London Fire Brigade Employee Reviews

What is the best part of working at the company?The support system from people and protocols is amazing.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Well, only maybe at the beginning trying to understand how every section of LFB works and are connected but with time they all come to lightWhat is the work environment and culture like at the company?Friendly and highly professional What is a typical day like for you at the company?Learning with readily available support

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Great job, poor management

Firefighter (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 21 September 2023

Love the day to day job, great camaraderie and feel like you're making a positive contribution but constant pressure on pay and conditions plus terrible management.

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Insights into London Fire Brigade

Based on 27 survey responses

What people like

Support from manager
Ability to learn new things
Clear sense of purpose

Lots of learning

Inspecting Officer (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 18 August 2023

Great training opportunities and mentoring available for new staff. Role was interesting and varied. The only issues were the pay and lack of progression meaning all the good staff leave for better pay

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Not the dream

Firefighter (Current Employee) - London - 21 June 2023

Shift hours are at station 9.30am - 8pm and vice versa on nightshift. The shift pattern is 2 days, 2 nights, four off. You know your schedule in advance for years which is a positive and work over half your weekends which is something to consider if you have family obligations. The days can be long and typically consist of premise inspections, home fire safety visits and training on days. You do miss operational incidents due to training days where you don’t respond to calls which is highly frustrating and not a good use of resources when the training is basic/box ticking. On a more positive note they are starting training packages at the Fire Service College in Moreton. Some stations can be toxic and you struggle to get a move in some instances due to skillsets keeping you there. Can take up to 2 years to move onto full pay and living in London on £1400-1500 is challenging. There is currently no skills payments for taking on additional responsibilities (driving, fire rescue/turntable ladder etc). Not enough gloves/flash hoods (only two pairs provided) for changing PPE after incidents to avoid cancers and baby wipes to wipe down equipment with vs a proper breathing apparatus set cleaner and at least four pairs of gloves and flash hood are required for a busy station as they take weeks to come back. There is not much room for career advancement other than promotions from the firefighter level. There is no real pride or professionalism in advancing skills/capability with competitions, attendance of seminars and the brigade is definitely 10 years in the past with improving equipment. -

Pros

Cooking facilities on station, schedule in advance

Cons

Long hours, poor management, poor training

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Waste

Property Project Support Officer (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 3 December 2022

Can't be asked because the same circle of people playing their games. Sad senior managers who where gifted to get to the post with no experience. They recruitment system is based on who you know and not what you have to offer. Nepotism- father bringing their no experience kids to head departments they about to retire. Family-run business. Everyone is linked and no one to turn to for support.

Pros

Work location

Cons

Really

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Team environment

Crew Manager (Former Employee) - London - 5 October 2022

Work for the LFB for 30 years Great rewarding professional careerWhere you can advance to higher levels if you so wishGreat team environment working along side great people .Middle management and upper management out of tough with the real workforce thou

Pros

Career expansion rota days off

Cons

Long hours Shift poor management at higher levels

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Ok

Firefighter (Former Employee) - London - 15 September 2022

Good: money is okPension is okIf you like shifts you get plenty of time offTime to trainBad:Environment isn’t greatSupport isn’t goodNot great lifestyle for most

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Low pay and poor progression

Fire Safety Officer (Former Employee) - Southwark, Greater London - 25 July 2022

Job was interesting yet the pay did not meet the industry standards and therefore this led to more experienced staff leaving. Management don't understand the job and there is a lot of top down dictacts

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Funny, hard, gut wrenching, team building

Crew Manager, Fire Fighter and Technical Rescue Technician (Former Employee) - Leytonstone and Edmonton - 5 May 2022

A wonderfully hard, emotional rewarding and difficult vocation.After 16 years in the service it broke me in many ways. But in parts I absolutely loved my time in the Lfb. You need to be strong physically and mentally and thick skinned, and sensitive.. and not be put off by the the corporate bs.. be prepared to work hard and be the best, give all you have and don’t expect an easy ride and you’ll be fine.

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Fantastic job

Leading Firefighter (Former Employee) - London East, Greater London - 5 January 2022

Great workforce No two days the sameFaced with problem solving every dayImmediate management excellentGood interaction with the publicSenior management poor

Pros

4 days off

Cons

4 days on

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Jobs at London Fire Brigade

See more jobs

Control Room Operators (Transferee)

London

1 day ago

Operational Resilience Admin Assistant

London

8 days ago

Senior Digital Officer

London

19 days ago

Building Design Consultation Hub (BDCH) -Team Leader

London

25 days ago

Best job in the world

Shift based fire officer (Former Employee) - Over a dozen stations in the London area - 3 May 2021

You’re surrounded by like-minded professional people.Career progression is available to all. Work life balance is great, team work and support is highly valued.Support services for employees is comprehensive.

Pros

Exciting environment

Cons

Shift work over weekends

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Productive and great place to work

Station cook (Former Employee) - Enfield - 22 February 2021

Excellent organisation to work for. Great comoradary , excellent team mates and great work life balance.It was a pleasure to work there.Excellent hours. Used the gym daily and was extremely fit. Loved every minute of my time at the station.

Pros

Use of gym.

Cons

None to mention.

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A career to be proud of

Station Officer (Former Employee) - London fire stations - 4 December 2020

30 years i served. Best job ever. Worth everything thd job can throw at you and more. Dont just think it. Do it.Dont go through life wishing youd done it. Go for it. The best job in the world.

Pros

Job satisfaction

Cons

Shifts, nights, working bank holidays, easter, christmas etc

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Cancer

Watch Manager (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 10 September 2020

there are great risks in this job and the main one that your not told about is cancer I have it some of my colleagues have it .risk is very high then the throw you on the heap . Promotion is clicky and management are bullies

Pros

everyone loves firefighters

Cons

risky and rubbish pay

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Unprecedented

Station Officer (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 6 August 2020

No day is ever the same. From attending incidents to conducting home fire safety visits and conducting community talks. Very much a team based work environment. Challenging yet hugely rewarding career.

Pros

Team led

Cons

Shift work

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Not Applicable

Not applicable (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 21 June 2020

Work long hours due to tight deadlines. Not much work/life balance. Good holiday allowance. More generous than other public sector companies. Over 30 days.

Pros

Holiday Allowance

Cons

Culture

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staff friendly but odd culture

Admin Assistant (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 27 May 2020

the staff are friendly but they have an odd culture management changing frequently. My team had 3 line managers and one temporary manager in two months.

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Hectic, friendly, challenging.

Administration Assistant (Former Employee) - Wembley - 7 May 2020

Easy going culture but fast-paced. Stress is manageable but there are easy to follow guidelines available. There is a lot to learn in a short space of time but this is offset by helpful more experienced colleagues

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Productive

Firefighter (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 7 April 2020

Enjoyable rewarding bravery no day is the same! Unexpected conditions gets the adrenaline going. Quick thinking, at problem solving is what we train for.

Pros

Community activities

Cons

There are no cons

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Great atmosphere

Firefighter (Current Employee) - Croydon, Greater London - 8 February 2020

Hard job to get into , very physical and mentally demanding, reasonably long process to get to training school. 1 year . 9 weeks basic training and then 2 years trading to become competent

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Used to be a career, now just a job.

Firefighter (Former Employee) - London - 13 January 2020

One of the most exciting jobs available with the tightest of bonds between crews. Unfortunately it seems you have to sell your soul to climb anywhere of importance in the rank structuring.

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