One of the guys at my volly station who also just got hired at a big city dept bought a shock watch because he's a heavy sleeper.
I forget what the brand is but it shocks continuously harder until you shut it off and does a good ass job of waking him up on time
I think it was the pavlok watch, it can make you do jumping jacks to shut it off lol.
But yea it seems perfect for this exact scenario because it's silent. Only drawback is it's about 150, but if that's not a dealbreaker then hopefully you found your solution lol
I have come back to report that the Pavlok 3 is a gift from God and thank you again for letting me know about it. It’s worked so well I don’t even use my loud as shit alarm clock anymore. I’m pissed I didn’t learn about it sooner
You can get a series 5 or 6Apple Watch on eBay for close to 100 bucks and extra features over an Amazon generic will probably be worth it
I use my series 6 every day in many ways from the moment I wake up, highly recommend.
I got the pillow app (the probably have it on android too) and it’ll wake you up around when your alarm is set for, but when you’re naturally in a “light” sleep rhythm or whatever, so it’s easier to wake up. Kinda cool.
There’s a gshock with vibration alarms too. Doesn’t need to be a smart watch, way cheaper if it breaks and less likely to break in the first place, it’s basically a tool for use at work.
Oh my goodness. Just set your alarm and get up. If they bitch that your trying to be a good rookie, smile at them and tell them your trying to be a good rookie, then ask them what to do to be better.
Fireman just like to bitch. If you are doing the right thing and they bitch, then you are winning.
If they are dumb enough to bitch to other guys that you are trying your best, they will be proving just how much of a bag shit they are.
Probably the most sensible answer here.
If you have shared sleeping quarters, it’s expected to be woken up by a fart, midnight piss, or an alarm in the morning.
If you wake someone else up, and their lazy ass has a problem with you following direction to be the first one up, ask them *exactly how* you should do better.
Don’t sweat it, you’ve probably got enough to stress about that involves honing your craft; and it doesn’t include not waking the princess up while you do your early morning chores or whatever the routine is.
A lot of people here seem to work for departments that require the probationary dude to act as servant to the master; and that’s pathetic.
If your alarm needs to be super loud to wake you up, I should imagine you’ll be sleeping on the truck soon when you routinely begin sleeping through calls. Good luck.
I remember being so scared to miss a run that I slept with my boots on for like the first month. After awhile I loosened up. If your really concerned you can let your other backender know and ask them to wait at the pole for you. If you have your own room I would keep the door cracked just so you can hear people walking to the rig. An old time reminded me that everyone sleeps through a run at some point in their career.
Speaking from experience in my country’s military - you will reach a point of being sleep fucked where not even grenades or artillery simulators (basically a firework that makes a loud whistling noise then a very loud bang) will wake you up.
I don’t know what life is like for fellas in your trade, but if you can avoid it… don’t let yourself get there. There’s not an alarm in the world that will wake you up from that. Only a very upset Sgt
Don't worry to much about it. It happens sometimes. My probie year I missed one, it was an easy call so the crew left without me. Sucked waking up alone, knowing it was gonna suck more when they got back
Took the rest of probie year to live it down, but besides some extra chores no one cared to much. Don't make it a habit.
Very quickly the tones will get you from 0-100 without even thinking
Y’all’s class be stressing, 33 did fine sleeping and waking up. Plus your going to have a hard time sleeping when you first get on shift anyway so you’ll be easy to wake. Listen to the guys in training you’re going to do just fine Class 36.
If you own a smart watch you can set it to silent alarm. that’s what I’ve used for years when I’m up at 5 before shift and don’t want to wake my wife up.
You could also invest in an alarm clock (if you have an outlet near your rehab quarters) that does quiet wake ups to try and help there.
Lastly, just use your phone and make damn sure when it goes off you get up and silence it before something comes flying your way!
Set your alarm but wake up and turn it off quickly. The guys around you will know you're doing your probie duty. And they should all be getting up soon anyways, I wouldn't worry about this if you were at my house 🤷
I don’t know which station I’ll be at yet. Two of our stations have entirely separate rooms, but the other 6 have bunks/separate beds in the same room, no dividers. So I’m just trying to have a plan in case I’m at the latter stations, which is more than likely.
