Mission Accomplished Version 5

[Percy]

Whilst the thought of @Carl shoehorning himself into an extra tight lycra costume, complete with mask and cape might be unnerving and perhaps slightly unsavoury,... no you perverts I meant as a Superhero not anything kinky!  , to me he is as good as anything Marvel or DC could ever offer!

Confused? think I may have inhaled fumes from strong solvents? Well allow me to explain.

When I was little I was always going to be a 'Fireman' and work at my home town Fire Station which I walked past to school or generally loitered by. I just was and that was that.

However, fast forward about 14 years and the stark and sometimes harsh realties of getting in the Fire and Rescue Service became apparent and I soon realised after several unsuccessful attempts that the odds were stacked against me. I then went in a huff for a few years and sulked to concentrate on my then chosen career but soon the footballer lifestyle highlife glamour and material trappings of Welding began to fade and I wanted something more rewarding. Sadly though I didn't even make the shortlist for the post of Spray Tanner for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders squad and decided to give the Fire Service 'another go'.

When I say a 'go,' just like our very own @CaptainFlack or my brother as he is to me, I tried numerous times, all again without success before stumbling across this fantastic website.

Due to the sheer amount of priceless information on here it was almost unfair the advantage it gave me over my opposition, probably only second to what it must be like to be confronted with violent intruders in ones home and to find you somehow have a functioning lightsabre to defend your family and home with. So thanks to Carls creation it was Mission Accomplished Version 1, and I became a Firefighter with Surrey Fire and Rescue in 2005.

At two yearly intervals this site then accounted for Versions 2, 3 and 4 of Mission Accomplished when advice, help and products were needed to go for various promotions culminating in my current role of Assistant Group Commander. But when I say current, after todays letter of unconditional offer of employment that will now be short lived.

Yet again due to Carls help and support I will now, after 13 years and finally realising my childhood ambition be swapping cap badges and joining Carl and Co as I have been successful to transfer home.

Carl, on a very personal note I would like to thank you for advising me through the last few months of tests and hoops. It means the world to me that I will see my daughter and family every day now instead of every few days or in some cases not for weeks.

[Carefree]

Nice post Percy.

This forum has been invaluable to many over the years including myself, and I wouldn’t hesitate to strongly advise any applicants to become a subscribing member because as you say, the advantage it gives is priceless.

Great to hear that you will now be closer to home and family, you can’t put a price on that.

[Becile]

I can't believe you went off in a huff...very unlike you ...lol.

Take some of our southern shandy drinking ways , keep in touch.

Oh..and mind the traffic!!

[OscarTango]

Well gosh, golly, jeepers and other filthy expletives of surprise, I had no idea you were from "up there"! Can only imagine what a herculean task that must have been all that time. Best of luck to you chief.

Will you still be knocking around the county in October?

[Percy]

Yes, despite my now hybrid Surrey/Northern accent I am very much a proud grimy faced Northerner. 

I wont be here in October, why are you transferring in?

[OscarTango]

I'm afraid so! Am hoping for a spot in your borough as it's next door to me but looks like we'll miss each other. 

Guess some elocution practice in the mirror needed to stoke the old mancunian tones and wash the Tandridge out ?

[Keith]

Thought you had been on the surgical spirit Percy with the start of the post. Well done on your promotion home. 

[Luminoki]

Congrats Percy and good luck back home in the land of gravy on chips

[Becile]

?And you'll need a new nickname!

[CaptainFlack]

He's got plenty nicknames @Becile , don't worry.

Well done kid, we're both starting on the same day!

As a family WE look forward to spending more time with you. No more daft questions from mum asking 'When are you back down Surrey?' after you've only just got back home

[Becile]

Yes, but his Surrey one just won't be the same up t'north

[Carl]

Someones in for a shock. Manchester is not Surrey. ?

You have Virginia Water, we have Moss Side, your have Cobham, we have Salford.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Noddy]

Well done Percy mate and all the best for the new role ? I heard whippets were Standard issue in northern brigades so let us know what you call it ?

[FireWalshy]

That’s great news Chris really happy for you. Are your transferring in as an Officer or FF. All the best in your new role.

[Percy]

On ‎12‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 18:48, Carl said:

Someones in for a shock. Manchester is not Surrey. ?

You have Virginia Water, we have Moss Side, your have Cobham, we have Salford.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

There are not that many places like Cobham and Oxshott (both Elmbridge) ? Surrey Boroughs

 

23 hours ago, FireWalshy said:

That’s great news Chris really happy for you. Are your transferring in as an Officer or FF. All the best in your new role.

It’s SM Walshy, same as I am in Surrey but with no valet, chauffeur or maid.

[Ian]

Great news!

Best wishes and good luck with your new beginnings.

[FireWalshy]

Haha great stuff all the best 

[Carl]

On 10/08/2018 at 20:00, Percy said:

Yet again due to Carls help and support I will now, after 13 years and finally realising my childhood ambition be swapping cap badges and joining Carl and Co as I have been successful to transfer home.

So, its been a month or two now @Percy, how do we compare ?

[Percy]

Yeah my eight week anniversary was yesterday so very timely!!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Surrey and miss working with some of the people, but expectations placed on staff and crews there are unworkable and unachievable at times. (There’s a word for that I think ?).

