I have very much missed blogging. I have taken several months off, nearly 9 months blogger tells me. I didn't abandon things here, I was confused, up somewhat distracted by other happenings. I know a dedicated blogger sticks to it. During last fall and winter I assisted on a little part time job a few days a month. I am not sure where that money went, other than being spent, and nothing to really show for it, plus I am going to have to pay taxes on it later.
I did experiment with Twitter, which I did find is easy for small rants, but I find difficulty in cramming my screams of attitude into the 120 characters. Plus I feel shrinking down my words to jargon lose the affect of my actual rants and complaints.
I am still alive, and dispatching. I am still in it to retire, at least the rest of the year.
I have had some real struggles that I have had to deal with this year. I lost a family member which I took hard. There have also been some calls that have stuck in my head longer than normal. I once thought I was unemotional and burnt out. I have decided that is not the case, I am just more cautious about how and when my emotions come out. I do more thinking as I work and often find myself emotional about something out of no where.
A while back I took my first suicidal caller. I thought for sure this was going to be the one that caused me to want out of the career, this one made me have trouble sleeping, and made me nervous. I did everything I could, offered an ear to listen, and offered suggestions on why they should not do it. I still felt like I had not done enough. I was too in tune with the caller to break away and mute the phone and miss something important. This caller was not giving up much, he gave his age, and about his live and family. He was very vague, he knew I was trying to get information. I ran the age range in our system with the general location where the cellular phone was plotting. The caller started the call initially with the comment "I'm thinking about killing myself what do you think about that?" How do you respond to that. We discussed life, money, children, etc. Soon it came out how long he had been married, he felt like he had a good life. The only thing he was complaining about was that he felt that his wife of many years did not love him. How do you respond to that? I didn't know and tried to change the subject. I was able to keep the call open about 15-20 minutes continually trying to sneak in a question to get information. After a while he advised he felt better and thanked me for listening. I told him anything he needed I was here to listen. He wanted to end the call, and I had nothing else I could say. He ended up hanging up on me. I had a call back number for a cellular telephone. I could call the cellular company with an officers approval and signature and try and get an emergency locate, but they are not very accurate normally. I called the law enforcement agency who would be responsible and relayed all information I could obtain. I got a call from an officer from the agency and explained all the information again. I was hoping the cell phone plot was right on or close. But so early in the morning the chances of actually making contact and stopping something was straining me so bad. I sat in my chair shaking my leg, shaking myself hoping we could save this caller. The officer arrived at the residence I had pointed to, based on the call location plot. It was a terrible 20 minutes or so, while the officer was speaking with the caller. Another few minutes passed and the caller was taken voluntarily to the hospital to speak with a counselor. This was one of the most nerve racking calls I have taken in a while, if ever in my career.
I felt helpless, sure I have taken crisis intervention class, back when I was started, but would you think I would remember that under pressure? I pulled the cheat protocol flip book and looked for questions and suggestions. I had done nearly everything already that was on the list. I felt good about that but still felt like I was lost.
To go back earlier this year a bit.... We had a new dispatcher, who was quick to be a part of the team, and catch on to some things, while others just didn't get done. I am really not sure exactly what happened. I just knew that I was asked if I could come in on an afternoon shift that day. When I showed up I was told that I was there because the other dispatcher had been released. I was in shock. Again I really don't know what went wrong or where, and not that it matters. As an employee on probation the entire 1st year of your new job you have to work your hardest to show you are a determined and strong team player. I understand that there are things you can not control, such as illness or family sickness. But you can control things like oversleeping, or being late. I know accidents do happen, but you don't make a pattern of it.