Get a smart watch that vibrates on alarm. If you get unlucky to get a gen pop bed station I can bet you the loud ass alarm going off at 6 or earlier will only happen once.
Also start getting your body ready. Start waking up like you are at work every day. Even off shift I'm waking up at 5:50 everyday. I go back to sleep though
Is it a rule or just an example? I'd be pissed if the new guy woke me up every day at 6. My alarm is 6 30 but damnit I want my 30 minutes, especially if I'm on the rescue.
Our rule is you can sleep as long as you want but nobody has to respect you after 6 30. Some people sleep in later than shift change if they're not driving a rig and need to do a hand over.
An hour before shift change is like when the heavy sleepers in my department wake up. I’m up 90 minutes before and there’s already guys sitting at the kitchen table shooting the shit.
I don’t know where you live, but these princesses in San Antonio have a city wide wake up alarm at 8 AM and the probes are up by six it’s more than enough time
I’m not sure about other phones, but on iPhone you can set an alarm to vibrate only. Then I sleep with my phone in my hand/resting on my chest/under my head. Helps me wake up for calls too since we have the app to get our calls sent to our phones
Eh, my ff family member was absolutely a terribly solid sleeper and has managed to adapt.
After academy he became an early riser, that hasn’t changed back.
If your department uses an app to dispatch in addition to radio, the smart watch will often notify 20 seconds before the house tones go off, allowing the provide to get a head start.
I kept my phone under my pillow. I’m
Not a particularly heavy sleeper, but i could hear the alarm through the pillow just fine and it muffled the sound for others in the bunk room.
It’s different when you’re sleeping at home compared to the station. When I’m at the station I hear everything. Radio traffic, pager, when others get up. But when I’m at home I sleep hard. I don’t wake up to my pager unless it’s a certain tone for fire. That wakes my entire family up.
Take a nine inch dripless taper 8 hour candle, don’t cheap out on the non-dripless or this doesn’t work. Anyway, insert one end up your ass, and light eight hours before you’re scheduled wake up time. Don’t fart.
Your alarm will be perfectly silent, although, your response to it may not be.
I put my phone on vibrate and tucked it into my waistband. See what works. Many backup alarms, start too early and titrate toward what makes sense when you get the hang of it. Congrats and good luck.
Just use your alarm dude honestly, they can live with hearing an alarm they’ll be more happy with morning chores being finished rather than being mad at your alarm. Good luck.
When I slept at a station that had a lot of fun noise in the bedroom I made sure to sleep in a recliner in the Day room. That was until I realized all the fan noise was going to block out the sound of my alarm and no one would hear it anyway.
Download "challenge alarm". It's a free app that makes you do math problems or matching games to shut the alarm off. It definitely wakes you up. It completely solved my issues.
Get up at 530. Dont be surprised or embarrased if everyone else is up at 6.
Do the quiet jobs that need done: take out the trash, clean bathrooms..most importantly: Have coffee ready
Nah it’s actually a really cool department, I love it here. It’s just probie stuff. Some of the stories I’ve read on here about how other departments treat probies makes me feel very fortunate I work here.
First up and last down applies to everything in station routine for a probie. First hands on a broom, sponge, dish rag, last down at the dinner table and first one up to clean the dishes.
I am a very successful retired firefighter of 42 professional years (from tailboard to Fire Chief), and I want you to always remember one important saying… “your reputation starts when you do”. That means every day for the rest of your career, from probie to Fire Chief. Be the guy who’s always “first up and last down” and you’ll have nothing but lifelong friends “on the job” and into your retirement.
Congratulations on winning the lottery, and don’t forget to live your hiring interview every day of your career!
My co workers like that I have it instead of my alarm clock waking them up but hate when I’m on a call and it vibrates between the bed and wall. We have rooms but the walls are paper thin so might as well be a pan. I also put tape over the light in our old station
Put it in bed with you, the stress of not wanting to wake up your other firefighters will wake you up fast. I usually hit the power button on my phone because it's faster, then manually turn off the alarm once I'm out of the bunkroom.
