My neighbor is a fireman (San Diego). During fire season, he gets sent to major fire zones in other parts of the state for several days or even weeks at a time. I believe he gets paid overtime for the entire time he is on these fires.
Edit to add: He makes really, really good money in fire season, but he'd prefer to be home with his family.
"but he'd prefer to be home with his family...” Spare us the bullshit. He is addicted to the cash. Anyone who would “prefer” to be with their family WILL be with their family. Especially in regards to optional overtime. He could quit and find a job that allows him to be with family like most of America. But yet he chooses not to. Telling.
Agreed. $500-$700k a year. What a chump to go to medical school and work for a teaching hospital. Surgeons making less than fire chief? That is outrageous income. The benefits packages?! More than most workers in the rest of the country.
Wow. That sounded really judgmental. You make a valid point, but have some empathy.... The choice to walk away from a job gets harder as you age. When you are close to retirement, the idea of walking away from a huge retirement package to start over in a brand new career from the bottom can seem daunting.
Likewise, in CA government, the retirement monthly payment is based on how much you made in your last year or two on the job. He, and all the other people close to retirement, have to make a choice: quit the job and get no retirement or work massive overtime and get an extra fat retirement.
Opinions are always “judgmental’. He can quit or shut up and work. I blame the government in regards to allowing employees to “work’ that much overtime. I have 40 years managing employees. Trust me when I say overtime hours are NOT productive. For the business or the employee. They could hire seveal additional employees, work them no OT and have money to spare. This is a government problem.
It's bigger than that. To save money, the cities/counties have skeleton crews, so when there is a fire, its mandatory work for everyone. It not only costs more to work people overtime than just having more people to start with, and it also leaves just a few people at their home stations to deal with emergencies at home. And in fire season, a lot of areas will go up while the majority of the crew is away at another fire. I think they rely on emergency funds to pay for it.
To make up the shortfall of people, CA also uses prisoners as slave labor at like $1 an hour to help fight fires. To be fair, the prisoners are volunteers, but they risk their lives for no real reward. So "real firemen" get $100k in overtime to fight the big fires, felons get enough to buy lunch at Olive Garden. Felons can't be "real" firemen when they get out of prison, so its not like on the job training.
And then lets talk about how CA is a hot mess when dealing with the fire damage... FEMA gave Newsom a bunch of trailers for the fire victims to put on their property to live in during rebuilding. Newsom instead gave them to the chronically homeless, who can't use them because you have to have a permanent place to park them. That left the fire victims homeless while the trailers sat unused.
Newsom signed a bill making it so that the energy companies that caused some of the fires don't have to pay for the damage, and the insurance won't cover it because the energy companies are responsible.
Many counties have changed building codes so the homes can't rebuilt. Rebuilding has been a nightmare for the for victims.
My neighbor isnt a fireman or in California, but my lineman friends get paid overtime like that when they go "storm chasing." So that would make total sense.
Overtime for his regular days off. No OT for a regular duty day. But it is called Portal to Portal. Depending on assignment and FD, it could be Pillow to Pillow.
Not to mention the "trauma days" firefighters get with pay after responding to a fire. It could be as simple as a shed fire but they still get days off with pay to recuperate. Same thing with bad auto accidents they respond to. Learned this from 2 firefighters. One a Dallas firefighter the other an Amarillo firefighter. These government agencies have been part of the grift (just as the politicians are) for many years at the taxpayers expense. Many are just silent about it because they want the money train to keep rolling in.
Well, since this was a CA article.... I know of ZERO departments in CA that have "trauma days". I have had multiple multiple alarm fires in a shift and didnt get a paid day off from it. After 2 week assignments, one may possibly get an R&R day on return. But rarely does that happen now-a-days. TX sounds cool.
If that's the case,they have a really good deal,but it looks like the supervisers are getting all the overtime, they can pad their time much easier than the regular firemen.
You could be right about fraud. I am not disputing your point, just adding some info to consider: in CA government, the retirement monthly payment is based on how much you made in your last year or two on the job. All the other people close to retirement are incentivized to work massive overtime to get an extra fat retirement package
My neighbor is a fireman (San Diego). During fire season, he gets sent to major fire zones in other parts of the state for several days or even weeks at a time. I believe he gets paid overtime for the entire time he is on these fires.
