June 12, 2019 • 23 mins
How many jobs are there where you need to know and trust the person next to you, because there might be a time where your fate is in their hands and vice-versa? Meet Anna Nadler - a 27 year old civil engineer, and firefighter, from Massachusetts. Small in stature and sweet as can be, Anna got addicted to smoke-eating a few years back and is now one of the best firefighters on the force. By day Anna runs construction and engineering crews building bridges and roads. At night she is on call as a firefighter. Anna is a shining example of a young woman getting involved in a job that gives back to her community. She is also an example of a woman excelling in what is a traditionally macho work environment. She has many stories of life-threatening situations on the job, showing heroism in the face of them that only made her want to do it more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
On the Job is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Express Employment Professionals as a leading staffing provider that employs
nearly six hundred thousand people annually across more than eight
hundred franchise locations in the US, Canada, and South Africa.
Our long term goal is at the heart of our
(00:22):
company's mission to help as many people as possible find
good jobs. By helping as many clients as possible find
good people. It takes more than just online searches to
land a job. It takes real people who will identify
your talents, a person invested in your success. Express Employment
Professionals understands what it takes to land a new position
(00:45):
at a top employer or start a new career in
today's job market. Express Nose Jobs, get to No Express,
Go to Express pros dot com. Welcome to on the Job.
This season, we're bringing you stories about people finding their
(01:08):
professional stride by virtue of who they know, whether it's
breathing new life into an age old profession, taking the
reins and a family business, forging your own path with
a new idea, or landing the perfect job doing something
you'd never before even considered. Today for on the Job
producer Otis Gray travels to Southampton, Massachusetts to interview Anna Nadler.
(01:30):
Anna is a rambunctious young woman working not one, but
two jobs that by looking at her, you might not
see her doing. She's five ft two, she's bubbly, and
on most days is vastly outnumbered by mail co workers.
While her job choices might seem at first glance non traditional,
she's in no way out of place in either. Here's
(01:51):
Otis Anna nadler Is. She's a civil engineer living in Southampton,
mass And right now it's the middle of the night.
She's gonna have to wake up at six am. She
and her crew have a big job replacing a bridge
a couple of towns over. Somewhere around two thirty am,
she hears this come out of a radio that she
has charging on her kitchen table. That's the fire department
(02:27):
and the code is for a structure fire, a big one.
So and leaps out of bed and she responds. Seconds later,
she is dressed and running to the car. Just got
toned out for a structure fire. Mutual A two East
Hampton running out of the door. Now, right now it's February.
(02:47):
There's snow on the ground, there's lots of ice. It's
about fifteen degrees outside. It's gonna be a cold one.
We see in my car now is actually three am.
You get these calls in your heart is racing because
you're so amped up. Structure fires do not come around
every day, but for the last two years, Anna has
been an on call firefighter here in Southampton. She's not
(03:09):
your typical firefighter or a typical person you'd see on
a roadside construction crew. She's short, she's about five to
She actually describes herself as fun sized. Regardless, she says
she's usually the first at the station when there's a call.
The other guys they need to get up, go to
the bathroom. It sounds terrible to say, and I'm super
(03:29):
excited because I love fighting fires, like it's just I'm
so passionate about it. But it's terrible at the same time,
because this means someone's property is on fire. Garage, barn,
you don't know, but that's on fire. So well, we're
(03:51):
about to see what it actually is. But all right,
I am here to turn empty. So today we follow
Anna Nadler as she juggles her life as an engineer
her love for running into burning buildings and being an
unexpected person to do both. An update for you now
(04:20):
in a house fire in East Hampton that we told
you about on twentyes T News this morning, according to
East Hampton Fire Chief David Botter, everyone made it out safely.
Three firefighters, though had minor injuries, and one had to
be taken to the hospital with neck and shoulder injuries
after part of the home ceiling collapsed on top of him.
What you're hearing now is from a local news report
on the fire that Anna just responded to, and before
(04:40):
you get worried, she did not get hurt. Everyone was okay.
One of the other firefighters she knew at the scene
was transported to the hospital but was totally okay. Shortly after.
It was an old home that caught fire quick. Anna
was inside fighting the fire and then on the roof,
ripping off siding so that the fire didn't spread. I
asked her when she was a kid if she ever
imagined her future self on top of a smoldering building
(05:02):
at three in the morning. Oh God, no, I I
don't know how I got here. I do, and I don't.
When I was a little girl. There are two things
I wanted to do in my life. I wanted to
paint houses with polka dots. I painted houses in the
summers and I loved it, Like I think paintings really relaxing.
