Posted on 09/12/2005 1:21:23 PM PDT by Rakkasan1
Rogersville, TN (AHN) - Officials in Hawkins County, Tennessee are taking action against a collective purchase by their 911 dispatcher staff - a tanning bed currently residing in the central dispatch center.
The Hawkins County 911 Board voted Thursday to remove the offending item, which was purchased by the dispatching team with their own money, according to The Associated Press.
The center handles emergency calls for fire and law enforcement departments.
County Commissioner Syble Vaughan-Trent is
(Excerpt) Read more at allheadlinenews.com ...
I agree, but it's a fact of life in the dispatching business. Governmental officials fail to realize that it's a skills job. They see dispatchers sitting at computer terminals and assume it's secretarial work. They then proceed to set salaries accordingly. As a result, the turnover's huge, and most dispatch centers consist of a lot of half-skilled trainees, and the few people who'll put up with the crappy work conditions because they really care. The consequence is that the "really care's" end up double and triple shifting. This is common all over the country.
Those who want to see this problem addressed need to go do a "ride along" in a communications center, then go demand that their local council members or supervisors do the same thing. If we can collectively pry the 'policy makers' loose from their ignorance and get dispatchers compensated properly, then there's a chance to get enough quality people on the job to fix the situation.
Figure out the difference between survival skills and a weekly paycheck and get back to me.
your right. I guess the old saying 'hard work never killed anyone' was wrong all along. I gots to get back to my gubmint job.
Bingo!! Those who will accept the work load for the salary are given as many hours as possible to make up for the inability to hire competent employees at that set salary.
You consider some lame brain beurocrate deciding your workday is to be 12 hours long because he can't fill the slots, as hard working?
Obviously we don't see the same world.
And on top of that, YES, a 911 operator who is so overworked they can't think straight WILL kill someone!
we see 3 different worlds: gubmint world, union world, real world.
Before going off half-baked on the 12 hour shifts, you may want to also know the days of work per week.
Many manufacturing companies are going to 3x 12 + 1x 8 or 4x 12 rather than the 'traditional' 5x 8.
There have been reputable work environmet studies that show that rotating 5x 8 means that you body never adjusts to any time slot and that a 12 hour shift with or without shift changing allows more rested workers
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