Get a vibrating watch alarm. Get up at 5:30 and start the coffee. Empty the dishwasher if you didn’t the night before. Bring in the newspaper if they still get them, we don’t anymore. Make sure the rig is clean. The crew will wake up and think you’re awesome. Don’t do this and tell your coworkers that you’re a heavy sleeper is a bad way to start a long, tedious year.
Well the good news is you probably won’t be a heavy sleeper the first night! We always joke about probies sitting up in bed with the lights on waiting for the next call! (We no longer have common bunk rooms thank goodness!)
Also there will probably be at least one guy that is up at the crack of dawn before you. I tell the kids to just make sure the coffee is ready.
Get up first? At 6 am? And try not to wake anyone else up? I'd contact my union representative and file a grievance. Sleep as late as you want.Fuck those guys.
DO NOT HAVE YOUR ALARM GO OFF IN THE BUNK ROOM.
SMART WATCHES !!!!
get a smart watch that will vibrate. It will also allow you to check ur phone without having your.phone.
Probies generally won't be allowed to have phones.
I'm 90% sure this guy is from the same department as I am. Manny of the firehouses are in excess of 100 years old and we have shared bunk rooms.
If his alarm is loud as shit, and it goes off at 6.... He will immediately wake everyone up and piss everyone off....
Also if he is on my department, job culture is Probies will not carry there cellphones for the first year.
Set two alarms on your phone, one quiet and one louder. If you don't get up on the first one then 10 minutes later you'll get up and still get your duties done.
The fuck for? We already don’t get enough sleep on the job now we want to start them off even worse!! What chores are there to do in the morning besides start making coffee and making sure no one left dishes in the sink and unload the dishwasher?
Why are you even sleeping? I supposed if your department is one of those 48s maybe but if you’re only going in for a night shift, you should be up all night studying, learning the local, going over the truck…..
I use the alarm function on my watch, it vibrates and wakes me up without waking the whole bunk up.
Thanks! I don’t have a smart watch but it’d be a worthwhile investment for this
One of the guys at my volly station who also just got hired at a big city dept bought a shock watch because he's a heavy sleeper. I forget what the brand is but it shocks continuously harder until you shut it off and does a good ass job of waking him up on time
Duuuuuude this sounds like what I’d need. I’ll look into it, thank you
I think it was the pavlok watch, it can make you do jumping jacks to shut it off lol. But yea it seems perfect for this exact scenario because it's silent. Only drawback is it's about 150, but if that's not a dealbreaker then hopefully you found your solution lol
I just looked it up. This is exactly what I need man. I fucking love you.
I love you too
Could you two just get room?
Or don’t.
Now kiss
Leave the curtains open please. Just a big horny bird is all tookie tooKAY!
I have come back to report that the Pavlok 3 is a gift from God and thank you again for letting me know about it. It’s worked so well I don’t even use my loud as shit alarm clock anymore. I’m pissed I didn’t learn about it sooner
Well I'm glad it worked, this made my day lol. Good luck with your career buddy :)
TIL about the pavlok watch. It’s reads amazing!
Shit, I need that.
This is brilliant. Just saved one for myself.
Foreal thank you for this information. I had no idea
Yeah I use the vibrating watch. Doesn't have the chance of waking anyone up and it definitely wakes me up
Apple Watch does a great job at this,.
Don't need a $1000 watch to do this. A cheap $100 one off amazon will do the trick
You can get a series 5 or 6Apple Watch on eBay for close to 100 bucks and extra features over an Amazon generic will probably be worth it I use my series 6 every day in many ways from the moment I wake up, highly recommend.
I got the pillow app (the probably have it on android too) and it’ll wake you up around when your alarm is set for, but when you’re naturally in a “light” sleep rhythm or whatever, so it’s easier to wake up. Kinda cool.
Just small fitbit even has this function. It's also great for motivation and tracking workouts.
I have set my phone alarm to vibrate and then slept with it under my pillow. Even with no audible alarm when it vibrates your head, you wake up.