I never got to do the polka dots, but you know,
I got past that. But definitely not what I want
to do forty hours a week. And I wanted to
(05:24):
be a firefighter. She says it started when she was
really young. She had a deep infatuation with fire trucks.
I remember, whenever you can ask my mother about this
or my siblings, whenever I heard sirens, I sprinted to
the window to watch it, and like prayed that they
would go by on our street. I loved fire trucks.
And I didn't really necessarily see me putting on gear
(05:45):
and go into a call, but just something I was
always really curious about as far as gear goes. Anna
is proud to say that she has the smallest boots
ever worn at the station. Anna is always smiling. She's
got pale blue eyes, dark hair, and she's always been
little and growing up that was a big part of
her identity, especially at the Catholic school she went to
in southern Vermont. I remember being picked on because I
(06:06):
was little a lot, like girls were pissed that I
could fit into like smaller size clothes, and I'm like, listen,
I fit in kids size, Like I'm not even in
the teen section yet, so you really shouldn't be picking
on me. She also very plainly describes her younger self
as a nerd. Well, I had glasses and then I braces,
and I definitely had some ugly banks for a while,
so definitely a nerd. I was very very quiet, so
(06:29):
I just was kind of hiding in the corner, didn't
know what to do. I was a hot ticket and
now I wear a hard hat, just like she couldn't
really imagine being an actual firefighter when she was young.
She really never saw herself in a hard hat with
command over construction sites, repairing roads and demolishing bridges. And
(06:51):
I honestly kind of accidentally made my way into engineering
because Mr Hodgkins from high school shout out to him.
He convinced me to take AP physics and I'm like, yeah,
I know a little bit about physics, but like I
don't know. I took it, and I like, we'll wave
my nerd flag. Hardcore right now. I'm I was fascinated
that I could throw a ball in the air and
figure out like when it was going to come down
(07:11):
and where like. That was so cool to me. When
she got to college at the University of Vermont, an
advisor saw her love for physics and convinced her to
go into engineering. She was really drawn to civil engineering,
especially the transportation aspect, so she did a rotating fellowship
down here in Southampton to try all the different jobs
at the field, and tails, you know it was. I
(07:33):
was stuck behind a desk a lot of it. And
then finally construction came along and I was on Interstate
ninety one and I was like, just in love. It
was amazing. I loved going into work, I love seeing
the job. I loved watching it progressed. So when that
rotation finished, she chose to go into the construction side
of engineering full time, and she moved here to Southampton.
(07:57):
The day I was with her, she brought me over
to her current project. She's wearing a hard hat, a
white one, which is generally the color that engineers wear.
She's got a neon vest on, and we're walking on
an aging bridge that they're preparing to demolish so that
they can put in a new one. Everything out with
the old, in with the new. It was the first
time that I really thought about everything that goes into
(08:19):
a job like that. Diverting traffic alone for months on
end seems like a daunting test, and it's just one
of many utility relocation. We gotta do the gas main
move that, We're gonna start demoing the bridge itself. Then
we'll rebuild that portion of the bridge. Flip flop, demo
the other half, rebuild that half, so then the bridge
itself will be complete. Going from there were a lot
(08:41):
of trees that needed to be cleared. They're gonna have
to redo all the roads around the bridges completely to
reach quality standards. They have to put totally new traffic
signals in both intersections. The list goes on and on
a little bit of everything on this job. Mhm. I
think a lot of people get frustrated seeing those big
orange signs say construction zone ahead. It means delays and
(09:02):
where you need to go, or you just go by
not thinking much at all about what they're doing there.
Anna is fine with that. She's actually got a pretty
romantic view on what she does it's infectious. I kind
of say a construction job is kind of like a baby.
Not that I have kids, but I could. I would imagine,
And it's like you just see it, and you see
it from the beginning, before it's even a thing. You
see it. It's just paper, and you want to grow
(09:24):
up to be a big, beautiful job. So you know,
then when it's done, you're like, you drive by it.
No one else thinks about it. You know, if it
saves five minutes off their trip a day, like, that's awesome,
and you can look at and be like, yeah, it
was a part of that. That's my baby, that's my baby.
What we're talking. Anna is the only woman on the
job site. I guess the guys there are your stereotypical
(09:47):
construction workers men, probably between twenty and fifty years old.