So that being said we worked a few months short staffed while they gathered up new applicants and filtered through them. Some were high on the list until they were interviewed and they just were not that impressive. So after all that they finally selected a candidate, whom they wanted to hire. They did all the paperwork and made the arrangements to get approval. This new hire is excited to start, and even comes in and sits with another dispatcher before they are even hired. Then after the approval to start was set, the training began. This employee was not the typical trainee. There were times this person was working on homework instead of focusing on learning the actual work related material. The time came when this person had to be released from training because the training time was enough they should have been ready to do the job. The first day, you would expect them to be early and ready to go all in at it alone, not this one. I watched the clock and the camera waiting to unlock the door, the start time came and went. And time continued to move on, after about 10 minutes late I pulled out the department phone list and called them. They claimed their alarm clock did not go off. Oh damn the luck, you got a black mark in my opinion. I made sure to notify the supervisor of the mistake, and I forgot but should have claimed overtime for the time I had to wait for them to arrive. There would be no denying later from the bosses higher up that this person is not quality caliber that they portrayed in their interview and resume. So here we are a few months later and this employee is still struggling, at several pieces they just cannot pick up. Maybe this job is not for them. They seem to want to drag what should be quick on the phone off the phone calls out forever. And what is this, another day of being late, this time they use the excuse they spilled something on them leaving the house. Then there was the day that they didn't understand the code an officer was using for an incident, and sent units to the address on the road instead of the incident type and the cross roads where the officer advised. And who blames everyone else for their own mistakes? I have tried to help, they get upset put their head down and then fix the issues, and act like they are upset because you corrected them. We are not surgeons here, but some things need to be done correctly. I don't get the poor attitude so early. We do not have the worst job around, and we are not that busy. But I don't remember actually bringing in something to entertain myself in my first few months. I looked through the policies, I reviewed what I didn't know, I wanted to learn and keep this job. This person actually listens when you talk and when you mention something they are not familiar with will ask, "how would you do that if you had to?" There have been instances of sending the wrong units, or offering services we would not normally use. There have been instances of the wrong units paged on the wrong radio channel. There have been instances of I don't know how this address showed up in the call when the call was here. I saw the note on the incident when I reviewed it, and clearly saw the wrong address was selected then later changed. I love the CAD logs that are public view, they tell your keystrokes and changes made. I was under the impression this person wanted a job, but I am now under the impression that they are just a seat filler here to draw a check and for the "glamorous" side of the job. This employee was also told when they were interviewed where they would be shift wise, along with the benefits. A few months in and the employee wants to complain they don't get days off aside from their regular shift. Like Do you know how luck you are to have this job? How bad do you want it? You do understand the 1st year of work you have no vacation or extra days off. We work 24/7. Why the hell do these people not understand this is not a place where if you don't want to work a day you can just take a day off. In one of my prior jobs I learned that you have to "protect" your job by showing up, you can use the vacation and other days you have earned, but you can not just take a day off just because. I don't think anyone is out to get this employee, but come on get your head out of the clouds and into the game. We are a team here, act like it and start pulling all your training together.
That's probably enough of a rant, probably lost half the readers at the 1st paragraph. I hope someone will enjoy this and come back to reading.
I did experiment with Twitter, which I did find is easy for small rants, but I find difficulty in cramming my screams of attitude into the 120 characters. Plus I feel shrinking down my words to jargon lose the affect of my actual rants and complaints.
I am still alive, and dispatching. I am still in it to retire, at least the rest of the year.
I have had some real struggles that I have had to deal with this year. I lost a family member which I took hard. There have also been some calls that have stuck in my head longer than normal. I once thought I was unemotional and burnt out. I have decided that is not the case, I am just more cautious about how and when my emotions come out. I do more thinking as I work and often find myself emotional about something out of no where.
A while back I took my first suicidal caller. I thought for sure this was going to be the one that caused me to want out of the career, this one made me have trouble sleeping, and made me nervous. I did everything I could, offered an ear to listen, and offered suggestions on why they should not do it. I still felt like I had not done enough. I was too in tune with the caller to break away and mute the phone and miss something important. This caller was not giving up much, he gave his age, and about his live and family. He was very vague, he knew I was trying to get information. I ran the age range in our system with the general location where the cellular phone was plotting. The caller started the call initially with the comment "I'm thinking about killing myself what do you think about that?" How do you respond to that. We discussed life, money, children, etc. Soon it came out how long he had been married, he felt like he had a good life. The only thing he was complaining about was that he felt that his wife of many years did not love him. How do you respond to that? I didn't know and tried to change the subject. I was able to keep the call open about 15-20 minutes continually trying to sneak in a question to get information. After a while he advised he felt better and thanked me for listening. I told him anything he needed I was here to listen. He wanted to end the call, and I had nothing else I could say. He ended up hanging up on me. I had a call back number for a cellular telephone. I could call the cellular company with an officers approval and signature and try and get an emergency locate, but they are not very accurate normally. I called the law enforcement agency who would be responsible and relayed all information I could obtain. I got a call from an officer from the agency and explained all the information again. I was hoping the cell phone plot was right on or close. But so early in the morning the chances of actually making contact and stopping something was straining me so bad. I sat in my chair shaking my leg, shaking myself hoping we could save this caller. The officer arrived at the residence I had pointed to, based on the call location plot. It was a terrible 20 minutes or so, while the officer was speaking with the caller. Another few minutes passed and the caller was taken voluntarily to the hospital to speak with a counselor. This was one of the most nerve racking calls I have taken in a while, if ever in my career.