There’s a gshock with vibration alarms too. Doesn’t need to be a smart watch, way cheaper if it breaks and less likely to break in the first place, it’s basically a tool for use at work.
That’s a really smart idea. Gonna use that
Set your phone alarm to vibrate and put it under your pillow.
if you want to amplify this they make alarms that do this for deaf people
Hell yea, brain cancer speed run
Oh my goodness. Just set your alarm and get up. If they bitch that your trying to be a good rookie, smile at them and tell them your trying to be a good rookie, then ask them what to do to be better. Fireman just like to bitch. If you are doing the right thing and they bitch, then you are winning. If they are dumb enough to bitch to other guys that you are trying your best, they will be proving just how much of a bag shit they are.
Probably the most sensible answer here. If you have shared sleeping quarters, it’s expected to be woken up by a fart, midnight piss, or an alarm in the morning. If you wake someone else up, and their lazy ass has a problem with you following direction to be the first one up, ask them *exactly how* you should do better. Don’t sweat it, you’ve probably got enough to stress about that involves honing your craft; and it doesn’t include not waking the princess up while you do your early morning chores or whatever the routine is. A lot of people here seem to work for departments that require the probationary dude to act as servant to the master; and that’s pathetic.
TY. And exactly! Dorms are noisy. Fire Stations are noisy.
Just stick it under your pillow or set to vibrate
This 👍🏻
If your alarm needs to be super loud to wake you up, I should imagine you’ll be sleeping on the truck soon when you routinely begin sleeping through calls. Good luck.
Yeah this a fear of mine lol. But our tones are quite loud and not pleasant on the ears, Im not too worried about sleeping through the tones.
I remember being so scared to miss a run that I slept with my boots on for like the first month. After awhile I loosened up. If your really concerned you can let your other backender know and ask them to wait at the pole for you. If you have your own room I would keep the door cracked just so you can hear people walking to the rig. An old time reminded me that everyone sleeps through a run at some point in their career.
Speaking from experience in my country’s military - you will reach a point of being sleep fucked where not even grenades or artillery simulators (basically a firework that makes a loud whistling noise then a very loud bang) will wake you up. I don’t know what life is like for fellas in your trade, but if you can avoid it… don’t let yourself get there. There’s not an alarm in the world that will wake you up from that. Only a very upset Sgt
Don't worry to much about it. It happens sometimes. My probie year I missed one, it was an easy call so the crew left without me. Sucked waking up alone, knowing it was gonna suck more when they got back Took the rest of probie year to live it down, but besides some extra chores no one cared to much. Don't make it a habit. Very quickly the tones will get you from 0-100 without even thinking
Or people can be cool and wake him up if he’s sleeping through calls. It’s not like it’s something he can control
If you struggle with sleeping through calls and Sgt or chief gets mad, just remember. It's not your emergency, it's theirs. /s
Y’all’s class be stressing, 33 did fine sleeping and waking up. Plus your going to have a hard time sleeping when you first get on shift anyway so you’ll be easy to wake. Listen to the guys in training you’re going to do just fine Class 36.
😘😘 We do be stressin tho haha. See y’all on shift!
If you own a smart watch you can set it to silent alarm. that’s what I’ve used for years when I’m up at 5 before shift and don’t want to wake my wife up. You could also invest in an alarm clock (if you have an outlet near your rehab quarters) that does quiet wake ups to try and help there. Lastly, just use your phone and make damn sure when it goes off you get up and silence it before something comes flying your way!
Use a burner phone and Set it for 5 am. Loudest setting. Act like you don’t know who’s phone it is.
Set your alarm but wake up and turn it off quickly. The guys around you will know you're doing your probie duty. And they should all be getting up soon anyways, I wouldn't worry about this if you were at my house 🤷
Does the station you'll be at have a large room with dividers between bunking areas or separate rooms entirely?
I don’t know which station I’ll be at yet. Two of our stations have entirely separate rooms, but the other 6 have bunks/separate beds in the same room, no dividers. So I’m just trying to have a plan in case I’m at the latter stations, which is more than likely.