Everyone she talks to here clearly has a deep respect
for her, but who she is is something that she
has to deal with as she meets new people all
the time for this job. People that don't know me
often think that I'm here as an intern, or people
(10:08):
will ask if I'm at work with my father. Um,
I get that a lot, just because I guess I
look young. But to me, it's just going to work
like everyone else does. I go to work and I
do my job. What does it matter what I look
like her? If I'm a girl or a boy, you
get someone um like Annon here, it kind of changes
that stereotypical idea you have of an engineer. This is
(10:33):
Anna's boss, Jim Hoy, I'm the assistant construction engineer for
District two. Jim says, if people underestimate her, it really
doesn't last long. She's one of the more knowledgeable people
he's worked with, and she's contagiously happy in the workplace. Yeah,
she She definitely livens up your day. Stealing it from
the old Orange Juice commercial. You know, at a day
(10:54):
without Anna is like a day without sunshine, you know.
He says he was originally worried that she would be
two nice and would have trouble holding contractors to their agreements,
which is a big part of the job. But he
found out pretty quick and she has no problem laying
down the law. Definitely, she does it in a way
that you don't even know she's getting what she wants.
(11:19):
We're walking back to the car and someone Anna knows
is yelling to her from the other side of the
job site. It's a local police sergeant who looks over
the construction cruise around here. He and Anna worked together
a lot. I asked him to tell me what he
thought of Anna. Tough as a cab, smart, and she'll
call you out when you're not doing your job. That's
who Anna is. She ever call you out? No, because
(11:39):
I'm always doing my job. I couldn't have enough good
things to say about her. And then he said that
she just made him a nice cap. Mean, she made
you a nice cap. She may be a nice thin
blue line of police cap like she knit it. She
knit it. Yeah, she knits still, She's an engineer, she knits,
she's a firefighter. She does it all. What else? What
(12:00):
else can you ask for a woman? One day in
two thousand seventeen, Anna was parking her car for work
at the fire department, which was close by to the
job site she was working. The fire captain was there
and they started talking and he offered her a tour
of the station. He said that they were always looking
(12:21):
for volunteers, people to train to respond to local fires
whenever they could. I filled that application out broad The
next day. I remember calling my sister freaking help being like,
oh my god, Meg, and you'll never guess that just happened,
like screaming, I was so excited, and she's like, that's
like the least surprising thing you could have done. We'll
(12:47):
get back to the story in a second. First, a
word from Express Employment Professionals. A strong work ethic, takes
pride in a job well done, sweats over the details.
This is you. But to get an honest day's work,
you need a response, you need a call back, you
(13:10):
need a job. Express Employment Professionals can help because we
understand what it takes to get a job. It takes
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(13:32):
and will connect you to the right company. Plus, we'll
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we can put you to work with companies of all
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(13:57):
And now back to our story m h two years
after joining the fire department and a regularly response to
calls boots, turn out pants, put on just spenders, bell girl,
(14:18):
clip jacket, zip flap at the top, helmet, run to
the truck and go oh. In case it's not clear here,
(14:39):
that's Anna driving the fire truck. It's one of her
favorite parts of the job. The people she grew up
with are pretty surprised when they hear that she can
drive one. Even her mom can't get used to it.
When Anna's visiting back home. Yeah, I was bringing my
mom to a doctor's him and I was backing into
a parking spot a parking garage, and my mom is
being a typical mother and she's like watch yourself, Like
are you sure you have an of space? I'm like, Mom,
(15:01):
I drive a freaking fire truck. I think I can
back into a parking space with your little sedan. Yes,
she's a badass. She's a badass, no doubt about it.
Let's in his Captain Patrick Eli. He's the guy who
first gave Anna the application in the parking lot and
has trained and since the start, and she has been
just awesome part of this fire department. She's very much
(15:23):
involved with all aspects. She has proven herself on multiple
different occasions to be dependable. You know, if somebody was down,
she'd do everything she could to get you out and
she wouldn't leave you. So she's very dependable, and I
find her extremely tough with a with a gentle undertone.
That's just the way I see her. So Pat is
(15:45):
not the only one. Just like in her construction work,
whoever knows Anna and Caesar and Action has a deep
respect for her no matter who she is or what
she looks like. You know, the thing is is when
you put a mask on your face and you put
your helmet on, you're you're just like the next guy,
and no one's gonna deaf and differentiate between that. As
long as you're doing the job, there is no differentiation.
I mean, you can't tell who's who's most of the
(16:07):
time when you're fully geared up with your air pack
on and and gloves and helmet. I mean, unless you're
especially in a smoky environment and you're just hoping that
person behind he knows her job. I definitely stand out
because they're like, wow, that's a really little guy. Like
there was one fire where they took a picture of
a group of us, and I'm like, oh my god,
like like a child. You know, there's that, But then
(16:27):
I could find really small spaces, so like, there's pros
to it. In the last two years, Anna's responded to
somewhere between a hundred fifty and two hundred calls, and
when she talks about all this, she gets this really intense,
slightly maniacal look in her eyes. I want to do it.
