July 14, 2025 • 28 mins
You didn’t start this job to hate the people you serve, but resentment doesn’t announce itself; it builds quietly. In this episode, we take a hard look at how public service can twist into public contempt, and how unchecked negativity poisons the mission, the team, and your purpose.
If you're rolling your eyes at every call, mentoring rookies with sarcasm, or finding yourself burned out and bitter, this is your gut check.
You owe it to the public. You owe it to your team. You owe it to yourself.
Time to reset.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Team 1, stand by.
Copy.
Team 1, standing by.
Breach, breach, breach.
What's going on, guys?
So let me ask you something.
You've been on the job for awhile, okay, let's say five
(00:22):
years or more Not a rookie, yetnot one of the old heads.
How many calls?
As soon as you hear them getdispatched, do you just kind of
roll your eyes or shake yourhead?
You know something negative.
How do you see the publicnowadays?
(00:42):
How do you see the publicnowadays If you answer to the
affirmative on rolling your eyes, shaking your head on most of
your calls, or if you look atthe public as more of a nuisance
or an enemy?
Let me ask you an honestquestion Are you really being a
(01:08):
public servant?
Now, I know that that kind ofquestion, that kind of comment,
it can get a whole lot ofdifferent reactions from people,
and I get it because you knowI'm kind of in the same boat.
You know how many times do wehear you know I pay your, I pay
(01:30):
your salary, you know you workfor me, yada, yada, yada.
So I'm in the same boat when itcomes to hearing that sometimes
.
But something I got to thinkingabout recently was you know,
how good are we at being publicservants if we've gotten to a
(01:51):
point where we're just annoyedby the people that we serve?
You know I'm not asking thisquestion or saying this, like
you know, I'm trying to preachor anything like that, because
I'm not.
I know I've felt it.
I've.
You know I've had times where Iwas annoyed at most of the
(02:16):
calls that we had to go to,especially the ones that really
kind of seem like it's justconstant same thing over and
over and over again, especiallywith this the same people, you
know, really kind of seem likeit's just constant same thing
over and over and over again,especially with this the same
people you know.
So I'm speaking to you from astandpoint of, like I've been
there too.
So I don't want this, I don'twant this to come off, you know,
(02:37):
as a you know me better thanwhatever.
It's not the case.
But I've just started to seemore and more of people who have
done the job between five andeight, five and ten years, that
(02:58):
their reaction towards thepublic, their reaction towards
the people that they are serving, is, more often than not, one
that's irritated.
It's almost like they'reinconvenienced to have to be
there dealing with whateverthey're dealing with and it
(03:20):
really kind of gives off anegative connotation to the job
that we do.
You know, whether it's lawenforcement, ems, fire dispatch
corrections, you know if westart to give off these signs
(03:40):
there's other people that arepicking up on it.
You know the public are pickingup on it.
The public is picking up on it.
The people that we come out todo the job for they're picking
up on it.
As a field training officer, Itell most of, if not all, of,
our new hires, especially thosestraight out of the academy.
(04:04):
We talk about command presenceand I tell them then, from the
time your complainant starts tosee you, you're already being
judged From the time that theyfirst lay eyes on you.
If you're just pulling up inthe driveway before you've ever
(04:25):
gotten out of the car, truck,ambulance, whatever before
you've ever gotten out, you'realready getting judged.
How's your ride look?
Is it some beat-up jalopy thatyou don't take care of?
Is there a bunch of trash allover the dash and everything
(04:46):
else?
They're automatically going tostart to judge you as soon as
you pull up.
How they see you inside yourvehicle.
They're going to start judgingwhen you get out of your vehicle
.
How you conduct yourself.
They're already picking up onthese things just as soon as we
arrive and we haven't even saidthe first word to them, because
they're looking at everythingelse.
So we're already being judgedand if we get to a point where
(05:14):
we're starting to view thepublic we serve more as an
inconvenience or a constantenemy, they're going to pick up
on that.
They're going to see thosethings.
If you truly feel that wayabout them, they're going to
know and the reaction thatyou're going to get versus
(05:38):
someone who you know hasn'treached that point yet or has
managed to pull themselves awayfrom that point, the reaction
you're going to get with thatperson is going to be different
than the reaction that they'regoing to get Now.
Obviously, there's a bunch morethings that play into it.
It's not just that, it's youknow, knowledge and a whole
bunch of things.
But in general, if you looklike a prick excuse me, if you
(06:04):
look like a prick, then they'renot going to have a whole lot of
trust in you.
They're not going to have awhole lot of faith in you.
They're going to have a lesseropinion of you, just simply on
the way you look, the way youcarry yourself when you speak to
them.
Are you being a jerk?
Are you being short?
(06:25):
Are you constantly being asmart aleck?
You know they're going to pickup on these things the same
things that we look for when wedo our jobs as cops.
We're looking at body language.
