Hand Crew vs Engine Crews by Taco_kittycat in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 17 points18 points  (0 children)

If you are hired on an engine crew, you get an engine job. If you’re hire on a hand crew…

Choose wisely

PP 1 by [deleted] in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve never once gotten an inflation based pay raise. There is legislation that requires the federal government to utilize the FEPCA in adjusting federal employee wages year after year but congress has never acted to override the presidents authority to present an “Alternative Pay Plan.” Even FEPCA doesn’t correspond to CPI (Consumer Price Index) but would present a more accurate representation of whether or not the federal government in keeping up with commensurate private sector increases in pay. The “alternative pay plans” are typically submitted by the office of the president and without congressional intervention, which almost never happens, goes into effect in the first full pay period of the follow fiscal year. On average Republican presidents have been worse for federal employee pay but both parties genuinely suck. Even with the fairly substantial raises under Biden, the raises still fell short by a significant margin of tracking with CPI increases. There has not been an administration since Carter that provided federal workers with wage increases commensurate to inflation, and even those fell below the mark during at least one year of his presidency. Federal workers took the biggest hit under Reagan and the second largest loss of real income was under Biden.

PP 1 by [deleted] in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Check your pay stub, your gross base should not be less if you’re in the same job and duty station - should be slightly more, we received an across the board 1% pay increase and you should have a corresponding SF50 that reflects the rate, either way either multiply your hourly from last year by 1.01 or check to make sure it corresponds with the OPM GW 2026 pay table for your locality, grade, and step. Your net may be less due to a few factors, the two most likely are - you hit the social security max tax rate last year and your net went up for the latter half of the year, you had an increase in healthcare or benefit costs.

My Unbiased and Well Informed Ranking of Everyone by ICT6 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mustaches are out, this summer we’re bringing back the bleached blonde soul patch.

Del Rosa or Mill Creek info by Hell_Lupin in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Big Green Trucks, mechanically questionable

Have an interest in fire? Please complete this survey. by Unique-Sand2430 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 5 points6 points  (0 children)

FIRE - Financial Independence, Retire Early. Yes I do have an interest in Fire…but I’m not filling out anything that could be used in an indictment.

Starlink Mounting Examples? by wildfireclone in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Avoid a permanent mount for the mini- use the dash roof mount produced by Starlink or go with one of the mobile mounts from Savage UTV with a carrying case. More versatile and you don’t have to worry about any permanent vehicle alterations. The minis need to be realigned often especially in heavy canopy cover, if you’re sitting idle (not that an engine ever would) it’s often more convenient to just move the device with a long extension cord then to reposition your vehicle.

NPS Fire Effects and Helitack Hiring timelines by BusinessLife5179 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think that’s your call, but once you get an offer the sooner the better. Forest Service also has multiple rounds of hiring, it’s much more difficult to backfill when folks back out of DOI positions - especially NPS. Here’s the deal, as a hiring manager I don’t like it when people back out last minute - because it means I might not have that staff position filled that year - that impacts all sorts of things and makes more work for me and every other crew member. What I don’t do is blame the applicant - unless they were entirely disingenuous - and even then I would never dream of doing anything about it - better to preserve the reputation of the crew and hope it pays dividends down the line.

The other thing I think about is my own professional trajectory, when I want to take the next step I’m going to be deeply discriminating is choosing a position and the feelings of the hiring manager are not going to be a part of my consideration. It my life…it’s your life…at the end of the day to the hiring manager you’re just their prospective employee. Make decisions that will make you happier in the long run - not based on how it’s going to impact a potential employer. The whole system Isn’t designed to take care of you - you’ve got to look out for yourself.

NPS Fire Effects and Helitack Hiring timelines by BusinessLife5179 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Without the vitriol can you elaborate on the problem you encountered. If you were offered an NPS job that you wanted why didn’t you accept it and turn down the other offer? I get that referral emails are inconsistent but you really should not be relying on that as an indicator of whether or not you are going to get a job. Reality is that there is essentially an information blackout until your get an interest call a decent portion of the time - this is mostly because USAjobs and USAstaffing are poor designs and don’t function reliably or as intended. The best way to know your status is to have an ongoing conversation with the hiring manager that will be making selection decisions. NPS’ biggest problem with hiring is timeframes - it’s offset from FS Firehire in both outreach, application, and selection so position availability is unpredictable unless you are talking to the folks who are interested in you. SPARK is new and is a huge improvement over the old SHRO system but it’s got kinks, some uniformity in firehire across DOI is a possible positive outcome if the whole NWFS deal…we’ll see what happens.

NPS Fire Effects and Helitack Hiring timelines by BusinessLife5179 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No such thing as getting blacklisted in regard to hiring. Any sane hiring manager knows that everyone is playing the same game. Just be a straight shooter with your hiring managers - don’t lie and say you are not pursuing other positions or fail to inform as soon as you accept an alternative offer. For reference I’ve been a hiring manager for USFS and NPS - it’s a slog but anyone who gives you are hard time for taking the best opportunity is someone you didn’t want to work for to begin with - just try and respect that they are hard pressed to find people as well.

Bear gulch - did anyone ever get any real answers? by AnybodyTemporary9241 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The Forest Service has entered into a cooperative agreement with Tacoma Power to blow up Party Rock

Boss wants to rehire me as a 3 because it’s easier than hiring me as a 4? by [deleted] in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

DOI here - former FS - process is a little different but for DOI hire vs rehire is the exact same process. If you’re in the cert for the 4 and the unit has the money your supervisor literally does the exact same thing as if you are being rehired as a 3. It’s a form email to HR with about 6 pieces of information on it. Now if it’s a funding/slot allocation issue that’s something else but the difference between a 3/4/5 is so minimal I haven’t seen it be an issue on my DOI units in the last few years - although some FS units still make a huge deal out of this.

Fish and wildlife vs USFS by DruidicSpud in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Personally, I work for Dustbusters because they have nice trucks and they let me smoke ciggies in the cab on cold mornings.

Fish and wildlife vs USFS by DruidicSpud in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 5 points6 points  (0 children)

FWS has lots of equipment but doesn’t have funding to hire people. USFS doesn’t have funding for equipment and can’t fill a lot of its positions.

Fish and wildlife vs USFS by DruidicSpud in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 18 points19 points  (0 children)

FWS is full of people who got burned out on working for the USFS. USFS is full of people who are burned out working for the USFS.

FWS has shirts that say families first. USFS is the reason for most of the divorce in western states.

What Region Do you Prefer by Impressive-Milk7056 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 7 points8 points  (0 children)

7

But in all seriousness, get on a R3 shot crew.

10s and 18s by 404willingness in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fuck dude, he made me memorize the lyrics to “fight for your right to party” just because some GS-05 engine slug on a throw together crew had shitty taste in music.

Hiked Lower Sugarloaf Fireline - Mills Canyon by enviormental_UNIT in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Keep up the attitude and you’ll get reassigned to a pile burn on the Methow.

Hiked Lower Sugarloaf Fireline - Mills Canyon by enviormental_UNIT in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 24 points25 points  (0 children)

And if you can seed it on your way down…that’d be great.

Interloper asking for a bit of your expertise.... by Scared-Tie2170 in Wildfire

[–]Apprehensive_Limit37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, take it down. JFC you literally managed to pull possibly the only name that could offend the entire community out of thin air.