I need to do it. I asked her if she
remembers the first time she responded to a fire call.
(16:50):
Oh my god, I was so excited. That sounds terrible
to say. I mean, I was just like, the adrenaline
is unbelievable. Most of the fires, the bigger structure of fires.
I've had our middle of the night, so you're passed
out and you just hear the tone. You wake up
and you hear structure fire. You here. You hear that,
(17:14):
and you go from like sleepy too awake. In your
heart is racing. So you're just trying to get everything together,
get out the door, get there to get your engine
and go. That first fire, it was a big one
in a smaller town. It was a house on top
of a hill. I remember looking up on the hill
and you just saw the light from the fire, so
(17:37):
you just saw it burning. You saw some of the smoke,
but it was just this glow really, so it was like,
oh my god, and just kind of like almost speechless, awestruck.
You watch it grow and you see it and it's
almost pretty in a way, and then you're like, it's
not though, because it's destroying someone's property. But you just
you can see how you can lose something so quickly.
(18:03):
You don't want those calls, but also like that's what
you do. It's like an adrenaline rush to get them
because you know it's gonna be chaos, it's gonna be
a really intense situation. But it's also heartbreaking because you
see somebody that's losing everything. That house was total aws,
(18:29):
it burned to the ground. Pretty much, when someone calls
nine when one they're having the worst day of their lives.
Nobody calls nine when one because they're having a good day.
Fire Captain Patrick Eli again, who's in charge of training
recruits like Anna for moments like that, And one thing
I tell new people it's not your emergency, it's their emergency.
You're the person responsible for making a difference for that
(18:52):
person's day. That's why we do training on such a
regular basis, so that we're all on the same page
about things. Um. But the reason is that you're extremely
proficient because you only have seconds to make a difference.
A lot of work environments are collaborative, but as far
as civilian jobs go, this is one where you depend
on the person next to you for survival. Absolutely, you
(19:15):
have to trust these people. It's life and death. So
they are your family and you were really lucky to
have each other. They welcome you in and they include
you with everything. And again, I think you just see
things that most people don't see, so you have that
unique bond built in that you don't share with everybody.
(19:38):
Regardless of volunteering to run into a burning building, being
a firefighter has nothing to do with having a death wish.
No firefighter will tell you that it does, but you're
close to death. It's a job where you have to
look at right in the face in order to be
good at what you do. Anna knows that, and despite
her job, she says she really doesn't think about it
that much. The thing is, you have a choice. You're
(19:59):
gonna go. When you go I think there's some sort
of plan or whatever. So I mean, if I have
to go and it's doing what I love, like, what
more can I ask for? Do you think you'll ever
stop fighting fires? God? I hope not. I imagine you
(20:19):
as a like a little old granny in in full
gear running into a fire. That would be so awesome.
I think as far as jobs go, there's a lot
of stereotypes about who works different jobs or who's allowed to.
We have sub conscious images in our heads of what
a plumber looks like, what a secretary looks like, what
(20:42):
a politician looks like. Anna Adler is just one of
the many people who can remind us that those stereotypes
are nonsense. The only thing they do is prevent people
from picturing themselves in the jobs that they truly want
to do and should be doing. There are a lot
of people along the way that tell you can't do
things just go right through. You gotta you gotta keep going.
(21:05):
Whether she's wearing a hard hat at a bridge demolition
or behind the wheel of a fire truck, Anna Nadler
might not be who you expect to see doing that job,
but she is exactly the person that you want doing them.
Not everybody wants to run into a burning building. So
if I have that desire to do that and help
out people, if I can, how could I not act
(21:25):
upon that? You know, not many people want to because
you sound like your nuts if you do. So, If
I have that urge and that drive to do that,
how could I not do that? Do you see? It's
kind of a responsibility. Yeah, I feel obligated to. Again,
I'm willing to do it, So how could I not?
I mean, do you want to run into a burning building?
(21:46):
I'm curious? But if I was in front of it,
I don't know. Only one way to find out. For
On the Job from a comfy chair in a room
(22:06):
that's not on fire. I'm Otis Gray. Thanks for listening
(22:35):
to On the Job, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Find out more at Express pros dot com. This season
of On the Job is produced by Audiation and dread
Seat Ventures. Our executive producer is Sandy Smallens. Our producer
is Otis Gray. The show is mixed by Matt Noble
at The Loft in Bronxville, New York. Find us on
(22:56):
I Heart Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what
you're heard. Please consider rating or reviewing the show on
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time.