We're watching what people'shands and eyes and their feet
and their hips you know we'rewatching what those things are
doing, much like EMTs when EMTsare checking over their patients
(06:45):
.
You know we're watching whatthose things are doing, much
like EMTs when EMTs are checkingover their patients.
You know they're looking for abunch of different clues.
We're seeing all these things.
Well, we're not special in that.
You know.
We've got more training in it.
We've done it more often thanthey have, generally speaking,
but we're no different than theaverage citizen, the average
person that we serve.
We're no different than theaverage citizen, the average
(07:06):
person that we serve.
We're no different than them.
They're going to do the samething to us that we do to them.
You know they're going to belooking at us to see if they can
pick up on signs of deception,see if they can pick up on
whether or not you're shootingthem straight or you're just
blowing hot air.
They're going to see all ofthis stuff and it's going to
(07:29):
affect the relationship that youhave in that moment.
It's going to affect theconversations that you have, the
ability for you to be able toeffectively do your jobs,
whatever that may be.
You know, if you're in dispatch,if you're a communications
(07:49):
officer, think about how youspeak on the phone.
They may not hear you or,excuse me, they may not be able
to see you, but they can hearyou.
You know, I've been told by mywife plenty of times it's not
what you say, it's how you sayit.
Plenty of times it's not whatyou say, it's how you say it.
So if you've got a sarcastictone in your voice or a general
(08:10):
you don't care tone in yourvoice, what's the chances that
the person you're on the phonewith is hearing that?
You know firefighters, firstresponders, you guys when you
get onto a crash scene and youknow you've got a driver, an
(08:31):
occupant that's telling yousomething, how's your reaction
to them?
And you really aren't that intoit because here we go, just
another driver doing somethingstupid.
You think they're going to beable to pick up on whether or
(08:54):
not you truly want to help them.
More times than not, I'dventure to say, yeah, they'll be
able to pick that up,especially if you haven't
checked yourself and you'vegotten to that point where
you're just aggravated at themere fact that this person needs
your help.
(09:15):
You know we forget a lot of thetimes that in our profession,
public safety we rarely seepeople on their best days.
It's more uncommon thananything else Because if you're
(09:36):
in law enforcement, what's yourjob?
Your job is to enforce the laws.
People are calling becausethere's a domestic dispute,
there's a civil unrest, there'ssome kind of issue going on with
their neighbor, there's LordAlmighty knows all the different
calls that we wind up going to.
Those people aren't having agood day.
(09:59):
Their emotions and theirtensions and everything else is
already on edge.
You know my firefighters.
You know how often do you guysget to see people when you're
going to calls on their best day.
Generally it's a medical call.
Whether it's an ingrown toenailand an upset stomach, or
(10:21):
whether somebody's in the middleof having a heart attack, it's
generally not the best day.
What about somebody withshortness of breath?
Think they might be a littleagitated.
You know car crashes, firescenes.
You guys go on and putting outfires, whether it's a brush fire
or structure fire.
(10:42):
How many times you see peopleyou know standing around all
gleeful during that moment?
Somebody's in the middle oflosing something of theirs?
Ems you guys see it.
They're in medical distress.
You know even the ones that arefaking it.
(11:02):
They might not be in medicaldistress, they may be in need of
search of something else, butthey're going through something
and it's our jobs as publicservants to be able to help them
to the best of our ability.
Help them to the best of ourability, you know, and if we've
(11:29):
developed this mentality, ifwe've developed this attitude,
that that you know people areneedy, that they're a nuisance,
that they're always just, youknow, complaining, they're never
happy, yada, yada, yada, ifwe've gotten to the point where
this is the mindset that we'veadopted, then how can we truly
(11:57):
serve our public to our bestability?
You know, how can we?
How can we?
How can we do the job that weset out to do from the very
beginning, when we got in thisprofession?
How can we do that to the bestof our ability?
Now, I know there's probablyplenty of you that will say well
, you know, I do my best workanyway, it doesn't matter how I
(12:17):
view people Maybe, maybe you do,I don't know you.
What I do know is what I'veseen.
I'm not calling out any of thepublic safety professionals that
I work with.
However, I've seen it when youguys are having a bad day, or if
(12:38):
we're on a scene of someonethat has constantly called and
constantly complained, and yada,yada, yada.
I see these things the same asy'all see it in me when I'm
getting frustrated withsomething, and it's like that
across the entire profession.
That's how it is.
(12:59):
We all get frustrated.
We're human beings.
We're going to have those days.
We're going to have those days.
We're going to have thosemoments.
Like I said, I can speak on itbecause I've been there.
You know, I've probably said iton here before and if not, I'll
say it now A good expression touse is when you play in the mud
(13:21):
, you're going to get dirty.
We work in a profession where itcould be the worst moment of
somebody's life and we're inmoments like that, or close to
that, the vast majority of thework that we do.
So, yeah, we're going to getsome of that negative blowback.
