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Permalink Reply by FETC on February 17, 2011 at 11:19am

Dependant upon the volume of turnover in a department, "transient firefighters" can be frustrating when people invest time and money into educating new personnel. This usually happens when people take all the classes they can, paid for by the department, build a resume and then leave to take a paid position in a different department.

Investment vs. Return

Thats just one example...

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Permalink Reply by FETC on February 17, 2011 at 11:41am

Ralph, happens alot around here in the VFD world. Get on a department, sign up and get all your school paid for, and then bail to the city.

Happens in the paid world too. I have seen guys get all of their paramedic program paid for, their books, travel and OT for the class/clinicals, to leave a year later for another department that pays alot more for a FF/PM

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on February 17, 2011 at 12:27pm

Dependant upon the volume of turnover in a department, "transient firefighters" can be frustrating when people invest time and money into educating new personnel. This usually happens when people take all the classes they can, paid for by the department, build a resume and then leave to take a paid position in a different department.

Investment vs. Return

I agree.
I was offered a job with Noblesville, IN which is about 20 minutes north of Indianapolis. They must have had a high turnover rate of personnel there because with the job offer letter it was stated that if leaving the dept, you must reimbusre the dept xx amount of dollars on a decreasing scale, depending on when leaving. I don't see such idea as a bad thing at all, after all there are probably many other people looking for that spot that would have taken, and stayed, it if given the chance.

As for volly depts, yeah it happens, but a volly dept can also look at embracing such people looking to move on. I know of several volly depts offering intern programs or embracing those looking to go career. You get people that want to do the work, want to train, want to learn and as such can bring back latest info to the regular volunteers as well. Of course this won't work everywhere, but in the end people will just have their opinions about people leaving.

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Permalink Reply by shirley mester on February 17, 2011 at 2:35pm

Ok i undersdtand where both of you are coming from and thank you but please let me say this i am on a volly dept and i really dont want to leave them but we have moved to a bigger house so we could go as a family i was living with my father so it was time to move out i was willing to stay with my dept part time but they wont let that happen cause i dont live in there area and i understand that as for trainings the only one the dept has paid for was my fire 1 2 class i am paying out of pocket for emt i just feel like i have givin alot of time to the and just would li8ke the respect from them to be able to move on with out burning bridges pur say

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