1995, cited in Collinson and Hearn 1996: 3
It appears that even those sitting behind a desk may want to imagine themselves ‘as if’ they were achieving an embodied
masculinity. By using such metaphors, these workers place themselves within the commonsense understandings on
gender divisions (see Connell 1995). If senior officers were to have such understandings, they may be trying to create an
illusion that they are both proletarian firefighters and tough managers/officers. From firefighters’ perspective this could
appear that officers are trying to ‘steal’ firefighters’ proletarian imagery and sit behind a desk with it: a role firefighters
have already feminised and something that firefighters (and the engineer above) must inevitably deny if they are to
preserve their working class masculinity.
As part of a powerful hierarchy (one function of which may be to conservatively defend their class), the way
firefighters’ distance themselves from officers could be influential in persuading some firefighters not to seek promotion.
To search for evidence that this might happen, I used my experiential knowledge to judge that the following two
firefighters had the ability to become officers. They both denied any interest in promotion:
Jack: Not at the moment no. I have done my part-one for the Lf’s 186 , but em probably just because you do ..
you do it because you do. It’s the way the system works, if you do it you don’t have to do your
qualified’s 187 . People tend to, em, people just expect you do it really. I thought everyone was doing it,
so I just did it. Although it’s nice to have the ticket there if you want to have it in the future .. but at the
moment I want to be going into jobs. I don’t want to be standing outside.
(Brigade one, probationary firefighter, 1 year’s service, age 27). [My emphasis].
85
Richard:
When I first joined the brigade I thought I would, yunnoo. I would like promotion, use my degree, get
on with it. But at this present moment in time I am quite happy to do what I am doing. … I just want to
get the exams under my belt. … I am quite happy as I am and I think it is necessary to get the experience
before .. I really need to get the experience myself, to know what I am sending people into before I
actually send them in.
(Brigade one, probationary firefighter, one years’ service, age 26) [My emphases].
Jack and Richard enjoy the hands-on ‘getting-in’ of firefighting. Despite a structural arrangement that encourages exam
taking, nothing during their interviews led me to believe they were currently seeking promotion. Whilst attitudes can
change, these two potential officers were more interested in achieving the accolade of being a good firefighter than
becoming officers. It is also possible that these two firefighters recognise that their entrepreneurial skills would be
restricted and even work against them if they followed the promotion trail (see Dixon 1994; Baigent 1996). It is a view
that many firefighters follow and I am convinced that the desire to be seen as a firefighter prevents many men and women
from seeking promotion. They do not want to be seen as jumping ship: a situation which makes them particularly scathing
of those who do.
5.3.3. Senior officers’ views
My findings suggest that there is a considerable distance between the orthodoxy of what firefighters think an officer
should do/be and the reality. Officers, on their part, may wish to create a distance in some areas, but they still believe they
are good firefighters. Over the many examples of such attitudes, which senior officers showed me, I have chosen a
civilian (with more opportunity to talk to principal officers than I was ever going to get) to represent their view:
Clio:
I deal quite regularly with the Chief’s and the ACO’s. That’s the sort of level I tend to deal with, not so
much the junior officers because of the job I do. When they’re socialising they also say, ‘yeah I was at
this .. I came on the scene and I was dying to get-in there’. ... They all still want to have those hoses and
put the fire out 188 .
(Civilian worker).
5.3.4. Conclusion
186 The “part-one of the Lf’s”, is a reference to the first part of the statutory examination for the leading firefighter rank. This is a written examination
and the part two is a practical examination.
187 After four years service, firefighters can take a practical examination to ‘prove’ they are qualified (in some brigades this is almost a formality and
others a more recognised procedure; there are no reported failures). This qualification is currently worth £1731 per year (2000/2001). Passing the Lf’s
examination provides an exemption from this process and this might encourage firefighters to then look to get the actual rank (colonising them).
However, this does not mean that firefighters will necessarily begin to conform to the rules and bureaucracy within the fire service, which could
undermine the informal hierarchy. Those I interviewed who were showing an interest in promotion were mostly only interested in operational ranks (up
to and including watch-commander), which allows them to keep their hands-on skills as a firefighter, remain on the watch and continue to resist senior
officers.
188 This view is born out by others, “every officer has an ordinary fireman inside him somewhere” (Hart 1982: 164).