Edit to add: He makes really, really good money in fire season, but he'd prefer to be home with his family.
"but he'd prefer to be home with his family...” Spare us the bullshit. He is addicted to the cash. Anyone who would “prefer” to be with their family WILL be with their family. Especially in regards to optional overtime. He could quit and find a job that allows him to be with family like most of America. But yet he chooses not to. Telling.
Agreed. $500-$700k a year. What a chump to go to medical school and work for a teaching hospital. Surgeons making less than fire chief? That is outrageous income. The benefits packages?! More than most workers in the rest of the country.
Wow. That sounded really judgmental. You make a valid point, but have some empathy.... The choice to walk away from a job gets harder as you age. When you are close to retirement, the idea of walking away from a huge retirement package to start over in a brand new career from the bottom can seem daunting.
Likewise, in CA government, the retirement monthly payment is based on how much you made in your last year or two on the job. He, and all the other people close to retirement, have to make a choice: quit the job and get no retirement or work massive overtime and get an extra fat retirement.
Opinions are always “judgmental’. He can quit or shut up and work. I blame the government in regards to allowing employees to “work’ that much overtime. I have 40 years managing employees. Trust me when I say overtime hours are NOT productive. For the business or the employee. They could hire seveal additional employees, work them no OT and have money to spare. This is a government problem.
It's bigger than that. To save money, the cities/counties have skeleton crews, so when there is a fire, its mandatory work for everyone. It not only costs more to work people overtime than just having more people to start with, and it also leaves just a few people at their home stations to deal with emergencies at home. And in fire season, a lot of areas will go up while the majority of the crew is away at another fire. I think they rely on emergency funds to pay for it.
To make up the shortfall of people, CA also uses prisoners as slave labor at like $1 an hour to help fight fires. To be fair, the prisoners are volunteers, but they risk their lives for no real reward. So "real firemen" get $100k in overtime to fight the big fires, felons get enough to buy lunch at Olive Garden. Felons can't be "real" firemen when they get out of prison, so its not like on the job training.
And then lets talk about how CA is a hot mess when dealing with the fire damage... FEMA gave Newsom a bunch of trailers for the fire victims to put on their property to live in during rebuilding. Newsom instead gave them to the chronically homeless, who can't use them because you have to have a permanent place to park them. That left the fire victims homeless while the trailers sat unused.
Newsom signed a bill making it so that the energy companies that caused some of the fires don't have to pay for the damage, and the insurance won't cover it because the energy companies are responsible.
Many counties have changed building codes so the homes can't rebuilt. Rebuilding has been a nightmare for the for victims.
My neighbor isnt a fireman or in California, but my lineman friends get paid overtime like that when they go "storm chasing." So that would make total sense.
Overtime for his regular days off. No OT for a regular duty day. But it is called Portal to Portal. Depending on assignment and FD, it could be Pillow to Pillow.
Not to mention the "trauma days" firefighters get with pay after responding to a fire. It could be as simple as a shed fire but they still get days off with pay to recuperate. Same thing with bad auto accidents they respond to. Learned this from 2 firefighters. One a Dallas firefighter the other an Amarillo firefighter. These government agencies have been part of the grift (just as the politicians are) for many years at the taxpayers expense. Many are just silent about it because they want the money train to keep rolling in.
Well, since this was a CA article.... I know of ZERO departments in CA that have "trauma days". I have had multiple multiple alarm fires in a shift and didnt get a paid day off from it. After 2 week assignments, one may possibly get an R&R day on return. But rarely does that happen now-a-days. TX sounds cool.
If that's the case,they have a really good deal,but it looks like the supervisers are getting all the overtime, they can pad their time much easier than the regular firemen.
As in any job, supervisors know how to "cook the books."
You could be right about fraud. I am not disputing your point, just adding some info to consider: in CA government, the retirement monthly payment is based on how much you made in your last year or two on the job. All the other people close to retirement are incentivized to work massive overtime to get an extra fat retirement package