Choices
It really comes down to three choices that you will have at the end of your probationary year…Three roads you can pick from.
1. You can become fully engaged and decide that you will be a professional firefighter, your head will be in the game and you come to work to fully earn your check and your title. You will study and improve your craft and train every person that will replace you at some point. All the way up till the end of your career, you will become better and still enjoy doing the job. Entitlement is not an issue and you realize that We Owe The Citizens our best performance when the time comes.
2. You can do your job and maintain the the average bar of what we are expected to do, not ever going much above that but still being a useful hand when we need you. This is still a critical part of our fire service, but won’t change the problems that we face today. You’re there, but will you improve it in some way or another?
3. You can (but shouldn’t) barely skate through your probationary year and then view that next year as “you made it”, you now view this as just another day at work and feel no responsibility to training yourself or others around you. You breed complacency and always manage to find something more important then training or maintaining our rigs. Rehearsing the TV schedule for the week is easy but knowing how to cut a garage door is a foreign and “unneeded concept”. Your second job is way more important and please don’t bother me with training, because we will figure it out when we get there. As long as “the fire goes out and everybody goes home” you consider it a success and can mentally block any of the real performance problems that may have occurred. The engaged guys annoy you and you like to pretend the stuff they train on is all hypothetical fairy tales that never happen…until they do.
We might annoy you, but you offend us.
The number 1s and 2s are taking it back!!! Beware number 3s, its OUR time!!!!
For all of the new guys, these are CHOICES. It is up to you! We can tell which one you choose.
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IRONSandLADDERS.com 
06/26/2013 at 2:24 pm
[…] It really comes down to three choices that you will have at the end of your probationary year…Thre… […]
07/14/2013 at 10:17 am
Well said my friends. And I appreciate you sharing this message and your passion with the recruit academy last week. I had been telling them there were two choices, 1s and 3s… and we aim at getting rid of the threes over the next four months. Of course, throughout a career, we all fight laziness, complacency, lack of motivation. Glad there are plenty of folks like Ryan, Bryan, Trevor and Nick out there that keep the energy and focus of constantly getting more proficient at our jobs. As we all strive to master our craft, we raise the game of those around us. And let’s never forget that our duty and primary purpose is to save lives, sometimes at the risk of our own safety. Keep fighting the good fight. Preserving the great traditions and future of our Profession depend on it.
“We do not need a culture of safety in the fire service. We need a culture of extinguishment… the job of a firefighter is dirty, difficult, demanding and dangerous, just like it will always be ” Ray McCormack
06/26/2013 at 9:43 pm
Well said. I think we have all had our share of those probie….if they are reading this then the word probie, newmen, donk etc will bother them, possibly offend them. Good. I can’t stand the new norm. The fact that just doing what it takes to get by is not ok. If your offended because you joined and ADULT profession and a hard working blue collar profession and we work to hard for you, make you work hard, or happen to use offensive language, don’t cry about it! You have two additional choices. 1) get thicker skin and learn how to stand up for your self, or at least take the ass chewing because you probably deserve it.
2) LEAVE! Don’t quit, then sue because you feel wronged. If you didn’t do your best or focused on the wrong aspects of this year of probation, that is your fault. Leave, don’t look back and try to drag others down. Chances are the writing was on the wall in the academy this wouldn’t have been right for you but you are here to prove a point and not to be the absolute best FIREMEN you can be. And yes I called you a FIREMAN!!
06/28/2013 at 5:58 pm
[…] Choices – Irons and Ladders “For all of the new guys, these are CHOICES. It is up to you! We can tell which one you choose.” […]
06/30/2013 at 1:25 pm
Reblogged this on BringingBackBrotherhood and commented:
Well said! & important for us all to remember. Stay passionate! Stay dedicated.