Today, I want to talk about fakers. You’ll find them all over the Fire Service, and I’m sure the terms below will ring some bells for you. Fakers are an epidemic in our trade, and they put us and the customer in danger every day that nobody calls them out.
There are many brands of fakers, and you probably know some of each. You probably do some of these things yourself, and you should knock it off. Below are some breeds that I’ve encountered, feel free to comment any that I missed.
The Trivial Memorizer: This is the guy who rote memorizes every trivial detail he can get his hands on, for the sole purpose of whipping them out at opportune moments to make someone else look dumb. This is an attempt to compensate for the fact that this person is scared to death that they won’t know what to do in a real life, emergent, dynamic, critical situation. Characterized by memorizing every street on the map, every protocol in the book, every SOG in the manual, every item on the inventory, and wielding this information like a weapon to make others feel inferior. Remember, true colors come out on the ground, and when we’re in the thick of it, we’ll see just how helpful all that trivial information is.Read More »