Editor’s note: Chief Adam K. Thiel explores some of the more compelling questions facing communities that rely on volunteers to leave a paying job for incident response.
It’s been a long time since I was a volunteer firefighter, so I probably don’t have a good sense of private-sector employers’ current tolerance for volunteerism in general, and volunteer fire-EMS providers specifically. Given the state of the economy, I’m guessing it is relatively low overall, but likely varies widely depending on community expectations, resources, and other factors.
I am positive, however, that when I did volunteer, it was highly unlikely any of my bosses would have understood if I suddenly left the job site without telling anyone, or at least making the effort to do so. I vividly remember the angst I felt, on several occasions, when I was stuck at work while my volunteer colleagues were on “the big one.”
Now we don’t know for sure if that’s what happened in this case, and if I had to guess, I’d say we don’t have all the facts to render an informed opinion on this particular matter.
Still, the story raises a few interesting questions for fire-EMS agencies that rely, in whole or part, on volunteers responding from their other workplaces to provide first-due incident response.
Do the residents, visitors, elected officials and businesses in your community truly understand your department’s reliance on volunteers; or are their expectations calibrated to a different response model?
Have senior department, or elected, officials spoken to your local chamber of commerce and business or professional associations about how their employees fit, or might fit, into protecting the overall community?
Does your department have rules and regulations governing when, how, and why volunteers should consider responding from their other workplaces? Do volunteers’ employers know about these policies and any potential implications to their business operations?
Just some things to think about ...
Stay safe!