For more inspiring stories about discovering your life's work, Audiation
(23:31):
m
On the Job is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Express Employment Professionals as a leading staffing provider that employs
nearly six hundred thousand people annually across more than eight
hundred franchise locations in the US, Canada, and South Africa.
Our long term goal is at the heart of our
(00:22):
company's mission to help as many people as possible find
good jobs. By helping as many clients as possible find
good people. It takes more than just online searches to
land a job. It takes real people who will identify
your talents, a person invested in your success. Express Employment
Professionals understands what it takes to land a new position
(00:45):
at a top employer or start a new career in
today's job market. Express Nose Jobs, get to No Express,
Go to Express pros dot com. Welcome to on the Job.
This season, we're bringing you stories about people finding their
(01:08):
professional stride by virtue of who they know, whether it's
breathing new life into an age old profession, taking the
reins and a family business, forging your own path with
a new idea, or landing the perfect job doing something
you'd never before even considered. Today for on the Job
producer Otis Gray travels to Southampton, Massachusetts to interview Anna Nadler.
(01:30):
Anna is a rambunctious young woman working not one, but
two jobs that by looking at her, you might not
see her doing. She's five ft two, she's bubbly, and
on most days is vastly outnumbered by mail co workers.
While her job choices might seem at first glance non traditional,
she's in no way out of place in either. Here's
(01:51):
Otis Anna nadler Is. She's a civil engineer living in Southampton,
mass And right now it's the middle of the night.
She's gonna have to wake up at six am. She
and her crew have a big job replacing a bridge
a couple of towns over. Somewhere around two thirty am,
she hears this come out of a radio that she
has charging on her kitchen table. That's the fire department
(02:27):
and the code is for a structure fire, a big one.
So and leaps out of bed and she responds. Seconds later,
she is dressed and running to the car. Just got
toned out for a structure fire. Mutual A two East
Hampton running out of the door. Now, right now it's February.
(02:47):
There's snow on the ground, there's lots of ice. It's
about fifteen degrees outside. It's gonna be a cold one.
We see in my car now is actually three am.
You get these calls in your heart is racing because
you're so amped up. Structure fires do not come around
every day, but for the last two years, Anna has
been an on call firefighter here in Southampton. She's not
(03:09):
your typical firefighter or a typical person you'd see on
a roadside construction crew. She's short, she's about five to
She actually describes herself as fun sized. Regardless, she says
she's usually the first at the station when there's a call.
The other guys they need to get up, go to
the bathroom. It sounds terrible to say, and I'm super
(03:29):
excited because I love fighting fires, like it's just I'm
so passionate about it. But it's terrible at the same time,
because this means someone's property is on fire. Garage, barn,
you don't know, but that's on fire. So well, we're
(03:51):
about to see what it actually is. But all right,
I am here to turn empty. So today we follow
Anna Nadler as she juggles her life as an engineer
her love for running into burning buildings and being an
unexpected person to do both. An update for you now
(04:20):
in a house fire in East Hampton that we told
you about on twentyes T News this morning, according to
East Hampton Fire Chief David Botter, everyone made it out safely.
Three firefighters, though had minor injuries, and one had to
be taken to the hospital with neck and shoulder injuries
after part of the home ceiling collapsed on top of him.
What you're hearing now is from a local news report
on the fire that Anna just responded to, and before
(04:40):
you get worried, she did not get hurt. Everyone was okay.
One of the other firefighters she knew at the scene
was transported to the hospital but was totally okay. Shortly after.
It was an old home that caught fire quick. Anna
was inside fighting the fire and then on the roof,
ripping off siding so that the fire didn't spread. I
asked her when she was a kid if she ever
imagined her future self on top of a smoldering building
(05:02):
at three in the morning. Oh God, no, I I
don't know how I got here. I do, and I don't.
When I was a little girl. There are two things
I wanted to do in my life. I wanted to
paint houses with polka dots. I painted houses in the
summers and I loved it, Like I think paintings really relaxing.
I never got to do the polka dots, but you know,
I got past that. But definitely not what I want
to do forty hours a week. And I wanted to
(05:24):
be a firefighter. She says it started when she was
really young. She had a deep infatuation with fire trucks.