I felt helpless, sure I have taken crisis intervention class, back when I was started, but would you think I would remember that under pressure? I pulled the cheat protocol flip book and looked for questions and suggestions. I had done nearly everything already that was on the list. I felt good about that but still felt like I was lost.
To go back earlier this year a bit.... We had a new dispatcher, who was quick to be a part of the team, and catch on to some things, while others just didn't get done. I am really not sure exactly what happened. I just knew that I was asked if I could come in on an afternoon shift that day. When I showed up I was told that I was there because the other dispatcher had been released. I was in shock. Again I really don't know what went wrong or where, and not that it matters. As an employee on probation the entire 1st year of your new job you have to work your hardest to show you are a determined and strong team player. I understand that there are things you can not control, such as illness or family sickness. But you can control things like oversleeping, or being late. I know accidents do happen, but you don't make a pattern of it.
So that being said we worked a few months short staffed while they gathered up new applicants and filtered through them. Some were high on the list until they were interviewed and they just were not that impressive. So after all that they finally selected a candidate, whom they wanted to hire. They did all the paperwork and made the arrangements to get approval. This new hire is excited to start, and even comes in and sits with another dispatcher before they are even hired. Then after the approval to start was set, the training began. This employee was not the typical trainee. There were times this person was working on homework instead of focusing on learning the actual work related material. The time came when this person had to be released from training because the training time was enough they should have been ready to do the job. The first day, you would expect them to be early and ready to go all in at it alone, not this one. I watched the clock and the camera waiting to unlock the door, the start time came and went. And time continued to move on, after about 10 minutes late I pulled out the department phone list and called them. They claimed their alarm clock did not go off. Oh damn the luck, you got a black mark in my opinion. I made sure to notify the supervisor of the mistake, and I forgot but should have claimed overtime for the time I had to wait for them to arrive. There would be no denying later from the bosses higher up that this person is not quality caliber that they portrayed in their interview and resume. So here we are a few months later and this employee is still struggling, at several pieces they just cannot pick up. Maybe this job is not for them. They seem to want to drag what should be quick on the phone off the phone calls out forever. And what is this, another day of being late, this time they use the excuse they spilled something on them leaving the house. Then there was the day that they didn't understand the code an officer was using for an incident, and sent units to the address on the road instead of the incident type and the cross roads where the officer advised. And who blames everyone else for their own mistakes? I have tried to help, they get upset put their head down and then fix the issues, and act like they are upset because you corrected them. We are not surgeons here, but some things need to be done correctly. I don't get the poor attitude so early. We do not have the worst job around, and we are not that busy. But I don't remember actually bringing in something to entertain myself in my first few months. I looked through the policies, I reviewed what I didn't know, I wanted to learn and keep this job. This person actually listens when you talk and when you mention something they are not familiar with will ask, "how would you do that if you had to?" There have been instances of sending the wrong units, or offering services we would not normally use. There have been instances of the wrong units paged on the wrong radio channel. There have been instances of I don't know how this address showed up in the call when the call was here. I saw the note on the incident when I reviewed it, and clearly saw the wrong address was selected then later changed. I love the CAD logs that are public view, they tell your keystrokes and changes made. I was under the impression this person wanted a job, but I am now under the impression that they are just a seat filler here to draw a check and for the "glamorous" side of the job. This employee was also told when they were interviewed where they would be shift wise, along with the benefits. A few months in and the employee wants to complain they don't get days off aside from their regular shift. Like Do you know how luck you are to have this job? How bad do you want it? You do understand the 1st year of work you have no vacation or extra days off. We work 24/7. Why the hell do these people not understand this is not a place where if you don't want to work a day you can just take a day off. In one of my prior jobs I learned that you have to "protect" your job by showing up, you can use the vacation and other days you have earned, but you can not just take a day off just because. I don't think anyone is out to get this employee, but come on get your head out of the clouds and into the game. We are a team here, act like it and start pulling all your training together.
That's probably enough of a rant, probably lost half the readers at the 1st paragraph. I hope someone will enjoy this and come back to reading.