seriously. what an odd exchange. I guess she knew the gig was up because there are probably recordings of every call? Still wild to say instead of like "the line cut out" or some other lame excuse
Sounds horrible, but it also makes me wonder how long their shifts are, do they get breaks, and how many hours per week do they work. It’s a stressful job, I would hate to think they’re worked into a criminally indifferent attitude. With that said I sincerely hope the family she hung up on didn’t suffer harm because of her indifference.
My mom worked dispatch for 35 years, made supervisor and then QA, training, etc. I will tell you she had the shortest fucking fuse in the world.
There was one that stuck with her. Two kids walked to a payphone in winter, may have had snow. (mid 90s) to say they couldn't wake their mom up. Both kids the same age as me and my brother. Mom had OD'd. She never forgot it. Wasn't supposed to, but was able to get in contact with their aunt the next day and they both cried.
When my mom died, and officer came to the reception and told a story about how he pulled a car over, and the occupants came out and had guns drawn on him. He had been contacting my mom and she was calm, cool, collected and saved his life. I know that didn't rattle her then.
There have always been people like this video, the job is only for a certain type. She worked normal 8 hours, 40 a week. Overtime for weather and other emergencies, of course.
I tried to work as one while in college, its hell. Every call is someone's worst moments, and the shifts are god awful and management sucked. I lasted about 3 weeks before I got out of there.
My college roommate also worked at one. Quit after a WWII veteran called him, told him where to find his body, then offed himself on the phone with him.
That's the biggest problem we will never fix that could fix almost everything. Punishment is valued higher than rehabilitation/support. We care more about kicking each other when they're down than helping them be their best self.
Municipal is usually 8hrs/day with up to 8hrs mandatory overtime. 5days/week. Idk bout breaks as I do secondary PSAP but we don’t have mandated breaks and work 12 hr shifts though we can just get up and walk around freely if we are dispatching and if our partner covers while we are call-taking.
Extremely few things in the world happen without multiple contributing factors. Trying to figure them out is part of trying to solve the problem.
People who lack nuance or critical thinking skills want easy answers and take things at face value, which ultimately causes more problems than it solves.
You can live life in one of two ways: assuming you know everything about strangers and their motives or assuming you don't know everything about strangers and their motives.
When I'm driving and some car comes careening past me at 90 miles an hour, odds are they are just some jackass driving recklessly. But I just force myself to assume they are driving to the hospital to see a family member who might be in the last moments of their life and move on with my day.
I am aware that giving the benefit of doubt to folks I don't know means I'm often not being objective about them and their actions, but it makes like less terrible when you don't just assume the worst of everyone you will never even talk to.
So in cases like these where it's someone I don't know and am not attracted by, I just think, "damn hope whoever was calling is okay. That's terrible for them. But maybe something is going terribly wrong for the operator in her life as well."
It's not like my negative evaluation of people I'm not remotely encountering helps anyone, least of all myself. The world is just easier to live in when you assume people aren't acting only out of selfishness and hatred.
Edit: just to be clear, this holds only for people who don't ACTUALLY affect you. Like, if someone hits my car, I start off assuming it might be something they didn't do out of negligence but I'll quickly have a good idea what the story actually is when we start interacting. And if they are a shit head, well then maybe 5 percent of me might care about why they are being shitty. The rest just thinks they are a shit head
Damn you're right, feeling a little gullible now! They hardly even tried. They almost certainly got her age wrong too, according to the news article it's likely based on
I thought it was strange that a supervisor would film an interaction like that. And why would he be so confrontational and so it at her desk too. I know some supervisors like to look tough like that because I've worked for one, but it's not the norm.
I get it. I understand. At a certain point someone just can't stand the stress anymore and caves in. Pure physiology. Glad her punishment wasn't too severe, and I hope her negligence didn't cause too much damage.
sounds like antisocial disorder in some form. like she probably knows the potential consequences for the people if she does not respond to their calls, but rather just doesnt give a fuck about the people calling.
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u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 7h ago
seriously. what an odd exchange. I guess she knew the gig was up because there are probably recordings of every call? Still wild to say instead of like "the line cut out" or some other lame excuse