'Survivor' Tom Back In Real World

It's back to work for Tom Westman. For now.

The victor in "Survivor, Palau" returned to his post as a New York City Fire Department lieutenant Thursday for the first time since picking up his $1 million winner's check.

The Early Show's cameras and co-anchor Harry Smith

But even as he got back down to business, the second generation NYC firefighter conceded he's mulling a career change, and his newly bulging bank account is only one part of the equation.

Westman admits he "had butterflies" in his stomach as he approached Ladder Company 108 in Brooklyn, "like when I came in here 20 years ago as a probie, and just that same sort of nervous energy.

"To come in today and greet the guys," he continued, "I've seen a few of them in the past week, but things have been so crazy that we kind of hadn't had the time together."

Asked if his long fire department career helped him in "Survivor," Westman said, "Two credits I give for this win is for my wife, for sending me out there and saying to 'Just be yourself," and even when I was out there, when the game was going on, I was so conscious that those competitions had that same kind of intensity, where you just threw yourself at them, the way we do a fire. And I had the (NYC Fire Department) shirt on my back. I kinda knew I was representing them out there."

Still, Westman admitted he's not sure he'll be sticking with the fire department for long: "That discussion is going on right now. My wife, of course, just for the safety issue wants me to move on and find my next career. She says, 'You were going to consider making a move anyway at 20 years, so why should this change that? This should accelerate it.' And I can't deny that."

Westman is approaching the end of his second decade on the job, which qualifies him for retirement with full benefits.

"But these guys are your family," Smith noted. "How can you walk away from these guys?"

"And that is the point," Westman responded. "How can any of us ever do it? When you love the game and you love the guys you work with."

"Are they treating you with the respect you deserve?" Smith wondered.

"Well, yes," Westman observed. "And I think the respect I deserve, they realize, is very little respect. You put yourself out there on reality TV, you've given these guys a real good target.

"So until the big screen TV arrives here in the (firehouse) kitchen as a gift, then I think these guys will get a little more on board," he laughed.

Fellow firefighter Tommy Murphy told Smith he's not the least bit surprised Westman came back to work, despite suddenly having all that money to his name.

"He loves it here. It's his second home," Murphy pointed out.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded, and the crew rushed to a fire in the basement of a "brownstone" apartment building, Westman's first call since returning.

"It's a thrill winning a competition," Westman told Smith at the scene, "and an immunity challenge and things like that, but it doesn't match this."

If Westman does retire, he says he'd like to find something he is just as passionate about.

As for the $1million, Westman says he plans to use most of the money to pay for college for his three kids.