Hello

Okay, okay. Been away for awhile. Not away from the work, but away from here. And I really need to get back. Makes me feel better to share my experiences with those who have dealt with similar problems.

Guess you could say I am back in fighting form. Like many dispatchers, sometimes the work grabs your inside, twists, and holds on with feverish strength to weaken the person. The combination of callers sharing their drama and trauma hour after hour after hour; the officers eating their mikes and angry you ask them to repeat; the co-workers who seem to find time to talk and socialize while you're going from call to call to call, can really wear down a person.

So, new attitude is needed.

Like many departments across this great land, we have had layoffs and reduction of staffing. Which has reduced some services to the public, like no more officer response for cold crimes, but citizens encouraged to use the on-line reporting system for their case number.

Citizens are not happy with these changes. Feel shortchanged and frustrated. Yeah, as a citizen I can agree. But it is a sad reality of our current economic times. And no improvement is seen anywhere in the horizon.

How are other agencies dealing with the changes? Do those agency dispatchers also get the feeling like they are getting dumped on? Made to sooth the angry citizens? Getting yelled at more by citizens? How are you handling the additional stress?

Life Coach?

Life coach, or a personal coach, is usually a hired person to help assist another person with their personal developement. They help a person set and achieve specific goals.

The above is not in my job description as a police dispatcher.

But yet, every day, there are calls with questions and requests for help that would fall in line with what a life coach would assist with. Not criminal matters, but people needing help and guidance. Sometimes it is a matter of voicing what the caller already knows, they just seem to need someone to say it out loud. Sometimes it is more serious and the call taker can only give them names to numerous agencies and phone numbers to contact to get the needed and necessary help.

The bottom line is, why am I not getting paid the big bucks that a certified life coach can and does make? Am I not, many times a day, doing the very job a life coach is hired to do? And they get more respect than a lowly police dispatcher.

What is wrong with this picture?

Only So Many Hours In A Day

Law enforcement is a 24 hour / 7 days a week / 365 days a year job. This means there is a need for someone to answer the phones and work the radio at any and all given minutes. This means many of us don't exactly work 8-5 Monday through Friday, which means we sleep at odd hours and work weekends and holidays.

This isn't exactly news now is it? So why do people have a problem understanding that those of us in the law enforcement field aren't always available when families and friends are together? Why do they cop (excuse the pun) an attitude when you're not available?

This has been grating on my lately as friends and family have really been having a problem and 'tude with the fact I am not available for all the meetings and gatherings they have been planning. That I sometimes have to work late and so arrive late at the party. Since my shift starts super early in the mornings I go to bed really early. So please understand I am not able to answer the phone to just chat at 7:00 pm. Yes, I am sorry I am missing that baby shower but I will be getting off a 14 hour shift and have to return to work in nine hours. I am sorry I can't attend a club meeting that starts at the hour I go to bed because I have work the next morning.

So Back Off! Quit Whining About Me Not Being At Your Planned Event! It Is Not A Snub! Don't Take It Personally! I Am Working!

-Whew- That felt good.