Firehouse transfer update: Progress!!

My "exit interview" with my chief went very well. He doesn't know me very well. We haven't had much chance to interact so, he went to the officers and told them I was asking to leave, and if they had anything to say about it. To my surprise, one of them said, "Damn! Maddog? He's always in uniform, always got his shit together and he knows his stuff. Why does HE have to leave?"

I'm delighted that I'm well thought of. I'm sure that if I had known it before I made my decision to leave, I would have thought differently about transferring. In any case, I'm happy with my decision and am looking forward to shifting over.

During the interview, Chief asked me why I was leaving. I decided that it was for the best to not tell him my gripes. He's recently made chief. He's had the position before and is well respected. I see that he's already making positive changes and I don't want to sound like a whiner on my way out.

If I were to stay, I would bring up the issues and stick around to help with the solution. As I am leaving, I don't want to burn bridges and I don't want to be a complainer without offering to help fix the problem. I told chief the basic truth. I want to move to my hometown station because I want to serve the community I live in. The station is closer and I'll be in my hometown. Simple enough.

Chief saw this as an excellent reason, told me he'd personally call the chief at my hometown station and give me an excellent recommendation and then he invited me to come back and ride any time. That was nice. I left there happy and eager to get moved in to my "new" station.

--maddog