INDEPENDENT REPORT URGES SIGNIFICANT CHANGES BY SENIOR LEADERSHIP
The 2026 Whanaungatanga Wellbeing Survey Report released today records a downward spiral of the organisation, manifesting in increasing rates of mental health issues among those working for FENZ. For the 111 emergency dispatchers, the results are the grimmest, with some of the highest rates of reported mental health issues when compared to similar roles globally.
The Report has been analysed against the previous Whanaungatanga Surveys in 2023 and 2024, and also introduced new benchmarks. The high participation rate amongst NZPFU continued, with 77% of uniformed staff taking part. Overall, 1,811 personnel participated in the survey taken earlier this year, including firefighters, dispatchers, VSOs, trainers, Risk Reduction staff, and managers.
Earlier Whanaungatanga reports record that rates of high psychological safety improved between 2023 and 2024, increasing from 29% to 37%. But the 2026 report demonstrates a substantial decline, with only 14% of employees reporting high psychological safety in 2026.
“A newly added measure, psychological contract violation — capturing the sense that the organisation has broken its obligations to staff — was high for 74% of employees. Seventy percent reported high cynicism towards the organisation, and 49% reported high intentions to leave. Against this backdrop, one positive finding stood out: perceived co-worker support remained strong and largely unaffected (86%), suggesting that the declines in other variables reflect how employees view the organisation, rather than a breakdown in relationships between colleagues.”
Psychological contract violation refers to strong emotional reactions arising from the perception that the organisation has failed to fulfil its obligations or has treated employees unfairly, including feelings of anger, betrayal, and frustration towards the organisation.
“Open-text comments provide further insight into these organisation-wide patterns. Across nearly 1,450 responses to open-ended survey questions, the most frequently raised concerns were staffing shortages and workload pressures, distrust in senior leadership, and dissatisfaction with pay and recognition. It is worth noting that career firefighters, as the largest respondent group, contributed the majority of these comments (around 70%).”
“A dominant theme across comments is a widespread erosion of trust in senior leadership and the wider organisation. Many participants described feeling unsupported, unheard, and disconnected from management, often contrasting the values promoted through the programme with their lived experience within Fire and Emergency. Comments frequently referred to leadership as “tone deaf,” disconnected from frontline realities, or engaging in “lip service” rather than meaningful action. Or as one participant described: “What do we want from our direct Managers, honesty!””
“Rates of high organisational competence and organisational accountability declined substantially in 2026. Rates of high organisational competence decreased from 26% in 2024 to 10% in 2026, while rates of high organisational accountability decreased from 10% to 3%.”
Some key points from the 2026 Report:
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Rates of high perceived organisational support declined substantially in 2026. Among staff, rates decreased from 15% in
2024 to 4% in 2026. Similarly, among managers, rates of high perceived organisational support declined from 39% in 2023 to 22% in 2026.
These findings suggest a marked deterioration in employees’ perceptions of organisational support across time points.
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Rates of high perceived manager support also declined, decreasing from 45% in 2024 to 37% in 2026. In contrast, rates of
high perceived co-worker support among team members remained relatively high overall, with 86% of employees reporting high co-worker
support in 2026. Managers also reported relatively high levels of perceived personnel support overall (65%).
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Rates of high perceived preparedness to serve decreased substantially from 26% in 2024 to 9% in 2026, suggesting reduced
confidence in organisational preparedness and capability to effectively serve the community.
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ComCen employees experienced markedly poorer mental health when compared to other roles in the organisation. ComCen staff reported
the highest rates of PTSD symptoms, depression, and anxiety, alongside the greatest exposure to potentially traumatic events
(PTEs) over the past 12 months, when compared to other roles. This pattern was consistent across every mental health measure in the survey
and represents the clearest and most substantial difference observed between role groups, reinforcing the case for continuation of the
Whanaungatanga programme within ComCen.
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Perceptions of organisational competence declined from 24% in 2023 to 20% in 2026, and perceptions of organisational accountability
remained consistently low, decreasing from 7% to 4%.
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Perceived support between uniformed and non-uniformed employees also remained low overall, declining from 12% in 2023 to 7% in 2026.
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ComCen staff also reported the highest rate of burnout risk of any role group, with 82% scoring above the burnout risk
threshold.
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Rates of presenteeism increased from 29% in 2024 to 40% in 2026. This suggests that a substantial
proportion of employees continued to attend work despite feeling physically or mentally unwell.
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Turnover intentions were highest among uniformed managers and commanders, who reported the greatest likelihood of both wanting to
quit their job (69%)
and wanting to leave the occupation altogether (65%) of any role group.
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Organisational cynicism appeared elevated in 2026, with 70% of employees reporting high organisational
cynicism (compared to 60% in 2023 and in 2024). In contrast, cynicism specifically directed towards managers remained comparatively lower
overall, with 21% of employees reporting high leader cynicism in 2026. This is similar compared to 2023 and 2024, where 22%
and 19%, respectively, of employees reported high cynicism towards managers.
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Rate of high pride in membership (of FENZ) declined substantially in 2026. Whereas rates increased from 71% in 2023 to 77% in 2024, only 53%
of employees reported high pride in membership in 2026.
