Unfortunately this is a common theme across the country. Many firefighters yearn for overtime and initially are thrilled to work as much as they can get. But, when the staffing levels of an agency are diminished for a plethora of potential reasons, those working tremendous amounts of continuous overtime quickly become worn down and in some cases sick themselves. Even worse, when an agency must resort to mandatory overtime to maintain adequate, and often, contractual staffing levels, which in turn results in resentment from those employees who do not wish to work overtime, or work excessive overtime, or work overtime when it is inconvenient to them for reasons such as conflicting with second jobs, or family issues such as child care.
