The Times: Culture of racism, bullying and misogyny revealed in London Fire Brigade

[ResisterRex]

Another uniformed service and another story of its culture, which is shocking. These are the people we rely on to save our lives in the absolute worst of situations.

Contains some quite distressing stories, including that of a suicide by a fire fighter:

Culture of racism, bullying and misogyny revealed in London Fire Brigade

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d26b0cf2-6ce4-11ed-baff-fc7a2096b607?shareToken=ca8a0a25a5e0ec618b68272e40272e65

Fucking hell. I would say at least that the unbelievably toxic abuse the women received was equalled by the hideous racism. Who wakes up in the morning and decides to put sausages in a Muslim colleague's pocket? Who decides to sniff a female colleague's crotch and say she smells of 'blood and shit'?

The word 'banter' was based at my son's school because it was used as a cover for bullying. Good choice.

Banned not based 😑

Horrific. It is still men who are doing this. Let’s name the problem. While it is an institutional problem too it is individual men choosing to behave like this.

Policies for bullying in large organisations are not being upheld rigorously enough.

I also work for a large public body and I have been bullied. It's hard to find a manager as an ally. I am a woman out-manned 2 to 1. Lots of managers and HR staff just see bullying as "banter". Luckily the last time I raised a complaint it was upheld, in no small way because the manager leading the investigation treated me with respect and did a thorough job. The consequences for the bully were not carried through, however, so I left that location to move to another and am now much happier. But that's normal, either you have to remove yourself, or the Powers that Be move the bully, for them to continue their "banter" with another team.

Is there an institution that doesn't have these problems? I can't think of one tbh.

The BBC has a long article too, with Lucy Masoud quoted:

London firefighters face sack over bullying and racist behaviour www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63767823

My word, that's a wonderfully effective demolition of reference to Stonewall's box-ticking pontlessness, isn't it? More power to you, Lucy.

It's true isn't it? Faff about with tweets and lanyards at the expense of why you're in the job, at your peril.

Afzal tweeted as well, saying before you rush to judge, check your own organisation. Which I thought was fair enough, but mostly because I'd just read the BBC article and what Lucy said:

https://twitter.com/nazirafzal/status/1596237104861745152?s=46&t=KwG2pUnA_G69Saxkoo_cEg

Another article on this story:

London Fire Brigade: I’ll sack racist and sexist workers, chief says

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/973f4440-6db6-11ed-a782-0f22726b9287?shareToken=63665956af31db433b5b5f75db838e9f

The fact that some firefighters didn’t feel others had their backs in dangerous situations is frightening. Some staff had PTSD due they
ir treatment by other firefighters.
oBut I remember an article about bullying in the maternity services.
Lack of backbone and management skills in the top management imv meant there was nowhere to turn.

Lucy Masoud's quote mentioning the uselessness of Stonewall was actually read out on BBC news last night. Couldn't believe it!

That fire brigade sounds so toxic. Let's hope the enquiry leads to real change for female, black and Asian staff.

I love Nazir Afzal. I love that he called out the BBC too. That they denied it is ridiculous. Experienced well-loved presenters like Jenni Murray hounded out of Women's Hour(!!!!) for not toeing the gender ideology party line. Doesn't get much more misogynist than that.

Rest in peace, Jaden Francois-Esprit.

Yes, it’s not as though a majority of LFB were clammering to support gay people more but that their weak and inadequate leaders wanted Stonewall flags to’prove’ how inclusive they were… it got them off responsibility for actually doing anything about bullying/ cruelty.

So LFB followed Stonewall diversity schemes and particularly failed the protected characteristics of sex, race and religion. Makes you wonder who the Stonewall scheme was being inclusive to …..

Horrific. I know NAMALT, but it’s far, far too many.

Good to see Lucy Masoud quoted. I remember her battle to get a changing space for women in the fire brigade.