Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Is Your Job Security Joyless? | What Changes after Marriage?

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

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This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 175, sitting here with Echo Charles, about to review some of your questions about leadership and life and give you some courses of actions, perhaps some guidance, perhaps some advice to follow. And that's what we've got. Let's get into it. I'm 24. I've been on the past since 2018 and always wanted to become a pararescuman. After having a year and a half medical dispute of a few minor injuries with the airfield, I've been on the past. force. And starting a family at the end of it left me with no mission after 10 years of thorough planning of a job career in the U.S. military. I followed your advice and became a volunteer

fireman in 2022. It has become my passion. I work out three times a week and wash the trucks after my workouts to show my commitment. In the past year, I've been trying out for career departments since this is an industry I love. One particularly with steady benefits in near my home, with a slight risk of termination, if not obtaining a paramedic license after three years. However, I currently work in a lime plant with steady benefits, good coworkers,

the fully paid for bachelor's degree, a high chance of obtaining management in five years, and job security. My question is, do I leave a steady job that rarely gives me joy for a career, that I enjoy part time or there's uncertainty if I will love it full time. 24 on, 48 off. Yeah, well, that comes out as a little concern there at the end is, you know,

deciding if you, how are you going to put up with that lifestyle, right? Of 24 on, 48 off, that's a different type of lifestyle. And I know firefighters and they don't do 24 on 48 off, but they'll do, yeah, They do 24 on, then like two days off, then 24 on, then four days off. It's a weird schedule. And you got to figure out if, you know, if you like that type of lifestyle, and that's a huge part of it. I think what I would do if I were you is I would volunteer to go do a ride-along for like a weekend for like a full 24-hour period. Like go, you know, Friday afternoon and stay until Saturday afternoon and then do that the next weekend as well and kind of get a feel for what

it's like for real to do that job full time. Maybe even take a few vacation days. You know what I'm saying? Maybe take a few vacation days and go and do it to see what it's like. And if you happen to be like, oh yeah, that was awesome, I really love doing it. And 24 hours was cool. It took me, you know, 10 hours of sleep the next day. I was able to recover and I felt good.

And I was back on track. And it didn't mess me up too bad. And I still got to see my family a bunch because on the two days that I had off, I don't see what it's like. And if you really love that lifestyle, that's awesome. Keep volunteering for it. Get your EMT, by the way, get your paramedics license. You can do that through whatever school.

And then just keep applying for the full-time job while you keep your job at the lime plant. And then eventually, I would imagine with your record and becoming a paramedic and becoming an EMT and volunteering a bunch, eventually I would imagine you would get picked up. And then when you do get picked up, you can go full time. And if you don't get picked up, well, then cool. You're continuing to volunteer and be a volunteer firefighter and do as much as you can and have a good job at the line plan and do good work there. Or if you decide that when you go down and you do a ride-along for 24 hours and you're like,

yo, eight hours was okay, 16 hours kind of suck, 24 hours is too much. Then cool continue to be in a volunteer firefighter and continue working at the line plant. It kind of concerns me that you say you have a steady job that rarely gives me joy. Like that's a little bit concerning to me because you don't want to work. You're 24 years old. You don't want to spend 30 years doing a job that rarely gives you joy. Like there's a lot of, you know, I work construction and out as a kid. I love doing that.

Like it's cool. You're building something. You can see what you did every day. You're learning a skill. You're outside. you're swinging a hammer, you're doing cool stuff. Like, that's kind of cool. So there's jobs that you can do that you should find,

and at least at a minimum, the people that you're working with, hey, we're having a good time. We laugh it up. We, you know, we go to lunch together. Like, I have good relationships with people. Like, that's cool. You got a hard job? Cool.

But we get the hard job done together. So, you know, I would just kind of pay attention to that. The other part of it is, I don't think, I think in many cases, joy doesn't find you. You have to find joy. And I know that if you kind of reframe your job and I don't know what specifically you do at the lime plant, but, you know, if you reframe it in your mind that what you have to do is something that you get to do and you get to do it to the best of your ability and whatever

the measure of success there, you strive to do a great job and you're proud of your work. I always like to talk about the fact that I get like social media posts and people will share with me, they're a plumber and they put in, you know, dug in a pipeline and everything's cleaned and squared away. Like, they're an electrician and everything's totally dialed in. Or they're a mason and their block work is freaking awesome. And those are all hard jobs or linemen that are up, you know, sending videos of them, flying helicopters onto power lines,

getting the things fixed and squared away. Like those are hard jobs. What's the word? There's not much thanks for those jobs. Like people don't, every time I turn on the light in my house, I don't thank a lineman. You should.

You should. Every time you flush the toilet, you don't thank a plumber, but you should. So, but there's people that are proud of those jobs and they find joy in those jobs. What I was going to say is, I don't think joy finds you.

I think you have to find joy in what you're doing. I'll say that again. I don't think you find, I don't think joy finds you. I think you have to find joy in what you're doing. I always found joy. And look, being the SEAL times,

teams, you hear me say a thousand times, the best job ever. But if you think, freezing your ass off, sitting on a beach after you swam over the beach and you're waiting for 12 hours

for the Marines to land in an administrative situation, It's the best job ever. If you think that that right there is really fun, you're wrong. It sucks. But I found joy in that. Like, we're doing this. It's kick ass.

So be an awesome at the line plant, whatever you do there. Can you move up into a leadership position? Can you manage the line from, you know, can you become a leader of some kind there? Can you become an expert in some kind of some kind there? Like, what can you do so that the job, You love the job because that makes me worried when I I don't want to hear from someone that they rarely get joy from their job that I don't like the sounds of that But if you found out that you didn't really get a lot of joy from 24 hours of firefighting Then you may not want to step into it full time you might want to stay in the reserves and you may want to figure out what the right real career for you is or

Find joy in the current career that you have and that's what I'm doing thanks for your service as a firefighting much appreciated that's what I got next question do you have any advice on getting after it to maintain fitness and show up early stay late mindset while having a wife and kids that depend on you I have two I have a two year old son with autism and I've been happily married four years and I couldn't have done it without you guys thank you yeah so so one thing I'm kind of I'm kind of have to read into this question a little bit. Getting after it to maintain fitness and show up early, stay late mindset, it seems like

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