Fire Service Personnel Management with MyFireKit (3rd Edition)

This book, was a required read for my Cptn promotionals. I'm a Lt. for a full time fire dept, on a inner city rig that averages 16 runs per day, w/ 1 to 2 working structures per wk. I was excited for the read initially as I believed it was going to offer some insight to the overall management of my crews. To say the least, this book is a farce. The hours I've lost studying this book, can never be returned, and I'm pissed. The author essentially fleeced everyone in fire service who bought this book thinking it was going to develop them as a Fire officer. This is a H/R AKA Human Resources book, masquerading as a fire service book. I am fairly confident, the word Fire Service was slapped on the books cover to increase their bottom lines, only after Human Resource majors rejected it. (Marketing guys strike again). Promotional panels, and book committees, please do not force this book on any of your candidates, unless you seek to develop a knowledge base in rambling, bad writing, and endless banter, if so this is the right book. 11-24-2013

This book is junk. As much as this book costs, it seems as though Mr. Edwards made some backdoor deals with testing companies to have this added to their testing material. We're Fire Fighters... We are a relatively smart bunch. However, there is a tendancy for some to go out of their way to try and make themselves out to be smarter than the rest. By that I mean, they over complicate things for the sake of the appearance of mental superiority. We're Fire Fighters... we can also see bull**** coming from a mile away. $70+ for this book is unbelieveable!

The book is terrible, only reading it because it's on promotional list. Let me sumit up for you:We don't have enough women or minorities in the fire service and we need to make entry into the service easier physically for women and acedemicly for minorities. Even if someone is better qualified for the job the job should be given to a woman or minoritie just to keep the numbers even. I am not a racist and I believe if a woman or minority scores higher than me on my upcoming test the does better than me on the practical portion they should get the job. However if I do better I should get the job no matter what race color or creed my competition is. This book embodies what is wrong with not only the fire service but America. I'd be offended if I were a woman or a minority after reading this book because it plainly states they are inferior and need special treatment to succeed in the work force. I won't even get started on all the trash about how we can't hurt each other's feelings. There are to many sensitive folks in the fire service as well, go back to corporate America and take this book with you !

This book deals with many of the issues faced by the modern fire department officer. There is much information that is NOT related to fighting fires and saving lives. This is a book that will address the bulk of what most modern fire officers in larger departments are faced with. Discipline, personnel respect, interactions, letters, union relations, labor-management interactions, motivation, etc. THESE are the majority of work I do now as a Station Captain. Fighting fires and running medical calls is a small part of my day. Writing emails, making calls, talking to personnel, etc is the stuff that will get you into trouble if you don't do them correctly.

Ok

I am from a career department of 600. This book was chosen as one of several books for our captains promotional exam. "In my opinion," as the author loves to say this book carries no relevance to officer management criteria. "I believe," this gentleman never spent one day in the field working as a firefighter let alone an officer in charge of a crew. He should keep his opinions to himself and base his next publications on fact! He also needs to learn how not to combine large words inappropriately in order to make himself sound smart.

Good read

The book was great!