I remember, whenever you can ask my mother about this
or my siblings, whenever I heard sirens, I sprinted to
the window to watch it, and like prayed that they
would go by on our street. I loved fire trucks.
And I didn't really necessarily see me putting on gear
(05:45):
and go into a call, but just something I was
always really curious about as far as gear goes. Anna
is proud to say that she has the smallest boots
ever worn at the station. Anna is always smiling. She's
got pale blue eyes, dark hair, and she's always been
little and growing up that was a big part of
her identity, especially at the Catholic school she went to
in southern Vermont. I remember being picked on because I
(06:06):
was little a lot, like girls were pissed that I
could fit into like smaller size clothes, and I'm like, listen,
I fit in kids size, Like I'm not even in
the teen section yet, so you really shouldn't be picking
on me. She also very plainly describes her younger self
as a nerd. Well, I had glasses and then I braces,
and I definitely had some ugly banks for a while,
so definitely a nerd. I was very very quiet, so
(06:29):
I just was kind of hiding in the corner, didn't
know what to do. I was a hot ticket and
now I wear a hard hat, just like she couldn't
really imagine being an actual firefighter when she was young.
She really never saw herself in a hard hat with
command over construction sites, repairing roads and demolishing bridges. And
(06:51):
I honestly kind of accidentally made my way into engineering
because Mr Hodgkins from high school shout out to him.
He convinced me to take AP physics and I'm like, yeah,
I know a little bit about physics, but like I
don't know. I took it, and I like, we'll wave
my nerd flag. Hardcore right now. I'm I was fascinated
that I could throw a ball in the air and
figure out like when it was going to come down
(07:11):
and where like. That was so cool to me. When
she got to college at the University of Vermont, an
advisor saw her love for physics and convinced her to
go into engineering. She was really drawn to civil engineering,
especially the transportation aspect, so she did a rotating fellowship
down here in Southampton to try all the different jobs
at the field, and tails, you know it was. I
(07:33):
was stuck behind a desk a lot of it. And
then finally construction came along and I was on Interstate
ninety one and I was like, just in love. It
was amazing. I loved going into work, I love seeing
the job. I loved watching it progressed. So when that
rotation finished, she chose to go into the construction side
of engineering full time, and she moved here to Southampton.
(07:57):
The day I was with her, she brought me over
to her current project. She's wearing a hard hat, a
white one, which is generally the color that engineers wear.
She's got a neon vest on, and we're walking on
an aging bridge that they're preparing to demolish so that
they can put in a new one. Everything out with
the old, in with the new. It was the first
time that I really thought about everything that goes into
(08:19):
a job like that. Diverting traffic alone for months on
end seems like a daunting test, and it's just one
of many utility relocation. We gotta do the gas main
move that, We're gonna start demoing the bridge itself. Then
we'll rebuild that portion of the bridge. Flip flop, demo
the other half, rebuild that half, so then the bridge
itself will be complete. Going from there were a lot
(08:41):
of trees that needed to be cleared. They're gonna have
to redo all the roads around the bridges completely to
reach quality standards. They have to put totally new traffic
signals in both intersections. The list goes on and on
a little bit of everything on this job. Mhm. I
think a lot of people get frustrated seeing those big
orange signs say construction zone ahead. It means delays and
(09:02):
where you need to go, or you just go by
not thinking much at all about what they're doing there.
Anna is fine with that. She's actually got a pretty
romantic view on what she does it's infectious. I kind
of say a construction job is kind of like a baby.
Not that I have kids, but I could. I would imagine,
And it's like you just see it, and you see
it from the beginning, before it's even a thing. You
see it. It's just paper, and you want to grow
(09:24):
up to be a big, beautiful job. So you know,
then when it's done, you're like, you drive by it.
No one else thinks about it. You know, if it
saves five minutes off their trip a day, like, that's awesome,
and you can look at and be like, yeah, it
was a part of that. That's my baby, that's my baby.
What we're talking. Anna is the only woman on the
job site. I guess the guys there are your stereotypical
(09:47):
construction workers men, probably between twenty and fifty years old.
Everyone she talks to here clearly has a deep respect
for her, but who she is is something that she
has to deal with as she meets new people all
the time for this job. People that don't know me
often think that I'm here as an intern, or people
(10:08):
will ask if I'm at work with my father. Um,
I get that a lot, just because I guess I
look young. But to me, it's just going to work
like everyone else does. I go to work and I
do my job. What does it matter what I look
like her? If I'm a girl or a boy, you
get someone um like Annon here, it kind of changes
that stereotypical idea you have of an engineer. This is
(10:33):
Anna's boss, Jim Hoy, I'm the assistant construction engineer for
District two. Jim says, if people underestimate her, it really
doesn't last long. She's one of the more knowledgeable people
he's worked with, and she's contagiously happy in the workplace. Yeah,
she She definitely livens up your day. Stealing it from
the old Orange Juice commercial. You know, at a day
(10:54):
without Anna is like a day without sunshine, you know.