(13:46):
We're going to get some of thatnegative connotations coming
back and bleeding into our life.
You know, it's kind of likecarbon monoxide you can't smell
it, you can't see it, but itsits there and builds up and it
becomes a danger.
That's what this is.
You know this contempt, thisresentment.
(14:09):
It builds up and if it goesunchecked it flows over.
Our community sees it, ourcoworkers see it, our
administrative personnel see it.
You start getting citizencomplaints.
(14:30):
Your teammates stop wanting towork with you as much or stop
wanting to be around you as much.
You're getting called into theadmin offices more often or
getting emails or messages fromthe admin about you know, not
doing something like you'resupposed to.
Or your superior comes to youand has to tell you hey, you
(14:53):
know, captain was talking to me,pulled me off to the side and
was telling me you didn't do X,y and Z.
You know this stuff builds upand if we don't take hold of it,
if we don't check ourselves andrealize what's going on, then
it's going to slowly infect us.
It's going to slowly continueto break us down to where it can
(15:16):
cause us some real problems.
Missteps while we're on calls,losing our, losing our cool
these things can happen.
An example that I have of notbeing able to see it because
you're in it.
It's like social media.
It's been a while now, quite along time ago at this point, but
(15:41):
a good friend of mine,co-worker.
He and I were talking and therewas a whole bunch of stuff that
I just kept seeing on socialmedia whether it was TikTok,
facebook, you know any of them.
I guess the algorithm just kindof hit and started just feeding
(16:02):
me all of this crap and itstarted to alter my perception
of the world around me, ofthings that I was seeing, things
that I was hearing, and startedmaking me think, you know, if
the people in my own communityare doing or feeling the same
thing, and so on and so forth.
(16:24):
And I'm sitting there talking tohim and you know he's a good
enough of a friend that he'slike hey man, like where are you
, where are you getting all thisstuff?
You know I tell him oh well, I,you know, I saw a reel, or
multiple reels, or this, youknow this TikTok series or
whatever the case was at thetime, and he goes all right, you
need, or whatever the case wasat the time, and he goes all
(16:50):
right, you need, to pull yourhead out of social media.
I said do what I said.
I'm not.
I'm not buried in it.
I only watch it a couple oftimes a day.
If that he goes, I think you'rewatching it a little more than
you think you are because it'schanging how you see things.
He said you probably need tostop being in social media so
much and take a look at what'saround you, see what's actually
(17:14):
going on, and if you do comeacross something and it stirs
some kind of emotion, then lookit up, go find the articles,
read them yourselves and get theinformation that way, rather
than listen to someone else'sopinion on it.
And he's a pretty smart guy.
(17:34):
I consider him much smarterthan me and I was like you know
what, maybe you're right.
So I did, stopped looking atsocial media so much, started
pulling myself away from it asfar as you know what I consume
personally, man, it started tohave all the change in the world
(17:56):
.
I was able to start going backto being more objective and, you
know, less dark about thethings that I was seeing.
Also helped that I figured outhow to reset the algorithm or
not reset it, but change thealgorithm for my social media
platform, so that I could stopgetting that stuff just kind of
(18:17):
beamed into my head the entiretime, you know.
But it took him sayingsomething to me when we were
having conversation.
It took him saying something tome for me to realize, you know
what, maybe he's right.
And then, as I started to makethat change myself and start to
take those steps to pull awayfrom it, found out he was right.
(18:41):
You know, I wasn't able to seewhat was right in front of my
own face because of the negativethings that were constantly
being pushed into my face.
And once I was able to pullaway from it, I was able to see
it.
I was able to realize okay,he's right.
You know we've got to do thatwork and we've got to check on
(19:05):
each other, teammates.
You know, if you see ourpersonality start to change, say
something, bring it up.
It doesn't have to be a hardconversation.
To begin with.
It could be you good, yeah, why?
You know it could be any numberof things.
(19:25):
But check on us.
You know we're supposed to be ateam.
We're supposed to check on eachother.
When we start to see thesedifferences, we're supposed to
check in and see you know howwe're doing.
You know we'll ask abouteverything else going on in each
other's lives.
But when we start to see thesechanges, you know we're not
going to bring that up.
(19:46):
So be a teammate.
You know.
Check on the other people onyour shifts.
Make sure they're good.
If they're not, see if there'ssomething going on, see if
there's something you can helpout with.
You know, because we all set outto do this job for a reason, we
(20:10):
all got into it for allemotional reasons, whatever they
may be.
You know, some of us wanted totry to make a difference in the
world.
Some of us just really wantedto be in medicine, some of us
just really wanted to do this,some of us really wanted to do
that.
But we all got into this for areason and we need to get back
(20:31):
to that.
You know, obviously, as we growand mature and we're in the job
longer, those things are goingto change.
You know, those priorities aregoing to change or we're going
to, you know, evolve thoseinitial thoughts as we become
more knowledgeable in the jobthat we do.
