Stress Relievers

We know our job is full of doom and gloom, trauma and drama. Inside the department and with our citizens. Let's face it, people don't call us because they are having a great day and want to share good news with us. We deal with phone call after phone call of pain, anger, fear, confusion. Radio traffic full of responding to calls for service, traffic stops, and keeping track of our boys and girls in cars helping citizens on the streets.

So I ask you, how do you relieve the stress of your job?

Have a co-worker who runs (or walks very quickly) the stairs of a major university football stadium. Another rides for miles and miles on bikes. One spends hours looking through the world of a camera lens and photographing gorgeous scenery.

Had a co-worker who knitted during her shift (knew how irritating the caller was by how fast her needles were flying) and did woodwork at home. Was always remodeling and reworking something for her home; her haven.

Then there are those co-workers (present and past) who are rude to officers, ruder to callers, and down right rude and snippy to co-workers. Guess that's how they relieve their stress - give it to others.

I do needlework, like crocheting, needlepoint, cross stitch, embroidery, by the hour. Also love to do home repairs (even have my own power tools) and paint rooms. I also am very active in my community through volunteer work. Believe if you're not part of the solution you are part of the problem.

Let's face it world, we all have stress. But as dispatchers we have it much much more than the average person. Yes, I know, physical movement, like exercise, it a healthier way to relieve the stress. But yuck, I want something to show for my time. Something I can point at and say I created that, I painted that, I fixed that.

Here is a great article about different forms of stress relievers:
http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/stressrelievers.htm

As I said earlier, had a question for you dear reader. How do you relieve the stress of your job? What helps you sleep? What keeps you sane (well, keeps you off the edge)?

According to Anxiety Care webpage notes on PTSD: On the subject of hiding rather than overcoming, it has been suggested that children and adolescents , or adults who have trauma going back into early childhood, might use coping techniques like denying, or forcing themselves to ignore, the stress-generating event in PTSD. This might have been the only technique available to the child at the time, particularly if the parent/carer was abusive or indifferent so responsible for some, or all, of the trauma. The problem is, this is not a good way to deal with PTSD, as part of recovery has to be confronting the emotions and fears it generates and dealing with them, as mentioned. This might be extremely difficult if the adult or adolescent has learnt these "hiding" techniques very strongly as a child, and allows no possibility of error to enter his or her mind , as is common with young children and as may be carried into adulthood. The result will be summarily negative if the adolescent or adult cannot accept the "camels back": the building of stress over a long period, and seeks only to counter the current trauma without consideration for the depth of the problem that may be making current difficulties worse.

Okay, whoa. Have been told in the past by counselors this is what I do. I intellectualize the event or the words; I don't feel them. I don't allow myself to feel them and really don't acknowledge them. This was before I got back into police dispatching full time. When I was trying to cope with some of my childhood traumas and learn how not to repeat the mistakes so as not to mess up my marriage.

I think all of us dispatchers do this. Whether it was a trait we had in our personality arsenal before we started the job, it is certainly a coping mechanism that is developed, and fine tuned over the years. As a dispatcher you have to. Because people call you when they are frightened or hurt or angry or confused. And when it is call after call after call, you have to come up with a way to deal with them.

There is very little routine in our job. Maybe a call from an alarm company, always handled the same on our end, different outcomes in the field. But otherwise, every phone call is a different event needing a different part of your personality to handle. Every CFS for the radio dispatcher means a different or additional responsibility to handle. And when you have between three to 55 officers (or more) on your channel you are responsible for, and need to keep track of, and try to help, every CFS adds to the stress level, whether low or high priority.

But there is one big event, one big CFS, or one phone call asking for help, that tumbles down that carefully built house of cards. And no matter how hard you try to get the first level, that all important foundation, rebuilt, one end continues to fall, can't or won't support the next level. It is accepting the fact you might need help it not easy for most dispatchers. Admitting that you can't handle it without some support.