He says he was originally worried that she would be
two nice and would have trouble holding contractors to their agreements,
which is a big part of the job. But he
found out pretty quick and she has no problem laying
down the law. Definitely, she does it in a way
that you don't even know she's getting what she wants.
(11:19):
We're walking back to the car and someone Anna knows
is yelling to her from the other side of the
job site. It's a local police sergeant who looks over
the construction cruise around here. He and Anna worked together
a lot. I asked him to tell me what he
thought of Anna. Tough as a cab, smart, and she'll
call you out when you're not doing your job. That's
who Anna is. She ever call you out? No, because
(11:39):
I'm always doing my job. I couldn't have enough good
things to say about her. And then he said that
she just made him a nice cap. Mean, she made
you a nice cap. She may be a nice thin
blue line of police cap like she knit it. She
knit it. Yeah, she knits still, She's an engineer, she knits,
she's a firefighter. She does it all. What else? What
(12:00):
else can you ask for a woman? One day in
two thousand seventeen, Anna was parking her car for work
at the fire department, which was close by to the
job site she was working. The fire captain was there
and they started talking and he offered her a tour
of the station. He said that they were always looking
(12:21):
for volunteers, people to train to respond to local fires
whenever they could. I filled that application out broad The
next day. I remember calling my sister freaking help being like,
oh my god, Meg, and you'll never guess that just happened,
like screaming, I was so excited, and she's like, that's
like the least surprising thing you could have done. We'll
(12:47):
get back to the story in a second. First, a
word from Express Employment Professionals. A strong work ethic, takes
pride in a job well done, sweats over the details.
This is you. But to get an honest day's work,
you need a response, you need a call back, you
(13:10):
need a job. Express Employment Professionals can help because we
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(13:32):
and will connect you to the right company. Plus, we'll
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we can put you to work with companies of all
sizes and industries, from the production floor to the front office.
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(13:57):
And now back to our story m h two years
after joining the fire department and a regularly response to
calls boots, turn out pants, put on just spenders, bell girl,
(14:18):
clip jacket, zip flap at the top, helmet, run to
the truck and go oh. In case it's not clear here,
(14:39):
that's Anna driving the fire truck. It's one of her
favorite parts of the job. The people she grew up
with are pretty surprised when they hear that she can
drive one. Even her mom can't get used to it.
When Anna's visiting back home. Yeah, I was bringing my
mom to a doctor's him and I was backing into
a parking spot a parking garage, and my mom is
being a typical mother and she's like watch yourself, Like
are you sure you have an of space? I'm like, Mom,
(15:01):
I drive a freaking fire truck. I think I can
back into a parking space with your little sedan. Yes,
she's a badass. She's a badass, no doubt about it.
Let's in his Captain Patrick Eli. He's the guy who
first gave Anna the application in the parking lot and
has trained and since the start, and she has been
just awesome part of this fire department. She's very much
(15:23):
involved with all aspects. She has proven herself on multiple
different occasions to be dependable. You know, if somebody was down,
she'd do everything she could to get you out and
she wouldn't leave you. So she's very dependable, and I
find her extremely tough with a with a gentle undertone.
That's just the way I see her. So Pat is
(15:45):
not the only one. Just like in her construction work,
whoever knows Anna and Caesar and Action has a deep
respect for her no matter who she is or what
she looks like. You know, the thing is is when
you put a mask on your face and you put
your helmet on, you're you're just like the next guy,
and no one's gonna deaf and differentiate between that. As
long as you're doing the job, there is no differentiation.
I mean, you can't tell who's who's most of the
(16:07):
time when you're fully geared up with your air pack
on and and gloves and helmet. I mean, unless you're
especially in a smoky environment and you're just hoping that
person behind he knows her job. I definitely stand out
because they're like, wow, that's a really little guy. Like
there was one fire where they took a picture of
a group of us, and I'm like, oh my god,
like like a child. You know, there's that, But then
(16:27):
I could find really small spaces, so like, there's pros
to it. In the last two years, Anna's responded to
somewhere between a hundred fifty and two hundred calls, and
when she talks about all this, she gets this really intense,
slightly maniacal look in her eyes. I want to do it.