But we've got to do thesethings so that we can get back
(20:54):
to that core and focus on why westarted to do this job to begin
with.
Whatever your reason is, thereare some things that you know.
Like I said, when it came to,when it came to me and that
little social media thing whereI was just getting bombarded
(21:16):
with everything, you know, thestep I took was to take a step
back from it.
You know, if you're starting tofeel like you resent the public
, or you know they're more of anuisance and it bothers you that
they need your help becauseit's not a real emergency or
(21:39):
whatever the case may be, doyourself a favor and take some
time off.
Ok, take some time off.
Okay, take some time off fromwork.
If you don't take some time off, see if maybe there's, you know
, another assignment you cantake.
I know that's not always easy.
You know, especially likeagencies like mine, you can't
(22:01):
just say, hey, I want to go overhere and work this now and be
like, oh, okay, go ahead, that'snot how it works, but put the
feelers out there.
You know, maybe you're justburnt out on what you're doing
right now and you need to changegears a little bit.
Maybe that's something that cando it, you know.
Or, depending on how longyou've been doing it, maybe it's
(22:25):
time to hang it up, maybeyou've reached that point where
you can't get back to it.
Maybe you've been there for solong and you've had so much of a
buildup in you that you can'tget back to that point of not
feeling that way towards thepeople that you serve and that's
(22:49):
okay, say it's okay, it's notokay, but it's one of them
things.
You know, and I hate to say itlike that, but it is.
It happens Some people can'tget back from it and it's not
until after they walk away fromit, where they're not constantly
(23:11):
subjected to all thatnegativity, that they're able to
go.
You know what Really wasn't thatbad.
You know, those of us that werein the military think back to
basic training.
Basic training sucked.
Mine wasn't as bad as everybodyelse's, but basic training
(23:37):
sucked.
And while you were goingthrough it, while you're dealing
with all that, you hated it.
But when you look back on itlater on, you're through it.
What's the feeling you get?
You know I've got severalbuddies that that are combat
(23:57):
vets and they've got the coolstories cool stories that I
don't have.
They've got cool stories.
But then I'll listen to themtell those stories and it just
sounds just horrible.
You know the living conditions,the.
You know the story I was beingtold the other day was you know
(24:18):
how you couldn't wear a bunch ofwarm gear while you're in, you
know, near freezing temperaturesor freezing temperatures,
because it was going to causeyou to sweat.
So you basically just had tofreeze so that you didn't build
up body sweat which would thenfreeze on you.
You know that doesn't sound funto me.
(24:38):
That sounds horrible.
But when I talk to these guysthey remember how bad it sucked
at times, but they also rememberthe good times that went along
with it, but it wasn't untilafter they were past it.
And that's the same thing.
You know, if you're too far goneright now, if you just can't
(24:59):
pull yourself away from it andyou need to step away, you know,
maybe that's what will give yousome perspective on it.
By no means am I trying to sithere and convince somebody that
you know maybe that's what willgive you some perspective on it.
By no means am I trying to sithere and convince somebody that
you know it's time to quit,retire or anything like that.
That's not the point of this.
The point of this is to try toget you to realize that we owe
(25:23):
it to the people we serve, weowe it to our agency.
We owe it to our community.
We owe it to our rookies.
I mean, think about the exampleyou're setting for them.
We owe it to them and we owe itto ourselves to be better than
that, to write our calls andhelp the citizens of our
(25:50):
communities in a manner that isfitting for the profession that
we do.
Obviously, there's going to becalls where that's not possible,
and I'm not sitting here, youknow, trying to be some
philosophical everything isbright and beautiful kind of
(26:10):
thing.
That's not what I'm trying todo.
You know there's going to becalls where it's not going to go
that way, but we owe it toourselves and everyone else to
try to get back to where we werewhen we set out to do this job
to begin with.
(26:31):
Whatever your job is in publicsafety, you know we owe it to
them, we owe it to ourselves toget back to that point, or as
close to it as we possibly can,because that's where we do our
best work, that's where we shineis when we're excited about
(26:53):
what we're doing, or at leastpositive about the work that
we're doing, doesn't matter howmundane it is, doesn't matter
how insignificant it may seem.
Having that positive outlook onthings, maybe not even a
positive outlook, just not anegative one.
That's where we make ourbiggest differences.
(27:17):
That's where we truly help thepeople that we started to do
this for.
Don't just wear a uniform.
Go out there and be the publicservant that you set out to be
from the get-go.
Help the people that you wantedto help Our citizens.
(27:42):
Small little things make a bigdifference.
Small little things make a bigdifference and the attitude you
approach it with can make thebiggest difference of all.
So, anyway, real quick on thistime, guys.
I appreciate your time.
I appreciate you stopping by.
(28:02):
Remember that we're going to bestarting up the new series
Standing in the Gap gap.
You can look for that onecoming up soon.
