Whatever!

So, Firehouse Talk recently has been about our new payroll system. It seems the city felt it needed to update (and legalize) how they do our payroll. It has caused quite a stir at the firehouse. Being on a 24 on and 48 off schedule is great, but as city employees we are viewed different from other city employees when it comes to hours worked. It takes us 212 hours worked before it is counted as overtime, to reduce our hours worked and not have to pay for OT the city gives us "Reduction Days", or days off without pay. We are required to take these days off. I know, its rough to take ANOTHER day off but we have to. So rather than working 10 days a month, I have to work 9 days in various months (man that stinks!!) Rather than celebrate a day off, we complain because we cannot move this Reduction Day to any day that we want. We also are now paid by the minute. Yes, the minute. We also are no longer paid to be on call, but we do get $.75 an hour increase for every hour worked to be on the recall list. We don't celebrate the pay raise we would rather complain about not being able to trade our recall days. We have hired more help in the last year so we now have 10 guys at my station as apposed to the 6 when I first started. We aren't thankful for the extra help, but we do complain about who is not doing as much work as I am. Thankfully I am employed, I work with great people, they pay me to sleep (most the time) I get to stick people with needles, put tubes down their throats, give drugs (legally), rappel off buildings, spray lots of water inside peoples homes, drive millions of dollars worth of vehicles really fast, cut cars apart and they even give me a day off occasionally. What is there to complain about? In 19 years they have never missed giving me a paycheck. I will never be rich, I may never have all the toys that I want, I may not be able to completely pay for my kids college, I will never drive new vehicles, I may not be able to take that big cruise that I want, but I enjoy going to work, it has always met our needs, I have made lifelong friends and hopefully, someday, simply by God's design someone will see Jesus in me. Man! I hope I don't miss that chance! I am so thankful and truly blessed.