After reading Patrick Warren’s story in the Argus this weekend, I got the feeling that the city is making excuses or in denial about how they treat their employees with mental illness. It seems if someone’s behavior is interrupting city business, instead of trying to determine what is going on, they fire the person.
Patrick contacted me several months ago about his story, and after talking to him for over 2 1/2 hours, I decided to pass his story on to John Hult, I felt John would do a better job of telling the story. And I am impressed.
There are some things missing from the story, that eventually I would love to delve into, a lot of it stems from some of the actions of the current police chief and his relationship with the union president for the firefighters.
Patricks’s story about recognizing mental illness in employees is just the tip of the iceberg of what is going on behind the scenes at the Fire Department.
The article explains the firing. Before now, it seemed to be but another internal city favoritism power struggle where someone got pushed out. To recognize mental flaws, the first safeguard is the family. They’ll know and should react before coworkers. On the job, individuals orient toward goals without personal details. Mental problems seem unrecognized until it’s to late.
Incidently, the Argus this Sunday was entertaining and worth the retail price. Inflation has prompted high publishing cost for magazines. Perhaps newspapers fill a void for people who want facts and opinion aside from brief Internet statements.
“If there’s a solid management in place, and they see what’s going on, there’s regular communication, they can probably spot issues that are going on,” Jamison said. “Maybe the training needs to be with those managers.”
He’s exactly right. If these behaviors went on for that long and sideras did nothing about it, it’s Sideras’s fault. What I find sickening is I had no idea any of this was going on in the department. but after Warren was fired all of a sudden there was an internal smear campaign where all of the department’s problems were caused by him but you weren’t allowed to ask any questions.
Yep. That’s some real leadership right there.
I have no respect for Sideras as a fire chief because he lacks any of the fire-related knowledge it takes to be chief, but now knowing what happened I have no respect for him as a human being.
“Rana DeBoer, the city’s work well manager, thinks the city’s training for managers is appropriate, given the array of services offered to those who need help.
We have strong training with our leaders in how to have conversations with our employees if they feel like something’s off,” said DeBoer, who is married to a firefighter.
DeBoer needs to read my comment from above. Clearly Sideras did not handle the situations time and time again. Why not? We’re talking years of avoiding addressing it. What’s the rest of story?
“Sideras agreed, saying that admitting issues with mental illness and stress is seen as a strength within his crew.”
Okay. This is just getting comical. What fire department does he work for? Not being able to handle stress or having a mental illness is not seen as a strength by employees. But at this point I’ll talk to another crew member because I would want them to get help, not fired.
Lastly “Sideras said the city has several fail-safes in place designed to help those who struggle. Here are some of those programs:”
Pre-hire psychiatric screening. That was the only thing on the list that was actually administered by a trained psychologist. The rest appears to be an atttempt to come up with a list of things by the city to cover it’s ass.
Post Incident Analysis? PIA’s? Really Sideras? PIA’s are to analyze strategies and tactics at fires, make sure policies were followed and make sure everything was done safely. How can you call that a mental illness fail-safe?
That’s what I would call a lie.
I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story. Last I heard, Warren was filing a civil service board appeal over his firing, then a lawsuit, but nothing for months.
The only thing I know for sure is I will never promote out of a union protected position, I’ve now seen what city management does to one of “its own”.
This is making me more curious. I too would like to know what makes a boss tolerate outrageous behavior from an employee for so long.
Was he intentionally building up a case severe enough to insure firing? Criminal prosecution?
Something doesn’t add up here, there still seems to be chunks of the story missing.
I worked as land surveyor for the city of Dallas, TX some 30 years ago. The survey group was about 60 personnel. Jobs were more political than performance. I maxed their test so came in as a young supervisor of 5. I perceived their job was to show up and wait for breaks, lunch, or leave at exactly 4pm. There were make work projects but my job was mostly babysitting. I couldn’t give a bad review or pass someone up for promotion. I stayed a year but felt the whole atmosphere was irrelevant.
My point is that the work climate in these circumstances makes you worthless to the point of insanity. All you hang around for is a promotion only to discover you then mean even less to the organization. Take an intelligent man and put him in solitary for 20 years. He becomes a vegetable with nothing to look forward to. Public employees in midterm employment lose control when they’re passed over. Late term employees have a lucrative retirement coming so they come out of the insanity cycle. A few more years and this man would have started on the way out. An early medical retirement is best for him.
This comment was posted on the AL facebook site. I think it sums it up.
A psychological test was completed at Warrens hire, over 18 years ago. The City offered no psych testing since then, relying on self-reporting for mental fitness at annual physicals since then. If you have a mental illness, you don’t see that you have one to report. When Warren “tore into a psychiatrist” in 2012, why didn’t that psychiatrist, or Chief Sideras, suggest that Warren go in for an evaluation with him or another professional after that? That was a HUGE missed opportunity by the Sideras and the City.
I think the article is saying that Warren wished his manager was better prepared to identify mental illness within the department to help Warren seek help. Symptoms the article said Warren was exhibiting that were out of his normal character: frequent migraines, anger, mood swings, irritability, agitation, false belief in superiority, paranoia, manic and depression. After an 18 year stellar career, why wouldn’t Sideras/City want to help him instead of crucify him like they did?
The Daily Spin – I agree. A medical retirement seems appropriate. Is that why the city is trying so to cover its ass instead of admit it could have done a better job? To save a few bucks? Oh sorry, we screwed up, but instead of taking responsibility for our mistake we’re going to make it sound like it was your fault.
JW – That post makes a good point too. Why the push to make sure he was charged with a felony instead of getting him help? Seems really vindictive and not an appropriate use of the courts.
Pat did catch Sideras a few times flubbing up and reported him, which probably caused bad blood. One time Pat intervened on a Sideras action and saved the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars on a labor issue (it was part of Pat’s job to watch payroll, etc.). Trust me, Jim was not a fan of Pat.
Anon FF, I moderated your latest comment. Thank you! I will definitely look into this!!!!!