Don't forget to always, youknow, check our website and see
what we got going on over thereand interact with all of our
social content.
That all helps us out a lothere.
Okay, so, again, I appreciateyour time, appreciate all your
(28:24):
effort and until next time, guys, be safe.
Bye.
Team 1, stand by.
Copy.
Team 1, standing by.
Breach, breach, breach.
What's going on, guys?
So let me ask you something.
You've been on the job for awhile, okay, let's say five
(00:22):
years or more Not a rookie, yetnot one of the old heads.
How many calls?
As soon as you hear them getdispatched, do you just kind of
roll your eyes or shake yourhead?
You know something negative.
How do you see the publicnowadays?
(00:42):
How do you see the publicnowadays If you answer to the
affirmative on rolling your eyes, shaking your head on most of
your calls, or if you look atthe public as more of a nuisance
or an enemy?
Let me ask you an honestquestion Are you really being a
(01:08):
public servant?
Now, I know that that kind ofquestion, that kind of comment,
it can get a whole lot ofdifferent reactions from people,
and I get it because you knowI'm kind of in the same boat.
You know how many times do wehear you know I pay your, I pay
(01:30):
your salary, you know you workfor me, yada, yada, yada.
So I'm in the same boat when itcomes to hearing that sometimes
.
But something I got to thinkingabout recently was you know,
how good are we at being publicservants if we've gotten to a
(01:51):
point where we're just annoyedby the people that we serve?
You know I'm not asking thisquestion or saying this, like
you know, I'm trying to preachor anything like that, because
I'm not.
I know I've felt it.
I've.
You know I've had times where Iwas annoyed at most of the
(02:16):
calls that we had to go to,especially the ones that really
kind of seem like it's justconstant same thing over and
over and over again, especiallywith this the same people, you
know, really kind of seem likeit's just constant same thing
over and over and over again,especially with this the same
people you know.
So I'm speaking to you from astandpoint of, like I've been
there too.
So I don't want this, I don'twant this to come off, you know,
(02:37):
as a you know me better thanwhatever.
It's not the case.
But I've just started to seemore and more of people who have
done the job between five andeight, five and ten years, that
(02:58):
their reaction towards thepublic, their reaction towards
the people that they are serving, is, more often than not, one
that's irritated.
It's almost like they'reinconvenienced to have to be
there dealing with whateverthey're dealing with and it
(03:20):
really kind of gives off anegative connotation to the job
that we do.
You know, whether it's lawenforcement, ems, fire dispatch
corrections, you know if westart to give off these signs
(03:40):
there's other people that arepicking up on it.
You know the public are pickingup on it.
The public is picking up on it.
The people that we come out todo the job for they're picking
up on it.
As a field training officer, Itell most of, if not all, of,
our new hires, especially thosestraight out of the academy.
(04:04):
We talk about command presenceand I tell them then, from the
time your complainant starts tosee you, you're already being
judged From the time that theyfirst lay eyes on you.
If you're just pulling up inthe driveway before you've ever
(04:25):
gotten out of the car, truck,ambulance, whatever before
you've ever gotten out, you'realready getting judged.
How's your ride look?
Is it some beat-up jalopy thatyou don't take care of?
Is there a bunch of trash allover the dash and everything
(04:46):
else?
They're automatically going tostart to judge you as soon as
you pull up.
How they see you inside yourvehicle.
They're going to start judgingwhen you get out of your vehicle
.
How you conduct yourself.
They're already picking up onthese things just as soon as we
arrive and we haven't even saidthe first word to them, because
they're looking at everythingelse.
So we're already being judgedand if we get to a point where
(05:14):
we're starting to view thepublic we serve more as an
inconvenience or a constantenemy, they're going to pick up
on that.
They're going to see thosethings.
If you truly feel that wayabout them, they're going to
know and the reaction thatyou're going to get versus
(05:38):
someone who you know hasn'treached that point yet or has
managed to pull themselves awayfrom that point, the reaction
you're going to get with thatperson is going to be different
than the reaction that they'regoing to get Now.
Obviously, there's a bunch morethings that play into it.
It's not just that, it's youknow, knowledge and a whole
bunch of things.
But in general, if you looklike a prick excuse me, if you
(06:04):
look like a prick, then they'renot going to have a whole lot of
trust in you.
They're not going to have awhole lot of faith in you.
They're going to have a lesseropinion of you, just simply on
the way you look, the way youcarry yourself when you speak to
them.
Are you being a jerk?
Are you being short?
(06:25):
Are you constantly being asmart aleck?
You know they're going to pickup on these things the same
things that we look for when wedo our jobs as cops.
We're looking at body language.
We're watching what people'shands and eyes and their feet
and their hips you know we'rewatching what those things are
doing, much like EMTs when EMTsare checking over their patients
(06:45):
.
You know we're watching whatthose things are doing, much
like EMTs when EMTs are checkingover their patients.
