The idea of adding staff may seem like a pipe dream to many emergency managers. The truth is, many emergency management offices across the nation, including private, public, and non-profits are one-person shops. Oftentimes, the hardest work you ever do will be justifying the need for help when you are told, “the budget just does not allow for more staff.” On occasion, you will be allowed to bring on new staff, but there are steps that can be followed to make the process and

It today’s world, communities rely heavily on volunteer labor, and the number of potential volunteers has never been higher. Despite this, volunteer support is an ongoing struggle for organizations, in both finding and retaining quality volunteers. Resources are tight and organizations realize that in order to keep doing their work, they must look to other areas besides the traditional employee. This approach is catching on and as we see a rise in retired individuals with t

I can remember hearing when I was in college that it is important that I find a profession that I loved. If I found this, I was told that I wouldn’t work a day in my life. The thought being, if I found something that I loved, it would not seem like a job at all. The truth is, I found a career I loved, and yet I still felt like it was a job many days. It was not as if I hated my job, but I did not lose sleep each night looking forward to going in. Most of the individuals wh

How important is redundancy planning in the emergency management field? I would argue that it is very important and without it, one wrong turn could potentially lead to the program completely crashing. I joke with my students all the time that emergency managers get paid to think about the stuff that no one else is considering. This is why I push the importance of redundancy, and in fact, I would take it up a level and argue for super redundancy. I am an advocate of super

After you have decided to leave your position, you might be tempted to coast the rest of the way until you finish up, but never make this mistake. The first impression you make on an employer is important, but so is your last. It may even influence how your former bosses and colleagues view the program you created, and whether or not they keep it in place, or decide to scrap all the work you did to. Leaving your job well begins with giving proper notice, in most cases two w

The thing that makes us stand out in our career field is often times nothing more than our power to communicate. If you cannot talk about your efforts to others in a way that is both disarming and informational, you probably are not long for this career. It is true, we may get mired down in the details of emergency management and start looking in other areas for answers, but it’s not enough. We would like to think it is more about our hard work, our honesty, or other things,