Production: Are they getting their money's worth?

I was talking with a friend the other day, and he was telling me what he observed at a nearby department. He told me that these individuals came into work and worked very hard at finding their way to the front of the television. Some of the staff was looking for a nap before breakfast had even hit the table. I realize this is not going to be the most popular of discussions and I expect I might not be very popular for entering it either, but are we not responsible for our actions or lack of action? Can we take just a second to look at ourselves? Are we really giving them their money's worth as a whole? I'm not talking about, are we compensated enough? We all know the answer to that one. What I'm asking is, when you go home in the morning, and you hang your gear on the wall, can you truly say, I really worked hard today and we did what we could to meet the expectations of the community. Or, what the heck, we attempted to go beyond what is expected. Did you and your members somehow improve the safety of the public? Or, did you watch more TV then the typical 7 year old on Saturday morning?

Of course every one will say "NOT MY DEPARTMENT," but maybe the neighboring department. Yeah, that's it. The "Neighboring department" isn't doing what they should. What ever the case, just give your honest opinion on the subject. Please, I ask that you do not mention any department names as this could obviously become a sticky subject. And volunteer departments are certainly not exempt from this discussion. Remember, a volunteer still has a duty to act. A mentor once told me, "Volunteer Firefighters, volunteers twice in their career. They volunteer to become a member and they volunteer to retire. Everything in between is called duty."