Friday, June 6, 2014
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Many people who are not familiar with the 911 field make mention that 911 must be a stressful job, or that may say that listening to frantic callers must take a toll on you. At the beginning of my career I would agree with that assessment but now is a completely different story. Unless it involves a child or a member of the elderly community I really don't care anymore. Sure I can make it sounds like I care over a phone and can project empathy, and in no way does it keep me from sending whatever help they need but overall I am completely desensitized. I have now become a master in the world of dark humor (which I will get into at a later time).
I think you could ask anyone who works in this field for more then 5 years and they would agree, and if not they are full of BS. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing because I usually don't take my metal baggage home with me, but people think of me as a cold hardened person.
I can think of one time where a situation arised that bugged me for the whole shift and had to hug it out
with the wife. It was a 5 year old child who was beaten to death by a stepfather. I used to be a firefighter/medic and I can pretty much visualize any type of injury a caller may tell me about. This child was no exception. I can still remember almost every word of the call and the description given to me. It isn't pleasant and unforgettable. I think the impact was so hard since I have a child of my own at the same age and build type. I transpose the victim injuries to my child and would form a picture in my mine. I cannot comprehend how or why someone could do that. It filled me with a sadness and rage that I never experienced before.
Other than that I don't care.
Am I a bad person? I don't think so, but wouldn't be surprised if the general public judges me as so...
But I don't care about that either.
I think you could ask anyone who works in this field for more then 5 years and they would agree, and if not they are full of BS. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing because I usually don't take my metal baggage home with me, but people think of me as a cold hardened person.
I can think of one time where a situation arised that bugged me for the whole shift and had to hug it out
with the wife. It was a 5 year old child who was beaten to death by a stepfather. I used to be a firefighter/medic and I can pretty much visualize any type of injury a caller may tell me about. This child was no exception. I can still remember almost every word of the call and the description given to me. It isn't pleasant and unforgettable. I think the impact was so hard since I have a child of my own at the same age and build type. I transpose the victim injuries to my child and would form a picture in my mine. I cannot comprehend how or why someone could do that. It filled me with a sadness and rage that I never experienced before.
Other than that I don't care.
Am I a bad person? I don't think so, but wouldn't be surprised if the general public judges me as so...
But I don't care about that either.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
I must say working in this field is the first job I ever had where I feel smarter when I leave work then I did before. It truly is amazing the lack of intelligence in the world today. I know it just isn't in my area, but must be all over.
When people ask me about the "stupid" calls they are amazed how many there really are. I would have to say 90% of the 911 calls that come into our center are BS. Either people don't understand what an emergency really is, asking what time it is, our wanting the police to bail their tail out of a situation they created.
Doesn't matter the color of your skin, which income bracket your in, or if your live in the city country or the richest of townships.....
The majority of folks are not intelligent and I don't think they have ever heard of common sense.
Just a little rant....
When people ask me about the "stupid" calls they are amazed how many there really are. I would have to say 90% of the 911 calls that come into our center are BS. Either people don't understand what an emergency really is, asking what time it is, our wanting the police to bail their tail out of a situation they created.
Doesn't matter the color of your skin, which income bracket your in, or if your live in the city country or the richest of townships.....
The majority of folks are not intelligent and I don't think they have ever heard of common sense.
Just a little rant....
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
To catch up for the past ten years of 911 life, I will start to post previous calls and experiences I have had. So lets start with my first memorable call.
I am in training, still trying to get used to this profession called a 911 Telecommunicator. I had experience in the emergency service field as a volunteer firefighter, but my bread and butter income job was a shop rat welding metal together for hours a day making goods for the airline industry. Thanks to the terrorist attacks on 9-11 the hours were decreasing and work in the shop work was going away also. Having a new baby and house payment at that time meant the shortened hours would not be financially sustainable. My fire chief advised me the 911 center was hiring and it was good pay, so in short that is how I ended up here.
Training to be a 911 operator is mostly on the job training. There really isn't any good schooling to attend to learn the skills or be prepared for what this profession had in store for me. Training consist of a trainer siting right next to you for 12 hours telling you everything you did wrong. My trainer surely didn't sugarcoat anything, and was very direct to the point. "You will do it my way, and that is the only way" is what I heard several times in my 5 months of training. The trainer was a hard ass who didn't cut slack, and heaven forbid you screw something u there was no joking with him.
One busy night the phones were slow, and not much going on. That meant every call that came in as pretty much my call to answer. The phone rings and I hear a male on the other end in a panic. His shuddering voice, and rapid breathing meant something serious was happening. "911, what is your emergency" and I tried to understand what he was saying between the breaths. My trainer said "This call is all yours" and I was ready. " My neighbors are threatening me", "you need to help me before they kill me" he shouted, "They are using lasers". All I could think of is a laser sight on a handgun, and thinking they are going to shoot this poor bastard. He wouldn't answer my question, he just wanted to yell and my trainer was offering me no help. After several attempts I was able to have him answer "what is going on, how are they threatening you?" "Day (slang for they) be burnin my ass!!!" At that point I hear chuckles from my trainer, and I totally lose my train of thought. "How day (accidentally used slang which is not good) doing that?"..... "Day shining dat lazer through the wall and burning my ass man!!!!!" The first thing that comes to my mind is telling him to get out of the house and wait outside. " I can't do dat cuz they are outside too and day threatin me with homosexuality!!!
