Milwaukee Firefighters Terminated For YouTube Video

In 2009, two firefighters employed with the Milwaukee Fire Department lost their jobs for posting a video on YouTube which showed them using derogatory comments and racial slurs. One firefighter resigned in lieu of termination and the other was terminated. The firefighter who was fired is actively appealing his termination. The Milwaukee Fire Department claims that the firefighter was fired for dishonesty during questioning about the video.

Note: The firefighters did include a disclaimer at the end of the video stating, “None of us express the views or opinion of the Milwaukee Fire Department.”

The news story and segments of the video can be found and viewed at http://www.wisn.com/news/19317937/detail.html
It certainly seems that in the digital age we have all moved into, we are all under the microscope in an entirely new way.  This has particularly hit home for me recently. I am currently actively involved in a background investigation with several fire departments as a part of the hiring process. This for me has involved more precautions than certainly my father when he was hired, and even my brother. That is to say that I had to take into consideration my past, but also my ‘digital impression’. For example I have a Facebook account, a blog, and a few you tube videos floating around out there, and before submitting my background investigation paperwork I had to go through all of this material and really take into consideration the image I was projecting.  For example on my Facebook I had over 500 pictures, and in many of them there was some form of alcohol. Now even though I rarely drink, and do so under normal circumstance, I had to understand that if the majority of my pictures had some form of alcohol in them, this could be misconstrued by a viewing agency.

As for this video, I certainly think that disciplinary action was appropriate, and furthermore may even support the termination (I would have to have more details to be definitive). The way I see it is this, we are all entitled to our own personal lifestyles that we keep separated from our professional image. However once material is published in a public forum such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace etc. that falls outside of the appropriate division between personal and professional, especially when such media is filmed on duty. When you work for the fire and emergency services, you always represent that organization and thus have a personal responsibility to be conscious of your public image, and the use of the public domain eliminates your ability to keep your private (non professional life) private.  The only thing I can say in regards to the termination (given the detail provided) is that the content of the video may have been severe enough to demonstrate to the department that theses employees’ morals and ethics were poor enough to directly affect their ability to perform the essential functions of the job (in regards specifically to patient care). Remember that a huge part of the selection process for the position of firefighter is a job suitability assessment that gauges things such as morals and ethics. A representation of poor moral and ethical guidance, then, in the form of a publically available video, may have been sufficient to determine they did not meet the JSA criteria for their current position.  What I mean is that the video could have been as much a concern for the firefighter’s suitability for the job, as it was a concern for the image they were projecting and how that image would affect the department in the public eye.

About this entry

You’re currently reading “Milwaukee Firefighters Terminated For YouTube Video,” an entry on FES Table Talk

Published:
April 23, 2010 / 16:11
Category:
Current Issues, Technology
Tags:
, , , ,