You know they're looking for abunch of different clues.
We're seeing all these things.
Well, we're not special in that.
You know.
We've got more training in it.
We've done it more often thanthey have, generally speaking,
but we're no different than theaverage citizen, the average
person that we serve.
We're no different than theaverage citizen, the average
(07:06):
person that we serve.
We're no different than them.
They're going to do the samething to us that we do to them.
You know they're going to belooking at us to see if they can
pick up on signs of deception,see if they can pick up on
whether or not you're shootingthem straight or you're just
blowing hot air.
They're going to see all ofthis stuff and it's going to
(07:29):
affect the relationship that youhave in that moment.
It's going to affect theconversations that you have, the
ability for you to be able toeffectively do your jobs,
whatever that may be.
You know, if you're in dispatch,if you're a communications
(07:49):
officer, think about how youspeak on the phone.
They may not hear you or,excuse me, they may not be able
to see you, but they can hearyou.
You know, I've been told by mywife plenty of times it's not
what you say, it's how you sayit.
Plenty of times it's not whatyou say, it's how you say it.
So if you've got a sarcastictone in your voice or a general
(08:10):
you don't care tone in yourvoice, what's the chances that
the person you're on the phonewith is hearing that?
You know firefighters, firstresponders, you guys when you
get onto a crash scene and youknow you've got a driver, an
(08:31):
occupant that's telling yousomething, how's your reaction
to them?
And you really aren't that intoit because here we go, just
another driver doing somethingstupid.
You think they're going to beable to pick up on whether or
(08:54):
not you truly want to help them.
More times than not, I'dventure to say, yeah, they'll be
able to pick that up,especially if you haven't
checked yourself and you'vegotten to that point where
you're just aggravated at themere fact that this person needs
your help.
(09:15):
You know we forget a lot of thetimes that in our profession,
public safety we rarely seepeople on their best days.
It's more uncommon thananything else Because if you're
(09:36):
in law enforcement, what's yourjob?
Your job is to enforce the laws.
People are calling becausethere's a domestic dispute,
there's a civil unrest, there'ssome kind of issue going on with
their neighbor, there's LordAlmighty knows all the different
calls that we wind up going to.
Those people aren't having agood day.
(09:59):
Their emotions and theirtensions and everything else is
already on edge.
You know my firefighters.
You know how often do you guysget to see people when you're
going to calls on their best day.
Generally it's a medical call.
Whether it's an ingrown toenailand an upset stomach, or
(10:21):
whether somebody's in the middleof having a heart attack, it's
generally not the best day.
What about somebody withshortness of breath?
Think they might be a littleagitated.
You know car crashes, firescenes.
You guys go on and putting outfires, whether it's a brush fire
or structure fire.
(10:42):
How many times you see peopleyou know standing around all
gleeful during that moment?
Somebody's in the middle oflosing something of theirs?
Ems you guys see it.
They're in medical distress.
You know even the ones that arefaking it.
(11:02):
They might not be in medicaldistress, they may be in need of
search of something else, butthey're going through something
and it's our jobs as publicservants to be able to help them
to the best of our ability.
Help them to the best of ourability, you know, and if we've
(11:29):
developed this mentality, ifwe've developed this attitude,
that that you know people areneedy, that they're a nuisance,
that they're always just, youknow, complaining, they're never
happy, yada, yada, yada, ifwe've gotten to the point where
this is the mindset that we'veadopted, then how can we truly
(11:57):
serve our public to our bestability?
You know, how can we?
How can we?
How can we do the job that weset out to do from the very
beginning, when we got in thisprofession?
How can we do that to the bestof our ability?
Now, I know there's probablyplenty of you that will say well
, you know, I do my best workanyway, it doesn't matter how I
(12:17):
view people Maybe, maybe you do,I don't know you.
What I do know is what I'veseen.
I'm not calling out any of thepublic safety professionals that
I work with.
However, I've seen it when youguys are having a bad day, or if
(12:38):
we're on a scene of someonethat has constantly called and
constantly complained, and yada,yada, yada.
I see these things the same asy'all see it in me when I'm
getting frustrated withsomething, and it's like that
across the entire profession.
That's how it is.
(12:59):
We all get frustrated.
We're human beings.
We're going to have those days.
We're going to have those days.
We're going to have thosemoments.
Like I said, I can speak on itbecause I've been there.
You know, I've probably said iton here before and if not, I'll
say it now A good expression touse is when you play in the mud
(13:21):
, you're going to get dirty.
We work in a profession where itcould be the worst moment of
somebody's life and we're inmoments like that, or close to
that, the vast majority of thework that we do.
So, yeah, we're going to getsome of that negative blowback.
(13:46):
We're going to get some of thatnegative connotations coming
back and bleeding into our life.
You know, it's kind of likecarbon monoxide you can't smell
it, you can't see it, but itsits there and builds up and it
becomes a danger.
That's what this is.
