Firehouse Cleaning.. Can of worms

[FF94AFD]

I'm sure a lot of you may be able relate to this. Four different groups working in one station. One group scrubs the place down just to come back the following week and find it a mess. Maybe one or two of the other groups do a little of this or that and one group leaves the place destroyed.

I am trying to come up with some sort of plan or schedule if you will, to keep the station chores fair and so the same people are not doing all the work every week.

Anyone have any plans that seem to work?

Thanks

FF94AFD

[RFDACM02]

I'm sure a lot of you may be able relate to this. Four different groups working in one station. One group scrubs the place down just to come back the following week and find it a mess. Maybe one or two of the other groups do a little of this or that and one group leaves the place destroyed.

I am trying to come up with some sort of plan or schedule if you will, to keep the station chores fair and so the same people are not doing all the work every week.

Anyone have any plans that seem to work?

Thanks

FF94AFD

Our crews (3 shifts) do the same daily house duties every day (trashcans, sweep, mop, clean the bathrooms). Whichever shift works on Friday does a full house cleaning: kitchen top to bottom, bathroom top to bottom, bedrooms, polish the brass, wax the floors, etc. Officers are held responsible for their tours quality.

[sfd1992]

We do basic housework every day, bathrooms, bedrooms, dayroom, kitchen, etc. Each position has a specific duty, for example...

Officer - Log book, daily schedule, tidy up office/entry area.
Driver - App check off, wash apparatus, app floor, tool/storage room.
Hydrant FF - Bathrooms, bedrooms.
Nozzle FF - Dayroom, kitchen.

These vary from station to station, but you get the idea. Kitchen gets cleaned top to bottom once a week on the same day every week, so it's spread among the shifts, same with the lawn and other weekly jobs.

If only one out of four shifts is doing their housework, the officers aren't doing their jobs.

[Tony4310]

We do house work 2 times a day per shift.

[Acklan]

Whoever the House Captain is on the on coming shift should have a talk with the House Captain leaving. If they do not want to do their job, and cannot be reasoned with it, maybe it is time all the Captains take it downtown to the Chief.
I find that talks at shift change can solve many problems. Keep it in house as long as possible, but at some point you have to "Climb the ladder" and take it to the Chief (Whether that be District, Assistant, Deputy, or the Fire Chief).

[FireMedic049]

We have 4 shifts and basic chores like bathrooms, vacuuming, and general clean up get done daily. Some other stuff gets done weekly on specific days and one day each week we do a rotating monthly chore. Since we work a 24/72 schedule, everything is evenly distributed.

Additionally, there's the general concept of clean up your own mess.

Overall we don't have a problem with the stations staying clean, in part because that is what's expected and you will generally hear about it if you leave a mess for the next shift.

[nmfire]

You shouldn't even need a schedule. Every shift should clean the place up at the start of their shift.

[nameless]

As everyone else said, there should be daily chores done by every shift. If one is slipping your officer should talk to the house captain who should lean on the lieutenants to get their shift to clean the firehouse. If the captain is on the sloppy group, too bad for you I guess.

[RFD21C]

We have Daily Cleaning and then a Daily chores (1 house chore, 1 truck chore)

Each position has assigned task they must complete. for daily cleaning.

Officer- Does his AM paperwork, Cleans office area
Nozzleman- Cleans Kitchen, Dayroom, Watchdesk
Hydrantman- Cleans Bathroom/Bunkroom
Driver- Checks Truck and washes truck, hoses out bay

These are done everyday of the week regardless.

Each Day of the week is assigned a house chore and truck chore. Relayed to the shift at line up by the officer. The driver is in charge of getting the truck chore, the nozzle and hydrant are in charge of getting the house chore done.

Monday- Clean Stove, Oil hand tools
Tuesday- Wax Floors (a portion of the station each week of the month), Ground Ladders
Wed- ....
Sunday and Holiday do not have daily chores, just general cleaning

Yes the bottom line the Captain is ultimately responible for the condition of the house and trucks. He ensures the min standards are meet and sets higher standards as he see fit. In turn the other officers in the house are responsible to ensure their shifts meet these standards.

However I fully believe that the true driving force behind proper clean, truck checking, tool maintance, etc. is the SENIOR MEN on the shifts. These are the guys that "motivate" the rest of the shift to do a good job.

I am a firm believe that proper discipline and work ethic in the station directly relates to fire ground performance. I am willing to bet if you are having problems with a shift cleaning in the station that same shift is not the "best operations shift" either, Just a guess.

My 2nd guess is that shift does not have strong senior man.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

My 2nd guess is that shift does not have strong senior man.

The "senior man" may be a lazy SOB and the others follow his lead....

[Acklan]

However I fully believe that the true driving force... is the SENIOR MEN on the shifts. These are the guys that "motivate" the rest of the shift to do a good job.

It is the House Captain (Officer) who is responsible for the day to day running of the station, period. If he does his job everyone else does their's. If the station is disorganized, and dirty it is his fault. The power of the pen will motivate most people, if not maybe they should become cops so they do not have to clean up after themselves.

[hwoods]

Huh??................

The "senior man" may be a lazy SOB and the others follow his lead....

What??..... Say it ain't so........ Truth is, that's one of the more difficult things to deal with. I've seen a few in my time. And, Don't forget the "We cause enough headaches, we can get our worthless Lt/Capt/Whatever out of here" plan. Seen a couple of those too. As the Junior man in the house one time, I observed a guy put a couple of "Mop Strings" around Tires and Door Sills, to give the impression that the Floor had been mopped when it actually had not. Dummy put more effort into placing the Strings that it would have taken to mop the Floor in the first place......

[sfd1992]

As the Junior man in the house one time, I observed a guy put a couple of "Mop Strings" around Tires and Door Sills, to give the impression that the Floor had been mopped when it actually had not.

The lengths guys will go go to get out of work, that could be thread in itself.

How about just putting a small swirl of wax on the rig and leaving it to dry, making it look like it got waxed?

[JayDudley]

Cleaning

Everyone cleans every shift....with the extra things we had a saying...Wood lights windows brite. On Tuesday what ever shift is working they would do extra and clean the woodwork. On Wednesday who ever works cleans the overhead lights Thursday the windows and Friday the bright work. I was always told by my BC don't worry about the other shift...just worry about our shift.

[edpmedic]

We assign normal housework duties to everyone below the officer level. We have bathroom, bunks, sweep/mop, vacuum, day room, etc. Our specials are set to each day of the week. Every Mon. will be the shop, hose tower, and exterior windows, maybe Sat is the gym, disinfect the phones/keyboards, and heavy showers. All FF's chip in to get that done.

You can rotate dinner duties between each company. It can be engine, then medic, then rescue, truck, then back to engine.

Sweep/mop can also be shifted between companies after dinner instead of the morning.

Our nightwatch duties include emptying the dishwasher, making sure all the calls are in the book, rounding up all empty dishes and silverware around the station, cleaning and drying the shop towels and kitchen towels, making sure the kitchen's clean, all the lights are off, and securing the station by closing the doors and making sure they're locked. Nightwatch duties go by alphabetical order, including everyone except the shift leader. If the individual is a good person, they'll get a lot of help in nightwatch. If they're a slacker, theyre on their own.