INDUSTRY NEWS
This article can be found on
page 4 of the Nov/Dec 1997
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
Wrestling Alligators
Want to encourage your friends to try out for a career in public safety dispatching?
Tell them all about the grueling shiftwork, mandatory overtime, infrequent recognition, cumulative stress, and other joys of the job.
Then watch as they race for the nearest exit and immediately go apply to be Himalayan Tour Guides or Industrial Auger Polishers.
It's true - public safety communications can be a difficult job. It's not all glamour and glory and sound bytes on Rescue 9-1-1. Lack of recognition from superiors and from those we dispatch for often tops the list of things dispatchers hate about their jobs. Dealing constantly with rude, hostile, or hysterical personalities can be draining. Perceived lack of support from management and the feeling that you have no control over changes that are affecting your work environment can degrade your morale.
Outdated equipment (much of which may still have its model number chiseled in stone) and lack of budgets to upgrade can be infuriating, especially when slow computers can't keep up with the pace of your work. Chronic understaffing leads to improper workloads and mandatory overtime which may play havoc with one's home life (if any).
Department policies which seem to contradict public expectations may lead to personal frustration. Insufficient, inconsistent, or inappropriate training may trap many dispatchers in a rut. Infrequent "closure" to calls you've initiated and lack of inclusion in debriefings after stressful incidents can be detrimental to your mental health. Inadequate exposure to conditions on the other side of the radio may result in lack of understanding or empathy (this works both ways).
But before you join your friends in that headlong dash towards a career wrestling live alligators, take a second look. Beyond the grit and the gruel. Beyond the factors over which you have no control (may as well let go of those anyway). There is a tremendous inconsistency between PSAPs across the country - many share a number of these unfortunate characteristics while many others do not. One or more of these stressors, though, can usually be found in one form or another in most emergency communication centers. One or more of them can probably be found in most any vocation, for that manner.
But the rewards in our industry can surpass the drawbacks. Let's not forget the fact that we're in the public safety business. The emergency service business. We're the ones who can provide help when no one else can. When people find themselves in the worst possible predicament, we are the ones they call for help. There's a personal reward to be found there, and it's often just plain fun to be part of the action. There's a sense of pride to be found in being a member of the public safety team - even if you're not always treated that way by the team members who do the actual responding. Dispatcher recognition has been rapidly increasing in most places around the country. And even co-workers who may be at each other's throats during the routine hours of the shift will almost always pull together and perform admirably when the shots are flying and the buildings are tumbling.
The opportunities to make a difference - whether it be through the way you've handled an emergency or the way you've trained a probie, a chance to magnify community safety through public education, or your ability to make a positive change through some new program or project that enhances your agency's ability to serve its community - seem far more prevalent to me than the drawbacks you may encounter on the job.
So, before you convince that next eager visitor that a career as a toxic waste scrubber would be preferable to one as a public safety dispatcher, step back and look at the whole picture. It may not be as bleak as you think.
If it is - there's always that lateral transfer to the next PSAP!