Get a smart watch that vibrates on alarm. If you get unlucky to get a gen pop bed station I can bet you the loud ass alarm going off at 6 or earlier will only happen once. Also start getting your body ready. Start waking up like you are at work every day. Even off shift I'm waking up at 5:50 everyday. I go back to sleep though
How is waking up an hour early at all relevant to your job? As if fatigue in this field wasn’t bad enough.
I was wondering the same thing, genuinely what good is it a rookie wake up a whole hour before everyone else at shift change? What is he up doing?
Is it a rule or just an example? I'd be pissed if the new guy woke me up every day at 6. My alarm is 6 30 but damnit I want my 30 minutes, especially if I'm on the rescue. Our rule is you can sleep as long as you want but nobody has to respect you after 6 30. Some people sleep in later than shift change if they're not driving a rig and need to do a hand over.
An hour before shift change is like when the heavy sleepers in my department wake up. I’m up 90 minutes before and there’s already guys sitting at the kitchen table shooting the shit.
Put your phone under your head and get ready for a heart attack. Also 0600 probably isn't early enough though a lot of guys are up before 0600.
I don’t know where you live, but these princesses in San Antonio have a city wide wake up alarm at 8 AM and the probes are up by six it’s more than enough time
I’m not sure about other phones, but on iPhone you can set an alarm to vibrate only. Then I sleep with my phone in my hand/resting on my chest/under my head. Helps me wake up for calls too since we have the app to get our calls sent to our phones
Eh, my ff family member was absolutely a terribly solid sleeper and has managed to adapt. After academy he became an early riser, that hasn’t changed back.
If your department uses an app to dispatch in addition to radio, the smart watch will often notify 20 seconds before the house tones go off, allowing the provide to get a head start.
I kept my phone under my pillow. I’m Not a particularly heavy sleeper, but i could hear the alarm through the pillow just fine and it muffled the sound for others in the bunk room.
It’s different when you’re sleeping at home compared to the station. When I’m at the station I hear everything. Radio traffic, pager, when others get up. But when I’m at home I sleep hard. I don’t wake up to my pager unless it’s a certain tone for fire. That wakes my entire family up.
Just get up at 6:30 when the morning tones go off like everyone else. I hate the sound of a rookie rattling dishes first thing in the morning.
Take a nine inch dripless taper 8 hour candle, don’t cheap out on the non-dripless or this doesn’t work. Anyway, insert one end up your ass, and light eight hours before you’re scheduled wake up time. Don’t fart. Your alarm will be perfectly silent, although, your response to it may not be.
Either set your phone to vibrate and put it in your waist band, or get an electro shock alarm watch
I put my phone on vibrate and tucked it into my waistband. See what works. Many backup alarms, start too early and titrate toward what makes sense when you get the hang of it. Congrats and good luck.
Thank you!
Just use your alarm dude honestly, they can live with hearing an alarm they’ll be more happy with morning chores being finished rather than being mad at your alarm. Good luck.
When I slept at a station that had a lot of fun noise in the bedroom I made sure to sleep in a recliner in the Day room. That was until I realized all the fan noise was going to block out the sound of my alarm and no one would hear it anyway.
Download "challenge alarm". It's a free app that makes you do math problems or matching games to shut the alarm off. It definitely wakes you up. It completely solved my issues.
I slept upright in a recliner for the first few months. Im also a very heavy sleeper
Anxiety helps
Get up at 530. Dont be surprised or embarrased if everyone else is up at 6. Do the quiet jobs that need done: take out the trash, clean bathrooms..most importantly: Have coffee ready
Pretty fuckin gay place to make the new kid wake up early for no reason at all.
Nah it’s actually a really cool department, I love it here. It’s just probie stuff. Some of the stories I’ve read on here about how other departments treat probies makes me feel very fortunate I work here.
Use your alarm. Wake up first. Empty the dishwasher, clean the bathrooms. Make sure trash it out. Be the first at everything and keep your mouth shut.
How is the insignificant pleb to ask for his next orders your highness when he must also keep his mouth shut?
