September 12, HW #6, Communication In Profession


In my current profession as a firefighter there are many forms of communication which are used on regular basis which were discussed in chapter 10 of A Concise Guide. I think the three forms most used being email, memos, and short reports.

Email

Email is used more than any other form of communication. Email provides a quick response and information accessible. Line personal in my department work three different shifts A, B, and C shift. Each shift is on for a 24 hr work day which falls on all different days of the week. Line personal also work at all different locations around the city. If I need to get information out to other members of my department quickly and as easy as possible I would use email. For example, if I was to find about a piece of equipment on the fire truck that was not working properly I could sent out an email to different groups of people that would be effective by the issue. Line personal from other shifts, battalion chiefs, and truck mechanics could all be informed by the same email. I may not see other firefighters on other shifts for months at time but can effectively communicate through email.

Memos

Memos are readily used by our training division. When important training information needs to reach all members of the department our training chief will post a memo. It is usually sent through email as an attachment. They seem to be highly effective. They are used to inform line personal about new training or to recommend things to upper management. It has also helped to inform the department when critical procedures need to be released quickly. As the audience of these memos the information is more formally presented. The context is also too the point.

Short Reports

Meeting minutes are also an effective form of communication for my department. As I discussed earlier about the different schedules and station locations of personal, meeting minutes are one of the only ways that we find out current information being discussed by upper management. Meeting minutes are posted on a weekly basis in emails as attachments. The information is listed in order as discussed from the meetings. These information is sent out to all members of the fire department and other departments in the city.