Now, the majority of the room is laughing and I have to maintain composure. The giggles are very contagious and since I don't have the ability to mute my headset I had to bite my tongue several times. Granted I am shorting this story down since the call lasted around 10 minutes. I finally gave up, turned to my tainer for help, and his response was "Hang up the damn phone".
This is when I learned of a frequent caller. This guys has called for years and had SEVERE mental problems. These types of calls were typical from him and the thousands of other mental folks in my community. I asked my trainer why he let me go on for 10 minutes and his response was "let's call it a test"..
I needed to learn that every caller needs to be dealt with the same compassion and understanding no matter the situation. Drunks, elderly, kids, or the frequent crazy ass all need to be taken seriously (at least while on the phone, we'll just talk crap after we hang up). The fact I was able to seem concerned in the face of insanity let him know I can fake it with the best of them.
Burning Assman (as I call him) is the first of many mentals I have dealt with, but he as my first. They say you never forget your first....
I am in training, still trying to get used to this profession called a 911 Telecommunicator. I had experience in the emergency service field as a volunteer firefighter, but my bread and butter income job was a shop rat welding metal together for hours a day making goods for the airline industry. Thanks to the terrorist attacks on 9-11 the hours were decreasing and work in the shop work was going away also. Having a new baby and house payment at that time meant the shortened hours would not be financially sustainable. My fire chief advised me the 911 center was hiring and it was good pay, so in short that is how I ended up here.
Training to be a 911 operator is mostly on the job training. There really isn't any good schooling to attend to learn the skills or be prepared for what this profession had in store for me. Training consist of a trainer siting right next to you for 12 hours telling you everything you did wrong. My trainer surely didn't sugarcoat anything, and was very direct to the point. "You will do it my way, and that is the only way" is what I heard several times in my 5 months of training. The trainer was a hard ass who didn't cut slack, and heaven forbid you screw something u there was no joking with him.
One busy night the phones were slow, and not much going on. That meant every call that came in as pretty much my call to answer. The phone rings and I hear a male on the other end in a panic. His shuddering voice, and rapid breathing meant something serious was happening. "911, what is your emergency" and I tried to understand what he was saying between the breaths. My trainer said "This call is all yours" and I was ready. " My neighbors are threatening me", "you need to help me before they kill me" he shouted, "They are using lasers". All I could think of is a laser sight on a handgun, and thinking they are going to shoot this poor bastard. He wouldn't answer my question, he just wanted to yell and my trainer was offering me no help. After several attempts I was able to have him answer "what is going on, how are they threatening you?" "Day (slang for they) be burnin my ass!!!" At that point I hear chuckles from my trainer, and I totally lose my train of thought. "How day (accidentally used slang which is not good) doing that?"..... "Day shining dat lazer through the wall and burning my ass man!!!!!" The first thing that comes to my mind is telling him to get out of the house and wait outside. " I can't do dat cuz they are outside too and day threatin me with homosexuality!!!
Now, the majority of the room is laughing and I have to maintain composure. The giggles are very contagious and since I don't have the ability to mute my headset I had to bite my tongue several times. Granted I am shorting this story down since the call lasted around 10 minutes. I finally gave up, turned to my tainer for help, and his response was "Hang up the damn phone".
This is when I learned of a frequent caller. This guys has called for years and had SEVERE mental problems. These types of calls were typical from him and the thousands of other mental folks in my community. I asked my trainer why he let me go on for 10 minutes and his response was "let's call it a test"..
I needed to learn that every caller needs to be dealt with the same compassion and understanding no matter the situation. Drunks, elderly, kids, or the frequent crazy ass all need to be taken seriously (at least while on the phone, we'll just talk crap after we hang up). The fact I was able to seem concerned in the face of insanity let him know I can fake it with the best of them.
Burning Assman (as I call him) is the first of many mentals I have dealt with, but he as my first. They say you never forget your first....
The beginning,,,,,
Since this is the start of this blog let me fill you in a bit. I have been a 911 dispatcher for 10+ years for a dispatch center that handles 400000 of more calls a year. Needless to say I have heard a lot of calls and things you wouldn't believe (unless you work in this field). I hope to expose the ups and downs of this profession, educate the general population with the good and bad and frequently unbelievable life of a 911 operator.
Keep in mind I am not a writer by trade and my grammar and punctuation at times will not be correct, so please forgive me. I hope you enjoy this blog and continue to read and share this life.
Here we go........................
Keep in mind I am not a writer by trade and my grammar and punctuation at times will not be correct, so please forgive me. I hope you enjoy this blog and continue to read and share this life.
Here we go........................
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