Training

For all three service groups, the police, military and emergency services, training was the first step in the job. Generally, this phase is referred to as recruit or basic training. All three services have a training regime that includes an academy type format where the individuals are immersed in the training for the immediate period following their recruitment or enlistment. Undertaking this training brings the new service members together and starts the process of upskilling them to be able to represent their service organisation as an operational member. It is the immersion in the group mentality, with no reprieve, during basic training that creates the institutional effect of the organisation (Cooper et al., 2018). Some police organisations in Australia allow participants to come and go from home during this period, but generally most participants, in all three services, stay at the academy or training facility during this time. The military has the added reinforcement of deployment to locations where there are no family and friends, and little contact with the same; as with the firefighters and paramedics who have shifts that involve sleeping at the station with their colleagues.  

This team mentality and constant orientation toward group goals reinforces the identity connection. When asked about training for the service role, Lucy, the second participant interviewed, coined the term ‘creating soldiers’. This became a reference point for the remaining interviews. She explained that the training was a process of breaking them down as individuals and rebuilding them as soldiers. Although her background was military, the concept also resonated with the participants from the police and emergency services. Lucy described the process as ‘I felt like, whether it was intentional or not, they kind of break you down and make you feel like you can’t do anything outside’, but Harry was the most descriptive, explaining  

in the Army they’re basically, from basic training, you know, you’re taught, get a bit of cunt about you. You know?...and it is, they basically deconstruct you and rebuild a solider. And those attributes are good in war and combat situations. But they just don’t go down well in normal business office life. I laugh a little bit because I spent the first part of my life basically learning how to hurt people. And then in my later years I’ve learnt moreso how to help people. 

Following this theme throughout the interviews, it became clear that, especially for police and military, there was a level of training and an expectation of behaviour in service that changed who they were as people and made it harder to cope outside that environment. As individuals, many did not realise this until they were out of the service role, and therefore they did not have coping mechanisms in place. Charles described his perspective on ‘creating soldiers’ as ‘I think, I think that’s a very accurate statement that you know defence spends a fortune turning you into a soldier and they just cut you loose into the wind as soon as your career is over’. This was supported by William, a police participant, who explained that when former military entered new employment they had to be: 

…deprogrammed military because the rules of engagement between military and police are completely different where you just can’t go out and indiscriminately shoot people. There’s rules. And that was the hardest thing that some of our military guys had was that well why can’t we do it this way, well because there’s laws and we have to defend ourselves in three years’ time when we’re in the coroner asking those questions. They, you could see them understanding it but not agreeing with it, they’re just going no we just do it this way, we can’t do it that way. 

The impact of this sort of training outside the service job is substantial, as Gary described when saying ‘Because they see, well they see like we, like males, like all Defence people do is I’m a level above civilians now because I’ve been trained like this and I’m supposed to protect you and you know and I see that some feel really isolated’. Here we see the impact of this type of training and the manner in which it re-creates the person and changes the way they see themselves. The distinction between them as service personnel and civilians demonstrates how they begin to identify not just with their teammates in the service organisation but identify themselves as distinct from the members of the community not in service. They begin to identify with their role and with the organisation and define themselves in these terms. Conrad described that police have a similar mentality that arises from the role and the training for the role, advising: 

I used to think that I was invincible. The putting on of the uniform was almost a, it was the defence barrier, it was the, it was the thing that protected me from everything and at times it was like flicking a switch, okay I’m going to work, I’ll put my uniform on, I’ll walk through the door, righto I’m a policeman. I go into cop mode. The difficulty was when that cop mode overrode everything else. And it became all yeah pervasive, it invaded every, every part of your life 

Lucy explained that these sorts of transformations not only make it difficult to function in the civilian world post-service, but also make the individuals in service question whether they can even do anything else. She described: ‘Like, oh what would you do? What would you apply for?’ This is a common theme, as participants expressed hesitancy to leave service because they did not know what they would do next (Ruiz & Morrow, 2005).  

In contrast to the experiences of military and police services, there was no indication that the emergency services training involved breaking down an individual and rebuilding them as fire fighters or paramedics. There is some similarity in the individual development of skills that are unique to each service but primarily, there are similarities in the nature of the training environment. The shared experiences of former police, military and emergency services personnel during recruit or basic training revealed that it is not so much the skills and knowledge that are reinforced in this training but the demand for strength and power as entry criteria for the service teams. These are perceived to be masculine characteristics and the demands to perform inside this framework influenced the changing behaviour of the participants (Agostino, 1998). Police, military and emergency services are masculine organisations and the training occurs within this dynamic. The impact of this gender dynamic was explored. 

Training in the Masculine Space

The training that occurs inside masculine organisations such as the military encourages an identity connection that permeates post-service life for the individuals (Higate, 2001). The reinforcement of the gendered dichotomy, where masculine equals strength and feminine equals weakness, starts at basic training in all three organisations, and continues to be enforced throughout service. Natalie explained ‘yeah, I think…that’s around masculinity. Men aren’t allowed to be seen to cry. Men aren’t allowed to do that sort of thing’.  Lisa described ‘…Defence people tend to be I can take [it], I can do anything, you know, I’ve been taught really tough’. The use of repeated physical and mental activities with masculine characteristics in a military training and operational environment redefine the individuals to connect with the group and the collective goal (Godfrey et al., 2012; King, 2006). In accordance with the literature (Godfrey et al., 2012; Higate, 2001; King, 2006), the participants from the military demonstrate this identity connection, but so did the former police and emergency services participants. The training of the physical body, and the adaptation of the mind, within the masculine space and to the extent required of the job content of police, military and emergency services, lends itself to a strong identity connection that is borne of the redefining of individuals into the actions they perform. Ethan described ‘there were a few guys that kind of lost it because ‘oh’ we’re losing our identity’. 

The participant descriptions about being broken down and re-created inside their service organisation role inform the understanding that they learn to define themselves by the skills and knowledge that constitute their service persona. Ethan explained ‘…you got told to do something in the military there were no ifs and or buts, you did it or you basically got flogged’. When in the service organisation role, they perform those skills and implement that knowledge without hesitation and without any opportunity for human deviation from the collective goal (King, 2006). It is this almost mechanical action that defines who they are in the role, but with constant reinforcement and implementation, it also starts to define who they are as individuals.  Matthew explained ‘it’s like that old, you know, frog in tn a pot, you know, you don’t know that you’re dying until you actually die’. With deployments, long shifts, and unusual working hours and environments, the individuals begin to associate only with their activities. This forms their identity connection to the organisation by making them see their activities and abilities as the sum whole of their identity. Lisa explained that people say ‘you know, we can tell you’re in the military, we can tell, or you’re a policeman or something…you’re so hard’.  The service organisation hones these skills and reinforces the activities to create occupational boundaries that ensure the highest return on their investment. The capacity to create employees that identify so strongly with organisational goals helps secure longevity in employees and encourages commitment to the long-term needs of the organisation. The fact that many of these service personnel do leave before the end of their career does not change the needs of the organisation to gain as much internal capital as they can from the individuals whilst in service. 

This is reinforced by the large part of the training for these services that is conducted in a team environment. Further, the tasks set for the roles during service are also team oriented. The impact of being part of a team was explored for its contribution to facilitating an identity connection.