The pay could definitely be better, but the benefits are solid, and I like the hours (at my agency they’re 12 hour days, but you work less days overall.) I’m certainly not rolling in it, but I’m making enough to cover my bills without too much worry. And overall I enjoy my job, it’s always interesting, it feels good to be helping my community, and it’s air conditioned (none of which applied to my previous job working in a warehouse)

Everyone experiences and deals with trauma and stress differently, and not that it doesn’t or can’t happen but I think people who are particularly susceptible to dealing with it poorly tend to weed themselves out of this job pretty fast, usually before they even apply.

I think I deal with it pretty well, stuff doesn’t tend to stick with me, I have a pretty good support system at home, etc. I’ve been here for almost 5 years, and I feel like I’m set for another 20 years, if I leave here I don’t think it will be stress, burnout, trauma, etc. that makes me leave, but finding a better paying job somewhere (but honestly it would be probably one I wouldn’t enjoy as much, I probably could have found a higher paying job if I wanted to but short of being an eccentric millionaire, I don’t know that there are many jobs out there that I’d rather have)

Something I like to put out there whenever this comes up, is that in general we tend to be classified as clerical staff, and getting us reclassified as first responders could help get us better pay, access to different benefits, etc. A few states have done it, and there is/was a bill (the 911 SAVES act) that would have reclassified us at the federal level. So if thats something you support, consider writing a letter to your elected officials supporting it.