Where is the Balance?

Finding a balance between your work and home life can be tougher than it sounds. However, the schedules typically offered as first responders can make that a bit easier due to more consecutive hours worked along with more consecutive time off. It also makes it a perfect chance to work overtime, take on side jobs, or for the more opportunistic entrepreneurs - start their own business. Regardless of the path you choose, you need to discuss with yourself and your spouse your life's priorities and where the balance should be.

I would almost be the last person you want to listen to when finding your work/life balance. I've been in the fire service for over 20 years, but my drive to work started much earlier. I learned from watching my parents work 6 days a week with offset schedules to ensure someone was always home with their kids. That setup is eerily similar to what my wife and I did when we started our family. My schedule rotated, so she worked a flexible job around mine.

It worked out well, considering we didn't have to pay for childcare when my twin girls were young. But, what started as "what I've always known" led to a path prioritizing work over personal time. Be it time for myself or my family, I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference because that's how I've always done it.

I spent nearly 15 years working side jobs in construction and EMS. In this day and age, who doesn't, right? Overtime was not always available, but I took it whenever it popped up. Some departments have seemingly unlimited overtime (probably the best and worst scenario regarding work/life balance), and others are nonexistent. Because my overtime chances were always spotty, working another job to guarantee income was the more stable choice.

Then life took an unexpected turn.

A hobby of mine quickly spawned into a business venture. Ridgeway Leatherworks, as it eventually became known, started out as something I practically forced myself into as a creative release. It was certainly never intended to be a business. But it was undeniable that the potential was there the more time I spent learning the trade.

Rather quickly, my hobby became a job dominating a huge part of my life. Although I thought I was a busy person before Ridgeway's inception, it could have never prepared me for what owning a successful business would entail. The energy, the excitement, and the pride that comes from people not only wanting something you handcrafted but are willing to wait two months for it is immeasurable. It drove me to eat, sleep, and breathe Ridgeway Leatherworks all day long. Work became seven days a week - 2 in the firehouse and 5 in the workshop.

I hadn't considered then how much stress I was putting on myself and my family. Working in emergency services is stressful enough, whether you run 500 or 5,000 calls. Running a full-time business alongside a full-time job has proved brutal.

I spent years looking at the benefits while ignoring the negatives. It took me some years, but I eventually had to force myself into a position where I took time off to enjoy life. I had to do this to keep both the fire service in my life and the business running.

How you balance your personal and professional time is all on you. Are you working that overtime shift to pay some bills, to get ahead, or just because you love doing the work? As someone that has burnt both ends of the candle for several years, it becomes a more critical question as life continues. What is all the work for if you don't take the time to enjoy it while you're still here? Your kids don't get younger as time goes on. The gear you spent good money on for your favorite hobby is just collecting dust.

We slowly trade away too many life moments for something we will always be chasing after anyway. Where is your balance in life? It took me quite some time to catch on, but I sure am happy I'm here.

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Rob Meyer has been in the fire service for over 20 years, his last 17 being a career firefighter in Monroe Township, NJ currently assigned to Ladder 23. He has owned and operated Ridgeway Leatherworks since 2015 where he and his crew handcraft durable leather goods for the fire and emergency medical services.