I hate the coming early culture in Firefighting

[u/thatdudewayoverthere]

So because everyone said something about this o taught I might as well.

I hate the fact that it's standard that every shows up early.

To give you an example: At my Department we officially get paid from 6:45 to 7 so 24:15h but it's standard in my department that everyone shows up at around 6-6:15.

So we basically artificially moved our shift time one hour early 6-6 instead of 7-7. In the end everyone still works 24 hours no matter what time you actually start.

Big edit because people don't seem to get my point:

We all Still work 24 hours nobody is actually getting relieved earlier since everyone obviously expects to be relieved by 0615

But if you happen to catch a late call before you get relieved you don't get paid for that call.

For Example:

If I work from 6-6 I worked 24 hours if I get a late call at 5:45 and now worked till 7 I now worked 25 hours

But because my official shift time is 7-7 I only get paid 24 hours even though I worked 25

This problem wouldn't exist if not for the everyone coming in early

This is not supposed to be a discussion about when is a good time for shift change to beat traffic or have more from the day but instead of coming in early and working for free we should just put pressure on our departments to change the shift times to what we actually want

Please share your opinions on this but I personally think it's just annoying and it would be easier if every just shows up when they are paid to do so (plus of course 10-15 minutes to actually get ready)

[u/donnie_rulez]

It's a big deal for guys that live outside the city. At my last assignment it would take me an extra 45 minutes to get home if I got relieved at 0800 instead of 0700.

It's also a big deal for guys who have kids. It's nice to get home and take my kids to school or see my wife.

That said, there are departments that have this "show up early" thing ingrained in their culture for no good reason. We don't really have that culture, it's just sort of a gentleman's agreement between non-shitbags.

[u/FeelingBlue69 → u/donnie_rulez]

It's a big deal for guys that live outside the city. At my last assignment it would take me an extra 45 minutes to get home if I got relieved at 0800 instead of 0700.

I mean same for me but I chose to live where I live, that's my problem.

It's also a big deal for guys who have kids. It's nice to get home and take my kids to school or see my wife.

and that's my responsibility why? I would love to sleep in my own bed and eat dinner with my wife every night too but we picked the wrong job bro.

[u/donnie_rulez → u/FeelingBlue69]

So you'd prefer to spend an hour and a half longer sitting in traffic per shift?

and that's my responsibility why? I would love to sleep in my own bed and eat dinner with my wife every night too but we picked the wrong job bro.

It's not your responsibility and the rest of that paragraph has nothing to do with anything I said.

[u/meamsofproduction → u/donnie_rulez]

100% this. we normally do 6:30 and it takes me 35 minutes to get home. my guy today didn’t get there til 7:45 (shift officially starts at 8), and it took me an hour and 15 to get home.

[u/4friedChckensandCoke → u/meamsofproduction]

Why not just move the start time to 0630?

[u/meamsofproduction → u/4friedChckensandCoke]

because some firehouses in the city actively don’t like 0630 and refuse to do it. it sounds dumb (because it is), but the city uses a blanket start time of 0800 and allows people to come in basically whenever they want until 7:59. we have a guy at my house who comes in at 5:40 just because he lives far away and traffic is very unpredictable, so he’s like i’m here for 24 hours anyway, 25 or 26 don’t make much of a difference if i know for sure that i will be on time no matter what