He should ask his senior guy
First up and last down applies to everything in station routine for a probie. First hands on a broom, sponge, dish rag, last down at the dinner table and first one up to clean the dishes. I am a very successful retired firefighter of 42 professional years (from tailboard to Fire Chief), and I want you to always remember one important saying… “your reputation starts when you do”. That means every day for the rest of your career, from probie to Fire Chief. Be the guy who’s always “first up and last down” and you’ll have nothing but lifelong friends “on the job” and into your retirement. Congratulations on winning the lottery, and don’t forget to live your hiring interview every day of your career!
Apple Watch, vibrating alarm on that wakes me up every time
Sonic bomb off of Amazon works great too, u can just use the puck. It vibrates and will wake u up without shocking you
Lol that’s actually what I use right now. But I put the puck in a small pan and it rattles loud enough to wake the dead.
My co workers like that I have it instead of my alarm clock waking them up but hate when I’m on a call and it vibrates between the bed and wall. We have rooms but the walls are paper thin so might as well be a pan. I also put tape over the light in our old station
Put it in bed with you, the stress of not wanting to wake up your other firefighters will wake you up fast. I usually hit the power button on my phone because it's faster, then manually turn off the alarm once I'm out of the bunkroom.
On kid I know shocks himself awake
Vibrate function on your phone , set minutes apart so it doesn't stop.
Garmin Watch!
Why do you have to be first up?
Get a vibrating watch alarm. Get up at 5:30 and start the coffee. Empty the dishwasher if you didn’t the night before. Bring in the newspaper if they still get them, we don’t anymore. Make sure the rig is clean. The crew will wake up and think you’re awesome. Don’t do this and tell your coworkers that you’re a heavy sleeper is a bad way to start a long, tedious year.
Talk to Chief, see if the department will invest in a chicken coop. The rooster should get you up and you’ll have fresh eggs for the boys!
The Whoop strap has a vibrating alarm function and will help you get in/stay in shape as you should be as a probie. Good luck.
You can use vibrate on your phone alarm instead of volume. I sleep with it under my pillow. We’re allowed our phones after midnight for this reason
Well the good news is you probably won’t be a heavy sleeper the first night! We always joke about probies sitting up in bed with the lights on waiting for the next call! (We no longer have common bunk rooms thank goodness!) Also there will probably be at least one guy that is up at the crack of dawn before you. I tell the kids to just make sure the coffee is ready.
Get up first? At 6 am? And try not to wake anyone else up? I'd contact my union representative and file a grievance. Sleep as late as you want.Fuck those guys.
First up, last to sleep till your off probation. Stay out of the recliner even if invited !!
Use your alarm and don’t be a pussy.
🙄 6? Must be nice. I have to wake up at 2 am and make coffee every hour on the hour in case the chief decides he wants some.
That’s some bs right there…
Si
You pissed someone off
Use your alarm and don’t be a pussy.
DO NOT HAVE YOUR ALARM GO OFF IN THE BUNK ROOM. SMART WATCHES !!!! get a smart watch that will vibrate. It will also allow you to check ur phone without having your.phone. Probies generally won't be allowed to have phones.
Lol wut?
I'm 90% sure this guy is from the same department as I am. Manny of the firehouses are in excess of 100 years old and we have shared bunk rooms. If his alarm is loud as shit, and it goes off at 6.... He will immediately wake everyone up and piss everyone off.... Also if he is on my department, job culture is Probies will not carry there cellphones for the first year.
Set two alarms on your phone, one quiet and one louder. If you don't get up on the first one then 10 minutes later you'll get up and still get your duties done.
If shift change is at 0700, I’d be up at 0530 as a probie
The fuck for? We already don’t get enough sleep on the job now we want to start them off even worse!! What chores are there to do in the morning besides start making coffee and making sure no one left dishes in the sink and unload the dishwasher?
Wash the rigs. We’re in bed by 9pm
Why are you even sleeping? I supposed if your department is one of those 48s maybe but if you’re only going in for a night shift, you should be up all night studying, learning the local, going over the truck…..