You know this contempt, thisresentment.
(14:09):
It builds up and if it goesunchecked it flows over.
Our community sees it, ourcoworkers see it, our
administrative personnel see it.
You start getting citizencomplaints.
(14:30):
Your teammates stop wanting towork with you as much or stop
wanting to be around you as much.
You're getting called into theadmin offices more often or
getting emails or messages fromthe admin about you know, not
doing something like you'resupposed to.
Or your superior comes to youand has to tell you hey, you
(14:53):
know, captain was talking to me,pulled me off to the side and
was telling me you didn't do X,y and Z.
You know this stuff builds upand if we don't take hold of it,
if we don't check ourselves andrealize what's going on, then
it's going to slowly infect us.
It's going to slowly continueto break us down to where it can
(15:16):
cause us some real problems.
Missteps while we're on calls,losing our, losing our cool
these things can happen.
An example that I have of notbeing able to see it because
you're in it.
It's like social media.
It's been a while now, quite along time ago at this point, but
(15:41):
a good friend of mine,co-worker.
He and I were talking and therewas a whole bunch of stuff that
I just kept seeing on socialmedia whether it was TikTok,
facebook, you know any of them.
I guess the algorithm just kindof hit and started just feeding
(16:02):
me all of this crap and itstarted to alter my perception
of the world around me, ofthings that I was seeing, things
that I was hearing, and startedmaking me think, you know, if
the people in my own communityare doing or feeling the same
thing, and so on and so forth.
(16:24):
And I'm sitting there talking tohim and you know he's a good
enough of a friend that he'slike hey man, like where are you
, where are you getting all thisstuff?
You know I tell him oh well, I,you know, I saw a reel, or
multiple reels, or this, youknow this TikTok series or
whatever the case was at thetime, and he goes all right, you
need, or whatever the case wasat the time, and he goes all
(16:50):
right, you need, to pull yourhead out of social media.
I said do what I said.
I'm not.
I'm not buried in it.
I only watch it a couple oftimes a day.
If that he goes, I think you'rewatching it a little more than
you think you are because it'schanging how you see things.
He said you probably need tostop being in social media so
much and take a look at what'saround you, see what's actually
(17:14):
going on, and if you do comeacross something and it stirs
some kind of emotion, then lookit up, go find the articles,
read them yourselves and get theinformation that way, rather
than listen to someone else'sopinion on it.
And he's a pretty smart guy.
(17:34):
I consider him much smarterthan me and I was like you know
what, maybe you're right.
So I did, stopped looking atsocial media so much, started
pulling myself away from it asfar as you know what I consume
personally, man, it started tohave all the change in the world
(17:56):
.
I was able to start going backto being more objective and, you
know, less dark about thethings that I was seeing.
Also helped that I figured outhow to reset the algorithm or
not reset it, but change thealgorithm for my social media
platform, so that I could stopgetting that stuff just kind of
(18:17):
beamed into my head the entiretime, you know.
But it took him sayingsomething to me when we were
having conversation.
It took him saying something tome for me to realize, you know
what, maybe he's right.
And then, as I started to makethat change myself and start to
take those steps to pull awayfrom it, found out he was right.
(18:41):
You know, I wasn't able to seewhat was right in front of my
own face because of the negativethings that were constantly
being pushed into my face.
And once I was able to pullaway from it, I was able to see
it.
I was able to realize okay,he's right.
You know we've got to do thatwork and we've got to check on
(19:05):
each other, teammates.
You know, if you see ourpersonality start to change, say
something, bring it up.
It doesn't have to be a hardconversation.
To begin with.
It could be you good, yeah, why?
You know it could be any numberof things.
(19:25):
But check on us.
You know we're supposed to be ateam.
We're supposed to check on eachother.
When we start to see thesedifferences, we're supposed to
check in and see you know howwe're doing.
You know we'll ask abouteverything else going on in each
other's lives.
But when we start to see thesechanges, you know we're not
going to bring that up.
(19:46):
So be a teammate.
You know.
Check on the other people onyour shifts.
Make sure they're good.
If they're not, see if there'ssomething going on, see if
there's something you can helpout with.
You know, because we all set outto do this job for a reason, we
(20:10):
all got into it for allemotional reasons, whatever they
may be.
You know, some of us wanted totry to make a difference in the
world.
Some of us just really wantedto be in medicine, some of us
just really wanted to do this,some of us really wanted to do
that.
But we all got into this for areason and we need to get back
(20:31):
to that.
You know, obviously, as we growand mature and we're in the job
longer, those things are goingto change.
You know, those priorities aregoing to change or we're going
to, you know, evolve thoseinitial thoughts as we become
more knowledgeable in the jobthat we do.
But we've got to do thesethings so that we can get back
(20:54):
to that core and focus on why westarted to do this job to begin
with.
Whatever your reason is, thereare some things that you know.