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Many firefighters believed that progress made through the programme had been significantly undermined or reversed by broader tensions
between Fire and Emergency management and operational staff. Respondents frequently linked declining morale, worsening relationships, and
loss of trust to industrial action and organisational responses during bargaining. One participant commented that “all progress that
had been made has been destroyed by their approach to bargaining,”
while another noted that “despite best intention all progress is being destroyed and is ultimately going backwards.”
This year the Survey was extended to all staff, not just the cohort that engaged in 2023. There was also comparison between the Te Hiku region where the pilot Whanaungatanga programme of interventions had been in place for over a year. However, the gains made through that programme have been affected by other organisational issues.
“Career firefighters and commanders in the Te Hiku region reported significantly higher rates of high monthly PTE exposure compared to career firefighters and commanders in comparison regions, similar to the findings observed in 2024. After an initial decrease in yearly PTE exposure from 2023 to 2024, rates remained relatively stable in 2026, with Te Hiku personnel continuing to report higher levels of yearly PTE exposure than the comparison regions. However this difference did not meet conventional criteria for statistical significance in 2026.”
“A particularly strong theme concerned the perceived impact of the current industrial relations climate and bargaining environment.”
The NZPFU strongly believes there is a culture of fear in FENZ and that it is most prevalent at management levels. This report provided new insights that give basis to those concerns, with middle management (Group and District Managers) citing the witnessing of unethical behaviour as a stress factor. It is reasonable to assume that unethical behaviour is by management and senior leadership, as middle management are empowered to deal with staff who are not meeting the standards of behaviour.
“Uniformed Managers and Commanders stood out for reporting a distinct workload and time-pressure problem not shared by any other role: they were significantly less likely than all other groups to feel they had enough time to complete their work. Uniformed managers and commanders also reported struggling the most of any group to psychologically switch off from work once home, and reported high levels of emotional job demands, work-family conflict, and being troubled from having witnessed others engage in unethical acts, a level which was matched only by non-uniformed managers. This group also reported the second-highest rate of burnout risk of any role group (81%).”
FENZ executive leadership need to take notice and act. FENZ is currently driving down the number of career firefighters in Auckland, decimate career recruit training this year, and have already cancelled January 2027’s course. The 111 dispatchers in the comms centres are regularly working understaffed and it is not unusual for one of the three centres to be closed due to lack of staffing. FENZ’s answer is to recruit and train “temporary” dispatchers to be employed on fixed term.
The feedback identified 5 priority areas:
- Resourcing (staffing, workload, equipment, and fleet),
- The employment environment (recognition and remuneration, bargaining, and job security),
- The leadership environment (trust, psychological safety, accountability, and communication),
- The relational environment (respect, recognition, and being heard),
- The physical work environment.
In addition to addressing safe systems of work, genuinely engaging with the workforce, and actively addressing risks, the Report writers also recommend:
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Strengthening consultation and communication during periods of change is recommended, so that employee concerns are more likely to reach
decision-makers with the authority and resources to act on them. Organisational trust, employees’ confidence in speaking up, accountability,
and intentions to leave remain significant organisational risks that warrant ongoing monitoring and mitigation. This recommendation reflects
both the qualitative themes raised across nearly 1,450 open-text responses – mentioning staffing shortages and workload, distrust in senior
leadership, and dissatisfaction with pay and recognition – and the strong 2026 decline in perceived organisational support, competence,
accountability and psychological safety.
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We recommend accessible clinical, peer, and individual wellbeing support to be maintained and tailored to the needs of different employee
groups. This support is best positioned to complement, rather than replace, action on harmful working conditions and leadership practices.
This recommendation follows the report’s overall pattern of findings, which points to workplace conditions and leadership as the primary
drivers of mental health and wellbeing outcomes, with individual support as a valuable complement rather than a substitute.
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We recommend interventions continue to be developed together with the employees who will be affected by them, and as this work continues, we
recommend ownership, monitoring and accountability for follow-through be strengthened along the way rather than left to develop on their
own. This is grounded in two patterns in the findings: scores on nearly every Te Hiku intervention-evaluation question declined between 2024
and 2026, with qualitative feedback describing interventions “dwindling away” or becoming “tick-box exercises” without sustained
organisational commitment; and ComCen’s persistently elevated rates of mental ill health relative to international benchmarks, its own
qualitative feedback describing a longstanding sense of being overlooked and under-resourced, and the early positive shifts observed since
its inclusion in the programme from 2025 onward.
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Continued investment in leadership capability development and support is recommended, with clear accountabilities and developmental pathways
to help guide this work. Manager visibility, relationship-based leadership, and the quality of performance feedback provided to employees
would benefit from being strengthened where possible. Managers benefit from having sufficient time and clearly outlined responsibilities
related to engaging with their people, and we recommend this be supported wherever practical.
The Report is clear on what FENZ needs to do:
Fire and Emergency is encouraged to identify and actively address risks relating to staffing, workload, infrastructure, employee involvement, competing role expectations, and organisational change. Where a risk sits outside the Whanaungatanga Programme’s authority or resources to resolve, we recommend responsibility for it be clearly assigned elsewhere, to help ensure it does not go unaddressed.
This is the first report of the 2026 Survey. A further technical report that will provide more longitudinal analysis will follow.
In unity,
Watie Watson
National Secretary
