I’m thinking about demoting myself, is that crazy?
I’m a firefighter by trade and about 9 months ago I left my officer role on the truck to lead our training division. It was a promotion and came with some perks that help our department out, but the job is entirely different than I expected. It’s all secretarial work, with the tiniest bit of fire training sprinkled in. I really hate it, so I’ve been thinking about demoting myself back down to my old role. I miss running incidents and leading a crew. I felt really authentic doing that. I can do this new job but my hearts not in it at all.
Here’s the biggest catch: if I demote, I’m sure it’s going to prevent me from taking a chief spot again in the future, and a big part of my retirement plan involved maximizing my salary for a few years right before I leave so I can draw a better pension. I always figured I’d be the chief here in a few years, and it’s probably more expectations than my own ambition, but it seemed like that would be the case so this training job was a logical step towards it. Now, I’m wondering if I could’ve tolerated it anyway. Like maybe this job taught me that I wouldn’t be suited to an office job anyway.
Anyway, it’s a small pay drop to go back, the loss is really about the future earning potential and the plateau of my career. I still have a decade left so sticking it out to see if it gets better seems pretty daunting. I’ve got to decide in the next month or so if I’m going to demote because these ‘trial periods’ in ranks generally only last for a year before you’re stuck there. I really just want to make sure I’m not self-sabotaging because it’s uncomfortable. I love a challenge but this job isn’t hard, it’s just lame.