Like I said, when it came to,when it came to me and that
little social media thing whereI was just getting bombarded
(21:16):
with everything, you know, thestep I took was to take a step
back from it.
You know, if you're starting tofeel like you resent the public
, or you know they're more of anuisance and it bothers you that
they need your help becauseit's not a real emergency or
(21:39):
whatever the case may be, doyourself a favor and take some
time off.
Ok, take some time off.
Okay, take some time off fromwork.
If you don't take some time off, see if maybe there's, you know
, another assignment you cantake.
I know that's not always easy.
You know, especially likeagencies like mine, you can't
(22:01):
just say, hey, I want to go overhere and work this now and be
like, oh, okay, go ahead, that'snot how it works, but put the
feelers out there.
You know, maybe you're justburnt out on what you're doing
right now and you need to changegears a little bit.
Maybe that's something that cando it, you know.
Or, depending on how longyou've been doing it, maybe it's
(22:25):
time to hang it up, maybeyou've reached that point where
you can't get back to it.
Maybe you've been there for solong and you've had so much of a
buildup in you that you can'tget back to that point of not
feeling that way towards thepeople that you serve and that's
(22:49):
okay, say it's okay, it's notokay, but it's one of them
things.
You know, and I hate to say itlike that, but it is.
It happens Some people can'tget back from it and it's not
until after they walk away fromit, where they're not constantly
(23:11):
subjected to all thatnegativity, that they're able to
go.
You know what Really wasn't thatbad.
You know, those of us that werein the military think back to
basic training.
Basic training sucked.
Mine wasn't as bad as everybodyelse's, but basic training
(23:37):
sucked.
And while you were goingthrough it, while you're dealing
with all that, you hated it.
But when you look back on itlater on, you're through it.
What's the feeling you get?
You know I've got severalbuddies that that are combat
(23:57):
vets and they've got the coolstories cool stories that I
don't have.
They've got cool stories.
But then I'll listen to themtell those stories and it just
sounds just horrible.
You know the living conditions,the.
You know the story I was beingtold the other day was you know
(24:18):
how you couldn't wear a bunch ofwarm gear while you're in, you
know, near freezing temperaturesor freezing temperatures,
because it was going to causeyou to sweat.
So you basically just had tofreeze so that you didn't build
up body sweat which would thenfreeze on you.
You know that doesn't sound funto me.
(24:38):
That sounds horrible.
But when I talk to these guysthey remember how bad it sucked
at times, but they also rememberthe good times that went along
with it, but it wasn't untilafter they were past it.
And that's the same thing.
You know, if you're too far goneright now, if you just can't
(24:59):
pull yourself away from it andyou need to step away, you know,
maybe that's what will give yousome perspective on it.
By no means am I trying to sithere and convince somebody that
you know maybe that's what willgive you some perspective on it.
By no means am I trying to sithere and convince somebody that
you know it's time to quit,retire or anything like that.
That's not the point of this.
The point of this is to try toget you to realize that we owe
(25:23):
it to the people we serve, weowe it to our agency.
We owe it to our community.
We owe it to our rookies.
I mean, think about the exampleyou're setting for them.
We owe it to them and we owe itto ourselves to be better than
that, to write our calls andhelp the citizens of our
(25:50):
communities in a manner that isfitting for the profession that
we do.
Obviously, there's going to becalls where that's not possible,
and I'm not sitting here, youknow, trying to be some
philosophical everything isbright and beautiful kind of
(26:10):
thing.
That's not what I'm trying todo.
You know there's going to becalls where it's not going to go
that way, but we owe it toourselves and everyone else to
try to get back to where we werewhen we set out to do this job
to begin with.
(26:31):
Whatever your job is in publicsafety, you know we owe it to
them, we owe it to ourselves toget back to that point, or as
close to it as we possibly can,because that's where we do our
best work, that's where we shineis when we're excited about
(26:53):
what we're doing, or at leastpositive about the work that
we're doing, doesn't matter howmundane it is, doesn't matter
how insignificant it may seem.
Having that positive outlook onthings, maybe not even a
positive outlook, just not anegative one.
That's where we make ourbiggest differences.
(27:17):
That's where we truly help thepeople that we started to do
this for.
Don't just wear a uniform.
Go out there and be the publicservant that you set out to be
from the get-go.
Help the people that you wantedto help Our citizens.
(27:42):
Small little things make a bigdifference.
Small little things make a bigdifference and the attitude you
approach it with can make thebiggest difference of all.
So, anyway, real quick on thistime, guys.
I appreciate your time.
I appreciate you stopping by.
(28:02):
Remember that we're going to bestarting up the new series
Standing in the Gap gap.
You can look for that onecoming up soon.
Don't forget to always, youknow, check our website and see
what we got going on over thereand interact with all of our
social content.
That all helps us out a lothere.
Okay, so, again, I appreciateyour time, appreciate all your
(28:24):
effort and until next time, guys, be safe.
Bye.
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