Finally, you're a chief. Bugles are sounding on high. You've worked hard for years, aspiring to the next position in your fire service career. You have slowly built on your experience, learning from both successes and mistakes. You have attended many college classes and conferences and obtained certifications and degrees, much of this on your own time.

You have sacrificed valuable personal time, perhaps short-changing your family and personal dreams, goals or hobbies. While you were attending schools or committee meetings, your buddies were working on their golf game or learning the subtle nuances of sport fishing. Your children went from diapers to Dodges while you muddled through hydraulics, building construction and fireground tactics.

You spent your time as a firefighter, perhaps as a driver, then took your first officer position. With this position came responsibility, not only for yourself but also for others. And with each successive position after that came more responsibility and more money. With every certification or degree you earned, you probably earned more incentive money. With increasing experience and education, you availed yourself of step-up pay and overtime pay. You made yourself valuable and you reaped your rewards with increasing earnings.

The sobering truth

Now, you enter the realm of the inner sanctum — you are a chief officer. Whether you are a battalion chief, deputy or assistant chief, division or district chief, or fire chief, you have achieved that goal you set for yourself. But with this, you traded the security of the labor union's bargaining unit for the mystery of the “management package.”

What happened to the money? You traded your leisurely shift schedule for a Monday through Friday grind that has chained you to a desk, blurred your vision and damaged your posture, and now you find yourself staring into the mirror screaming, “Show me the money!” But no one can, because the simple truth that no one told you while you labored away on that fire science degree is that chiefs, with very few exceptions, do not make as much money as front-line officers.

What's that, you say? No one told you? You may think there must be hidden bonuses, but usually there aren't. Since we now are trying to run fire departments like corporations, could there be some profit sharing? Maybe a Christmas bonus? No, there's neither.

How about the incentives? Well, maybe, maybe not. Those incentives for education, for technical certifications, the holiday pay, even longevity, aren't always available to many chief officers in management positions, and the big nut, overtime, certainly won't be. Sure, the pay scale usually reflects a salary step-increase for a chief officer position, but in most cases, it's no more than 5% more than the highest-paid line officer. And once you take that line officer's salary, add in the incentives, longevity, holiday pay and overtime, in most cases the line officer will be making more money than supervisors who are higher in the hierarchy.

A survey of your peers

While attending the National Fire Academy, I often listened to informal conversations from chief officers lamenting the loss of perks that they had when they were still on shift. It seemed a lot of people who made the move into management were unhappy, not so much with the new position itself, but for the lack of benefits they previously enjoyed.

To confirm this theory, I conducted a structured but informal survey of a cross-section of fire departments from all points of the nation's compass: the Executive Leadership class at the National Fire Academy. Represented in the group were New York, California, Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Washington, the Carolinas and many other states. All of the people who filled out the survey were chief officers or held responsibilities of chief officers. The results were interesting.

Of those who filled out the survey, 87% said they were in management. In other words, they were not in a labor union that used collective bargaining. Nearly 83% said they were paid more than “lesser” officers. However, most of them made no more than 10% more than lower-ranking officers. Almost 9% were paid the same, and another 9% were paid less. About 70% said their salary raises matched those of labor, and about 17% said their raises were less than labor. Only 8.6% said their raises exceeded the raises their bargaining unit members received.

Nearly 35% of the officers surveyed were on a pay-for-performance system of salary increases. If they want that annual raise to keep up with inflation, they have to tap dance. They have to keep their staff and crew in a state of operational readiness, motivated, trained and up to date with certifications and licenses while also trying to keep city hall content, develop policies, fill out grant applications and more. Pay for performance also means that when times get tough financially, there may not be any raise.

So what's your inspiration?

Why do so many people want to be a chief if they don't make much money (or get equal benefits) doing it? Do people just want to boss others around? Are there are so many unfulfilled egos? Do people think power will be associated with the position?

Well, power is associated with the position, and that power is, or should be, the power to make effective change. It's a primary driving force that compels people to aspire to be president of the United States — a position that doesn't pay much, considering the overwhelming responsibility — or fire chief. Perhaps in some of your lower-ranking positions you witnessed administrative policies or operational procedures you thought could be improved, and you began to think, “If I were chief, I could….” And now you can.

As a chief officer, you are in a unique position to leave a legacy of quality, of progressive thinking and management, of safety — for your personnel and for your community. With that potential, how could you not want to aspire to the position?

Oddly, the inspiration for aspiring to the position may have come to you from either a very good chief officer or a very poor chief officer. If you ever worked under an excellent chief, you probably hoped one day to emulate him or her. If you ever worked under a poor chief, you probably learned what not to do, which can be as important as knowing the right things to do. Either way, you were inspired to obtain the position so that you could ensure someone was going to do it right. You weren't looking for a position that would pay a lot of money, or you wouldn't have come to the fire service in the first place.

There are some perks that come with chief positions that no one can effectively measure, at least in financial terms — and you can't bargain or negotiate for them. The most valuable of those intangibles is respect. If you're doing your job for all the reasons that compelled you to aspire to it in the first place, you will earn that respect. There's no class you can take or book you can read that will guarantee that particular perk.

Respect comes from being able to read the political landscape, knowing not only what's needed for your personnel to perform well operationally but also what's right for the community's needs. It comes from balancing the needs of that community with the needs of your fire-rescue personnel without compromising quality to either group. It comes from being able to make good decisions, most of the time without the most valuable of all commodities: time. It comes from being accountable, fair and consistent, not just to city hall but also to your personnel.

Respect is an excellent perk, though, and if you're ever lucky enough to obtain it, you'll relish it long after the memory of a holiday bonus is gone.

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Bttn. Chief Patrick Kendrick is currently the interim division chief for Tamarac (Fla.) Fire Rescue, where he has worked for seven years. A graduate of the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program, Kendrick has written for numerous fire service and general-interest publications.

Varying Returns

Incentives varied widely. About 43% of those surveyed indicated they received holiday pay or holiday time off. Only 13% indicated they were paid for higher education, specifically a two- or four-year college degree. About 48% indicated they were given longevity pay. Only 21% were paid for professional certifications, such as EMT, paramedic, hazmat tech, fire inspector or fire instructor. Nearly 35% said they received no incentive pay.

Benefits also varied widely. Almost 35% indicated they received comp time. Only 13% received annual bonuses, but these were also based on performance. About 48% received take-home cars. Almost 61% said they received some type of city-paid insurance. About 18% received various benefits, from matching 401k contributions to “special duties” and “paid retirement.” None received the contemporary benefits offered by proactive organizations, such as child care or elder care, flex time or telecommuting.