An overtime crisis

Lt. Brad Goode carries a recoiled fire hose back to Station 32’s engine after extinguishing a structure fire that engulfed a detached garage in a residential neighborhood in flames [Caroline Brauchler/Ocala Gazette].

Imagine finishing a grueling, 24-hour shift only to find out you’ve been assigned to work another 24 hours. This is the grim reality for many Marion County Fire Rescue firefighters who, because of staffing shortages, are required to work mandatory overtime.

MCFR personnel can volunteer to work extra shifts, for extra pay. But many are not given the option and are being called in when they least expect it. This not only takes time away from their personal lives, it cuts the amount of recovery time they have between shifts.

Lt. Victoria Barreras and Lt. Brad Goode at Friendship Station 21, the busiest fire station in Marion County, recently gave the “Gazette” insights into the difficulties the department has with being short staffed, working overtime and retaining good employees.

MCFR’s current schedule is for employees to work 24 hours and then have 48 hours off. But often, when someone is called for mandatory overtime, they must work for two shifts in a row. On May 6, for example, 30 MCFR employees were working overtime, both mandated and voluntarily. Overtime is calculated as an excess of 106 hours during a 14-day pay cycle.

While working overtime, employees are paid 1.5 times their usual hourly rate. Mandatory overtime is triggered when there is no one left to voluntarily work overtime but an opening in the schedule must be filled to meet the department’s operational standards, according to MCFR policy.

With many firefighters being frequently called for mandatory overtime, firefighters’ pay often is inflated and misconstrued.

“That skews a little bit of when you look at what firefighters make,” Barreras said. “You can say one person makes $100,000 or something a year, but he’s literally working 48 hours on, with one day off, instead of working one day on and two days off.”

Choosing who must work mandatory overtime is based on a rotating list, with the most recent hires being chosen first.

“During situations when normal operational staffing cannot be maintained and all voluntary requests for overtime have been exhausted, the primary Division Chief may impose mandatory overtime to maintain a state of ‘Operational Readiness.’ Personnel from the off-going shift will be assigned overtime from a list based upon a “last-hired” process,” according to the policy.

As of May, there are 54 vacancies within the department. On May 29, three people were promoted to division chief and nine others were promoted to battalion chief. This does not fill any of the open vacancies but instead shifts around the roles that are vacant.

Because of these promotions to higher positions, lower-level positions—such as for firefighter paramedics and driver engineers—will have fewer personnel, increasing the likelihood of mandatory overtime for the majority of the department.

Due to the nature of the job, sleep deprivation is a common issue faced among firefighters, with calls often coming at night. Firefighters must remain alert and prepared at all times, even when resting at the station.

“Many firefighters experience sleep disruptions or disorders that stem directly from their work. With a job that demands 24/7 alertness and responsiveness, sleep is often put on the backburner,” according to the Firefighter Health and Safety Collaborative.

Working overtime not only further disrupts sleep but takes away recovery time intended to be utilized between shifts.

“While there are many areas in which we can improve the physical health of our workforce, reducing sleep deprivation requires a significant reduction of workload in conjunction with increasing the interval between shifts for appropriate recovery and the reduction of mandatory overtime,” wrote MCFR Chief James Banta.

A possible solution that has been discussed would change the schedule to give firefighters 24 hours on, and 72 hours off to decrease mandatory overtime and increase retention.

“The department has to be competitive,” Barreras said. “For example, when we talk about the sleep deprivation, a lot of departments like Gainesville and a couple of the places are going to a 24-on, 72-off schedule.”

Marion County community leaders requested a survey by the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in November 2023 called “Firefighter Resilience Blue Sky,” which assessed a number of ways to improve resilience amongst firefighters.

The 24-on, 72-off schedule garnered support in the survey, with many participants voting to explore the potential benefits of the change in schedule to allow for one more full recovery day between shifts. Marion County officials established a goal to “work toward more consistent shifts and less mandatory overtime.”

Changing the department’s schedule would be a challenge, requiring a large amount of financial and human resources to accomplish.

“Our initial look would be roughly $30 million in recurring costs to salaries and wages with an additional 200 (full–time employees),” wrote Banta. “That number could change as we take a deeper look at opportunities for some cost savings in overtime.”

Other departments also offer days off accounted into firefighters’ schedules, not taken from sick leave or vacation time.

Marion County does not offer a “Kelly Day” to its firefighters, a designated day throughout one’s schedule where they have time off.

The Emergency Medical Services High Performance (HP) side of the department does receive these benefits, which can be attractive to paramedics who are considering working in Marion County.

“Our HP side has a Kelly Day, but we do not have a Kelly Day,” Barreras said. “Agencies that are going to have that have a big draw for experienced paramedics.”

Retention of experienced employees is also difficult for the department without many of the benefits that another department could offer, Goode said.

“The reason that we hire people is because we’re the first ones to call them because we’re always hiring. We’re always short staffed,” Goode said. “So, they’ll work here until they can get a job at a different department, with either a better wage package or benefits package.”

Marion County has worked on increasing wages and benefits for MCFR personnel, as exemplified in the renegotiation of the Professional Firefighters of Marion County union contract this past year.

The demands on the department and its staff still exist, however, and are only exasperated through a high volume of calls, which is only getting higher as Marion County experiences large amounts of growth.

“Just in our zone, I can think off the top of my head of four separate apartment buildings going up, plus the houses that are going up,” Barreras said. “You have that many more vehicles, that many more people, that many more geriatric residents. So, that equals many more calls.”