Life of a Probie

The new guy (known as a "probie" for probationary) often has to put up with a lot of teasing, extra work, and sometimes downright harassment. Most of it is all in good fun, such as telling him that he has to be the first one to answer the telephone when it rings - then dashing to get there ahead of him. This trick alone has accounted for at least one "time lost" injury. Reading between the line, you will realize that the dash for the telephone is hard on carpets, furniture, and firefighter's anatomy.

The new probie at Station One is not that young, has been in the military, and is a challenge to the guys trying hard to make life entertaining while picking on the probie.

So there is a Paramedic Firefighter named Joe that does field training for the new guys. He is a church going Christian and about as nice and quiet of a guy that you would ever meet. As the probie was soon to be working with Joe, the guys at Station One decided to set thing up for sheer entertainment value.

Under the guise of giving the probie some helpful advise, they warned him about the horrible temper and anger problem that Joe exhibited on rare occasions. They then picked out a few things, like the morning paper in disarray on the table and told the probie, if Joe ever finds the paper like that...well, it just would not be good for the probie's career. Of course, then they would follow around behind the probie as he scurried to arrange the paper neatly, and promptly scatter it around the table.

After about 6 months of this, the probie finally announced to the crew when they again stressed how Joe was going have a fit of rage over some minor infraction, "I am beginning to think that this is just an elaborate ruse". Which was actually a relief to Joe and the rest of the guys, since the prank had gone on for so long, some were starting to forget their role in this charade.