I need to do it. I asked her if she
remembers the first time she responded to a fire call.
(16:50):
Oh my god, I was so excited. That sounds terrible
to say. I mean, I was just like, the adrenaline
is unbelievable. Most of the fires, the bigger structure of fires.
I've had our middle of the night, so you're passed
out and you just hear the tone. You wake up
and you hear structure fire. You here. You hear that,
(17:14):
and you go from like sleepy too awake. In your
heart is racing. So you're just trying to get everything together,
get out the door, get there to get your engine
and go. That first fire, it was a big one
in a smaller town. It was a house on top
of a hill. I remember looking up on the hill
and you just saw the light from the fire, so
(17:37):
you just saw it burning. You saw some of the smoke,
but it was just this glow really, so it was like,
oh my god, and just kind of like almost speechless, awestruck.
You watch it grow and you see it and it's
almost pretty in a way, and then you're like, it's
not though, because it's destroying someone's property. But you just
you can see how you can lose something so quickly.
(18:03):
You don't want those calls, but also like that's what
you do. It's like an adrenaline rush to get them
because you know it's gonna be chaos, it's gonna be
a really intense situation. But it's also heartbreaking because you
see somebody that's losing everything. That house was total aws,
(18:29):
it burned to the ground. Pretty much, when someone calls
nine when one they're having the worst day of their lives.
Nobody calls nine when one because they're having a good day.
Fire Captain Patrick Eli again, who's in charge of training
recruits like Anna for moments like that, And one thing
I tell new people it's not your emergency, it's their emergency.
You're the person responsible for making a difference for that
(18:52):
person's day. That's why we do training on such a
regular basis, so that we're all on the same page
about things. Um. But the reason is that you're extremely
proficient because you only have seconds to make a difference.
A lot of work environments are collaborative, but as far
as civilian jobs go, this is one where you depend
on the person next to you for survival. Absolutely, you
(19:15):
have to trust these people. It's life and death. So
they are your family and you were really lucky to
have each other. They welcome you in and they include
you with everything. And again, I think you just see
things that most people don't see, so you have that
unique bond built in that you don't share with everybody.
(19:38):
Regardless of volunteering to run into a burning building, being
a firefighter has nothing to do with having a death wish.
No firefighter will tell you that it does, but you're
close to death. It's a job where you have to
look at right in the face in order to be
good at what you do. Anna knows that, and despite
her job, she says she really doesn't think about it
that much. The thing is, you have a choice. You're
(19:59):
gonna go. When you go I think there's some sort
of plan or whatever. So I mean, if I have
to go and it's doing what I love, like, what
more can I ask for? Do you think you'll ever
stop fighting fires? God? I hope not. I imagine you
(20:19):
as a like a little old granny in in full
gear running into a fire. That would be so awesome.
I think as far as jobs go, there's a lot
of stereotypes about who works different jobs or who's allowed to.
We have sub conscious images in our heads of what
a plumber looks like, what a secretary looks like, what
(20:42):
a politician looks like. Anna Adler is just one of
the many people who can remind us that those stereotypes
are nonsense. The only thing they do is prevent people
from picturing themselves in the jobs that they truly want
to do and should be doing. There are a lot
of people along the way that tell you can't do
things just go right through. You gotta you gotta keep going.
(21:05):
Whether she's wearing a hard hat at a bridge demolition
or behind the wheel of a fire truck, Anna Nadler
might not be who you expect to see doing that job,
but she is exactly the person that you want doing them.
Not everybody wants to run into a burning building. So
if I have that desire to do that and help
out people, if I can, how could I not act
(21:25):
upon that? You know, not many people want to because
you sound like your nuts if you do. So, If
I have that urge and that drive to do that,
how could I not do that? Do you see? It's
kind of a responsibility. Yeah, I feel obligated to. Again,
I'm willing to do it, So how could I not?
I mean, do you want to run into a burning building?
(21:46):
I'm curious? But if I was in front of it,
I don't know. Only one way to find out. For
On the Job from a comfy chair in a room
(22:06):
that's not on fire. I'm Otis Gray. Thanks for listening
(22:35):
to On the Job, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Find out more at Express pros dot com. This season
of On the Job is produced by Audiation and dread
Seat Ventures. Our executive producer is Sandy Smallens. Our producer
is Otis Gray. The show is mixed by Matt Noble
at The Loft in Bronxville, New York. Find us on
(22:56):
I Heart Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what
you're heard. Please consider rating or reviewing the show on
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time.
For more inspiring stories about discovering your life's work, Audiation
(23:31):
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