Just your ordinary day at 'the office'...

Ok, So I will be the first to admit it, some days my job is pretty cush. I may have to work some crazy hours, and take unnecessary verbal abuse from people who are wanting me to save their heiny, and have co-workers who talk to us like we are less than competent, however, there are times when we spend a whole shift watching movies, cooking dinners, or surfing the internet. These are the times we jokingly say, "tax payers dollars hard at work".

There is a catch 22 to my job. I would rather that we be busy, that way 8.25, 10, or 12 hours goes by a lot faster. When there are phones to answer, warrants to enter, radio traffic to keep up with the time seems to fly. However, the more phones to answer and radio traffic to respond to means the more bad things happening out there to the general public.

I have noticed a trend in my 4 years of dispatching. This trend became quite evident when I worked in Bellevue, especially in regards to medical aid calls. We dispatched for 14 fire agencies, so the fire calls were always coming in. Each week there would be an onslaught of calls- and each day the calls would usually be for the same problem. For instance, one day we may have multiple calls because "the world must be off balance Fall Patient" calls, other days it was "ate one too many double-bacon cheeseburgers and clogged my arteries and now I have Chest Pain" calls, or "Stop looking at those strobe lights because it's giving you a seizure" calls.

I have also noticed that some people have what we like to call "The Magnet". It is unknown why some people possess this not-so-lovely aura. I doubt they wish it upon themselves. When you are unlucky enough to have "The Magnet" you get to deal with the most lovely (if computers could emit sarcasm, that would be happening at this point) callers, handle the most enjoyable radio traffic etc. While some have "The Magnet" effect, there are others who are what we call "The Cooler"- no matter where they sit, Fire Dispatch, Police Dispatch, Call Receiving they can make the craziest, busiest afternoon come to a screeching halt (this is when we get to enjoy the home-cooked dinners at work and catch up on our Net-Flix rentals).

I have to admit that I have had more than my fair share of "The Magnet" effect lately, and not enough of "The Cooler". Yesterday when I came in I sat at Fire Dispatch. I relieved one of my co-workers who said "Oh, it's been quiet all day". If you didn't know, "quiet" is more like a four-letter word in this line of work. So, of course, not more than a few minutes into my shift we get a call for a possible fire. I have only been working in Puyallup for a year and had yet dispatched any kind of actual "fire". My first one turned out to be a full-blown apartment fire that went to a Second Alarm (which basically means call out the cavalry). Good times.

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_050808WAB_puyallup_fire_mother_LJ.deaa9031.html

Then when that quieted down and I was getting ready to go home for the night, I took a 911 call from a man who had been shot. This was not a fun call, but hey that's the luck of the draw, or I guess in this case the 'ring', cause someone had to answer the phone and why not me?!

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_050808WAB_puyallup_fire_mother_LJ.deaa9031.html

I wound up staying a little past my shift, and before leaving I asked our Lead Dispatcher if she wanted me to stay past my scheduled hours since there was still a little bit of work to be done to wrap up the shooting call. Fortunately for me she said, "No, I think you have done enough today." And with that, it was time to go home!!!

Hopefully when I come back from my vacation I will be "The Cooler".