Is it fear that keeps us from finishing that foundation level? Is it not wanting to admit how much it scared you or hurt you that makes your hand shake when that all important corner is being placed?

This Is A Joke, Right?

Okay.  I waited a couple weeks before posting this little piece of tidbit.  One reason was I had to calm down.  The other reason is my fear someone from my agency would read this and figure out who "Tired Dispatcher" truly is.  And yes, I believe the world revolves around me and that I am being spied upon and watched constantly.  Think I shared in the past I hear voices in my head.  Well, at work at least.

Time for the tidbit:  Our agency, once a year, recognizes employees from every department/division within the agency, sworn and non-sworn.  The Commander of our communications bureau was awarded the Employee of the Year for ComCen.  Yes, you read that correctly.  He was nominated (not sure by who) and chosen as Employee of the Year for the Communications Center.

Let's see, what does the Commander do for communications?  Two years ago he doubled our work stations in the same size dispatch center, forcing us to work almost elbow-to-elbow.  He has helped to hire additional people so that our overtime has been greatly reduced.  hhmmm... what else?

He isn't tied to a work station by an umbilical cord, aka headset/radioset.  He leaves his office whenever he wants.  Takes vacations and long weekends whenever he wants.  Gets all the holidays off.

Most importantly, he doesn't answer calls coming in by the hundreds every day into the dispatch center.  He doesn't handle the front line of dealing with trauma and drama phone calls.  He doesn't sit at the radio and try to manage 20 or 70 officers and their needs and get out calls for service in a timely manner.  

He doesn't deal with the daily responsibilities and stresses of dispatch.  He is an officer, a member of the brass, assigned to the communications center.  He will promote.  He will be reassigned to other departments within the police department.  He isn't limited like dispatchers are.

So how does this make him an employee of dispatch much less the employee of the year?

Finding Balance

The title of this blog says it all. It is a fact that in this job we deal with a lot of stress. We face people’s traumas and dramas on a daily basis. The last blog discussed stress from within and seemed to hit a couple nerves. How does one (meaning 9-1-1 dispatchers or really anyone in law enforcement) find balance and not get dark when faced with all that negativity?

When I work with new dispatchers and new officers, I lecture them (harsh word but apropos) on the need to find balance. In this job they will face and deal with a lot of dark moments and dark people. They will listen for hour upon hour of pain and anger and scared people calling for help. They will be witness to the worst of human (and that’s a generous term) behavior to other humans.

I call that “The Uglies”. To counter the effect, to find balance, I recommend new dispatchers and new officers find “The Pretties” to survive.

“The Pretties” can be joining and active within a community service organization. Or being a Scout Master. Or volunteering at a hospital or animal shelter. “The Pretties” are your efforts in giving back to your community. And it doesn’t even have to be the same community you work in. “The Pretties” are having the opportunity and ability to see and be part of something positive and good.

Yes, I know, we do a lot of good with our job. But it is still wrapped up within “The Uglies” of our work. By being part of “The Pretties” we find balance and can get a feeling of being whole.

Another important way to find balance in our job is to have a circle of friends and activities that are not work related. I guess this would be for just about any job. But in law enforcement, it is really important to be able to separate yourself from the “shop talk” and have to actually think and talk about other subjects that are not related to your job.

So many people I work with seem to have no life outside of their work. Their circles of friends are co-workers. Their extra curricular activities are being reserve officers or mounted patrol or attending all the functions the different divisions have. Or is a union steward and attends every meeting at every level of the union.

So, dear readers, if you are involved with law enforcement do yourself a big favor. Find an activity that has nothing to do with your job but is actually a positive activity or addition to your community. Create a circle of friends, even if only two or three, that have nothing to do with law enforcement so your conversations can be more entertaining and fun, like talking about politics or religion. Or you can be part of an activity that is not work related but fun, like bronco riding or windsurfing.

It is all a matter of finding balance between “The Uglies” of work and “The Pretties” of the world around us.