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So I'am having a little bit of a dilemma, About a year ago I joined a fire department, I really loved it and enjoyed, at the time of being a junior/probie I was one of the top responders, thats because i was out of work for quite some time, so I had time to run every call 24/7. I ended up walking away, and I regret it tremendously. At this time I feel the need and urge to go back, I ended up putting a letter requesting to come back to my previous company, they denied me, so after some though I decided to try another company down the road from me. they also denied me without no explanation.
My question is, Is there anything I can say or do to convince another company that iam ready to do the job, I didn't lie on my application i put down I had previous experience at a neighboring department. These two companies worked closely together alot of the time. I feel like my reputation is tarnished, and I never did anything wrong what so ever. Like I said I had alot of family dealings and I couldnt focus on ff1 at the time, and ultimately my father unexpected passed away! My previous department was generious enough to attend my fathers viewing without me even being a member of the company anymore. So a few months after the fact thats when I decided to put a letter in to return and like I said before was denied.
Line officers Have you ever dealt with a situation like this and how did you handle with a member trying to ride again, and says he's more then willing to do whatever he/she needs to do to succeed. have you ever been in the situtation? what would you do? and what could I do?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Derek J Sinesi on
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Carlo, Does the department you left have a inactive member list? If so did you go on it when you left or did you resign all together? We have ran into this issue a couple of times. One member got pissed off put in his request to go inactive for 3 third time. Awhile ago he put in to be voted back in, so he could go active again. We called him into a line officers meeting to talk about his request. When it was all said and done we informed him that we would take his request to the company for a vote; but we would prefer not to have him back on the department again. So he withdrew his request. We also just had other put in his request to come back on as a active member. He also left being pissed off. But we did vote him back in as a active member. He of course will be on probation for a year and will have to wait 3 years before he can run for a officer's position again, but is back on. Both of these men left pissed off. Both under different circumstances though. We knew why both left so therefore we could make a sound decisions on how to handle the request.
So i guess because i'm not sure how you left (on what type of terms) i'm not sure what to tell you. I would love to be able to give you a straight out answer but i also know nothing about the department you were with.
The best advise i can give you is; to try to set up a meeting with the chiefs; at the department and see what they have to say. Explain why you left in the first place and more importantly how much you are willing to dedicate yourself now.
Best of luck to you. Please keep me informed how you make out.
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Permalink Reply by Carlo on
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Thank you for your reply, I resigned under what I felt under good circumstances, I never had any falls out with anyone, never got into pissing matches etc, always really kept to myself when I was down there, Just did what i needed to and went home! Sorry I forgot to mention that before!
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Permalink Reply by Eric Gregory on
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While there is something to be said for the formality of a letter, I am still a fan of the old fashioned "face to face".
Walk into the department, talk to the chief or membership chair and tell them sincerely where you stand. Tell them how much you want to become a member of the department and tell them very politely that if there are some deficiencies about you that caused them to decide against you you'd like to understand them so that you can work on those issues and perhaps re-apply.
Be polite, Be mature and Be open to what their saying. Most importantly at the end of the conversation, politely thank them for their time and then perhaps follow up with a thank you letter.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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I suspect somewhere between here, "I ended up walking away..."
and here; "...requesting to come back to my previous company, they denied me...another company ...also denied me without no explanation."
lies the answer.
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Ok, but I left for personal reasons, why is that a reason for another department to deny me, without even knowing me, and possibly going by someone elses word? Plus I left a year ago, its not like i left for a few months and decided to come back, I took a year off from everything, and this year I decided I wanted to ride again. I don't see anything I said or did wrong for another department to deny me without even knowing me.
I think my reason is more then legititmate. IMO Iam not one to discuss my personal life with anyone, Iam a fairly private person.
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You're asking the wrong people, go to those who denied you, politely ask them for their reasoning and make sure they know the reason that you're asking is because you really want to understand the perceived flaw that caused the denial and to remedy that situation.
No one on here can tell you what the members of those departments were thinking or why they denied you, only they can.
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Carlo, I can understand why the other department may have denied you. It is hard for a department to accept a person who does not live within there fire district. It doesn't matter if they know you or not. This is what they see. Why does he want to join here when he lives there and they have a department. They must not like him or he must be a trouble maker; and a hundred other things they could say. Hope you understand this it is just the way it is. I would not bother with the other department until you find out why the first department denied your request to come back.
Set up a meeting with the chiefs and go from there. You most likely will have to share your reasons with them. Good luck i wish you the best.
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Thanks for the replies, the only reason I came on here, was to get your opinions and to see if any other department line officers had a dealing with this sort of thing, and i wanted to get a perspective on how you handle it.
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Permalink Reply by backsteprescue on
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I can obviously only speak for my volunteer department, however once people leave our department, many times they never come back. Most times people move away, have a bunch of young kids running around, lose interest, etc. Sometimes, as it sounds is your case, people have some pressing personal issues that need to be taken care of. Definitely can't fault you for taking care of some family matters before worrying about the FD. I know someone who is in a very similar situation to you. He made alot of calls and was a great guy but resigned for some personal matters. Now that its been a year or two, things have calmed down a bit and he wants to give the fire department another go. For us, it's up to the Chief to decide whether or not he gets to come back so who knows what will happen.
We also have another guy (who used to be a volunteer) attempting to get hired back as a part time only employee. This individual barely made any calls, drills, or events. It is obviously the Chief's choice, but I can't imagine he will be given a position.
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