Author: Mark Alexander

From Sixbears in the Woods:

How much of your activity is constrained by following stupid rules? Quite a bit, I bet.

I used to work with a fellow firefighter who was an inspiration. They guy liked driving the ladder truck. He was good at it and enjoyed that level of responsibility. With that in mind he never went for promotions. The guy also didn’t care about impressing the officers above him. If he didn’t want to do something he didn’t do. For some reason the officers feared him. My coworker never abused that power, so the few times he used it stood out.

The Fire Chief made a rule that nobody could wash their car at work. That was something that usually happened on the night shift when times were slow. On a quiet night sometimes someone would bring their car into the basement and give it a quick hose down. My ladderman buddy never washed his car -ever. That is, until the rule against it was made. He pulled his car in front of the station in the middle of the day and washed it in plain view of everybody. The chief looked at that and quietly asked him to wash his car in the back from now on. That ended the no car wash rule.

My friend wasn’t afraid of getting fired so those threats had no hold over him. He had a pretty enjoyable employment and stayed until retirement. The man taught me the value of living without fear and not giving a F**k.

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