I really want to talk about the belief that millennials have ruined the volunteer fire service. It came up a couple of times in my dissertation interviews, but it's thing. So much so that support materials for fire services have to address it. 1/6

The National Volunteer Fire Council, "This generation [millennials] has received a lot of bad press as having a “NOW” attitude and feelings of entitlement, yet these are stereotypes that do not delve further into the qualities and attributes of most people of this generation. 2/6

This particular demographic wasn’t raised to automatically respect an individual simply because the person is their elder. Fire service leaders have to prove themselves to millennials and earn their respect." 3/6

It's just interesting to me. Like, there's a real bitterness and resentment vibe underlying this belief. Even while the reasons that young people don't volunteer are well-known and also included in the same materials. 4/6

Volunteer departments are mostly in rural areas where there's less economic opportunity/significant trends of depopulation. People are prohibited from leaving their jobs to volunteer, or don't want to lose missed wages. The demands of have significantly increased due to more 5/6

emergencies... especially medical emergencies with our nation's poor health care & insurance systems, again especially in rural areas... but we're gonna scapegoat millennials? They can't work for free because there's no substantial safety nets that allow volunteering. 6/6

I would interview fire/ems officials and personnel and they would say things about how this generation just doesn't care about other people or the greater good... but also talk about how there were little to no young people left in their communities... There's such a disconnect.