Whilst cut after cut was made effecting every and each department, one would think it wouldn’t take an LSE graduate genius to conclude that this would correlate with an obvious reduction in ‘production’... i.e what could be achieved with the remaining staff left. Oh no, not in Surrey. To date, I have not seen evidence of this here.

I still pull this face (see the attached Gif) when I think of the celebratory backslaps that we’re made when they decided to drastically reduce the Fire Protection team and it’s Business Support team, from 30 to 1.5 (I kid ye not) and palm off all it’s work to Ops Crews (at a time when never in the history of Firefighting is the scope of the role broader and maintaining the skills required harder) and bemoan that other ‘targets’ were not being met and best yet, Stations Commanders were expected to write all the enforcement letters up ??. Nay nay and thrice nay. Since the nonsense started in November 17, naturally I never did a one before I left, but instead of being an admin Clark and tasking my people with routine mundane business auditing of compliance, I thought perhaps it would be best to concentrate our time on making sure children and families were safe at night as they slept!

People dieing in house fires vs asking an RP “do they have a Fire Risk Assesment” Etc.? Mmm let me think about that for no seconds whatsoever. This we did, in fact in Q1 we had reached a years ‘Target’ and led by a county mile the service in SAWV numbers, including Stations with two pumps. 

As mentioned, there is no evidence of this kind of flawed priority.

We have specialist FP people for FP.

We have specialist CS people for specialist CFS.

We have specialist admin people for doing all the admin.

I’m still shocked that everywhere I seem to go have a fully functioning canteen too ?

 

[Becile]

Percy - Ahhh, I've been thrown under the bus-lol.

Glad it's going well mate, by the way the letters are a piece of p##s - a whole months worth in an hour today, too much time spent fighting the system maybe.

But yes we could do with a few more people (understatement)

P.S I'm on track for all my targets in the borough, can you have a word with Stuart .

[Carl]

You always have a smile on your face so I presumed you were enjoying the delights of GMFRS  

We do eat well

[Percy]

On 06/11/2018 at 19:35, Becile said:

Percy - Ahhh, I've been thrown under the bus-lol.

Glad it's going well mate, by the way the letters are a piece of p##s - a whole months worth in an hour today, too much time spent fighting the system maybe.

But yes we could do with a few more people (understatement)

P.S I'm on track for all my targets in the borough, can you have a word with Stuart .

I can’t see where you’ve been thrown under the bus mate? You’re very much one of these mentioned here...

On 06/11/2018 at 10:16, Percy said:

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Surrey and miss working with some of the people 

I’m glad you find the letters and your new added administrative tasks easy and are on track with all your Targets, including these new imposed ones which have absolutely no real value. But, as with the rest of the Sevice... you can use my SAWV totals (something that does really matter) in Q1 as a target to aim for this coming quarter ?.... and no, as I had to remind those that tried to point out the number was only so high due to the involvement of volunteers... even taking their numbers off we were still miles infont of everybody else. Families safe in bed or does Mrs Miggins news agents have a FRA ??

Perhaps it is fighting the system but the fact that there was zero involvement with those who were expected to perform the new tasks and it was just yet another unchallenged ‘Must do’ added to the plate spinning workload, did ‘irk me slightly’.

When the next round of cuts are made to a department and you find yourself under a Scania having to change 4 oil filters a month because someone somewhere has decided that this is now an AGC task, added to your workload, and as with the FP admin with zero review of capacity, you might think I wish Old Perc was here to man the barricade ?

Let me know when you do, I’ve some overalls you can have here ?

 

[Messyshaw]

Bloody hell. What a mess Surrey seem to have got themselves into.

Post Grenfell, with the spotlight and emphasis on fire safety like never before, it's a curious decision to virtually close a fire safety dept!

With the greatest respect to Ops staff and Stn Managers who have to sign enforcement notices, that is a tricky call unless the training and support is there.

I predict Surrey FRS being mauled thru the Courts by a disgruntled RP who has wrongly been issued such a notice. We had a few near misses in my old FS team when a new Team Leader messed up!

I don't want to get political here, but of this leafy and wealthy county can't cope resourcing a fully functioning fire service, something is going badly wrong somewhere in the way counties are funding

I work with a number of smaller FRS and they seem to be a similar state. But stockbroker belt Surrey ?????

My sympathies to those who have to keep the show on the road in this hopeless environment 

[Firestorm]

Hasn't Manchester suffered enough?!

Congrats Percy, Surreys loss is Manchesters gain.

[Becile]

@Messyshaw just to clarify, these aren't enforcement letters, more like we've visited your location and everything is ok/ not ok (suggested areas of improvement) it's a standard letter (email)with the address and contact inserted..no real dramas .

 I'd have to agree with your comment 're funding, we do seem to face the brunt of cuts when part of a larger county financial picture. We haven't closed any stations or made any redundancies so our internal "pain" isn't really felt by the general public or the politicians running the show !

@Percy..thanks for the offer of the overalls. Have you got any spanners as well.On a plus note, we have some lovely kit ? p.s. all targets all on track, both stations! Easy-lol- Always finish on a high note !