Decent but consider shopping around - Anonymous employee Western States Fire Protection Employee Review

First and Foremost, Western States DOES NOT invest in their employees. They will "request" (which would be professional suicide if you said "No") for you to get training. You will have to use your personal vacation time to do this. They say they pay for the training which is half-true. They will pay for it only if you pass. Skillsets, drive, motivation, integrity, and general work ethic are not considering factors for which employees get raises or are valued more. Western cares about one thing, and one thing only; certifications. I have two NICET's and get drastically fewer hours than employees who have three or four NICET's. These other employees will show up to work late (An hour late is normal) and hold themselves in a highly unprofessional manner right in front of customers. They will take two-hour lunch breaks, drag their feet on the job, and complain that the jobs need more crew members on them; costing the company a lot of money for nothing and in some cases really angering customers. Management is either blind to this or cares not to pay attention. I honestly haven't figured out which. I cannot speak for all departments but my supervisor is notorious for casting the blame down-wind. If something goes wrong on at a job site, you can be sure you're going to receive 100 emails and phone calls all because your supervisor threw you under the bus. My supervisor will ignore/stay out of conversations and emails all because, quite frankly, they're just a coward. Just know that you will be on your own and they are always quick to assume. I also haven't seen my supervisor in probably 10-12 days. I'm not sure if they work at Western anymore but every time I try to send them an email I get the auto-response of "Sorry I'm out of the office until..." blah, blah, you know the rest. Hours are slim if you're in the field and your managers think it's funny that you can't pay rent by saying things like "You're going to miss these short weeks when it gets busy..." As if being able to get hours to pay your bills is something no one wants. Quick note; it doesn't get that busy, even when they think it is. Raises are held hostage; they sell a good pitch though. They say if you pass a NICET you get an immediate $1 raise but it takes YEARS to accumulate enough tests to get a decent raise and if after 10-15 years you finally got all of the certifications (which I find very unlikely) then that's it; no more room to grow. Lastly, they promote off of seniority, not assets and job skills, so you could end up (like in my department) with a boss who hides behind a desk because they've been there longer than any else but have no managerial, training, or people skills whatsoever.