Dina, while I do like my job and most of the people I work with, on my days off the last place I want to be is in the comm center... I hate when payday falls on my day off, since Ihave to come in and get my check! We do have a couple of guys, well, just one, who loves ithere so uch, he does come in on his time off just to BS... he is too funny... but not this Gal, when I am done, I am done and outta here Brianna

This year instead of signing tedious cards for everyone I went to the dollar store and bought a boatload of funny keychains to put in everyone's stockings and had a few extra left over. It was fun trying to match up the phrase to the person. Like one that I particularly love, I had actually given to a trooper as a joke a few months ago. It said "Chaos, panic and disorder. My job is done here." Totally fit him to a tee! There were other fun ones, like "I *am* listening to you. Don't you see me yawning?" And "Give me a minute and I'll find a way to ignore you." Befitting of so many of us was "I don't have time to be this busy!" So I had great fun spreading them around last night. And then today I had to go to Costco to get my homemade pumpkin pie (yes, it's home made if you add the ice cream or whipped topping on it at home!), and I came across a table top cross cut shredder with a pencil sharpener in it. Well, since they tool Ollie away from us (our big huge shredder they gave to the detectives), I figured it would be a good "comm center" gift so we can still feel like we have control over some of the stuff that is in there. That actually is an interesting dispatch story. We were told not to shred anymore and they put a barrell out in the hall where we were supposed to put our stuff to shred. Then the developmentally disabled folks came around and put it into a truck and drove it 20 miles up the road where they incinerate it. Now, my concern here was that criminal histories are supposed to be destroyed when no longer in use. And who is to say they won't some day put that stuff in the truck and they drive down the road only to find they forgot to secure the back door... Meanwhile all those criminal histories and driving records are scattered all over the freeway. So I brought this up and they told me it was required that we comply with this as we are to employ the developmentally disabled. Yes, but not at the risk of violating the laws regarding disimination of priviledged information. The way I understand it, a criminal history is not supposed to linger any longer than the information is being used. So they finally decided that it wasn't such a hot idea and that there was indeed room for a huge mistake, so they put a secured canister in the hall and now they come to the premises to shred for us. Okay - fine. That's better, but I gotta say, sometimes I want to shred a check stub or something like that, and I'm not leaving that for anyone else to do but myself. Thus the reason I'm buying my own desktop shredder for the comm center to use. Am I too anal? Perhaps so.....I know several people who weren't too happy about me bringing up these issues, that's for sure! Dina

We don't have enough people to get any significant breaks either. We work 10hrs shifts, with 3 days scheduled off. On Thursday's it is too dang much, because everyone works, and half of us spend the first 2 or 3 hrs of our shift, looking for a place to sit down and work!! If there is no training classes, we are all there in one small, shrinking room! By the time 2nd shift leaves, my nerves are shot, and I'm about ready to get into a tower and pick off a few people!!! My Senior is pretty good. She lets us get up whenever we need a break and we can fix us something to eat or whatever. She works our position while we take our break. On day shift, they work 4 & a Sr, on 2nd shift, it's 4 & and a Sr, and on 3rds, it's 2 and a Sr. We have had a few quit and it's hurt us severely. Now, I'm leaving and they are pushing to get the Trainee's checked off. I'm not sure how fast that will happen. But, there is one person who is a floater, that will be coming to cover my position when I switch over to records. The tension in very high in there right now, and we've not recieved a raise in 3 years!! The reason being the city got into a financial bind when we went over to state retirement. This year we were supposed to get a raise, but guess what......... it never happened. 5 Years ago, we were the highest paid department in the state of Alabama. Now..... we are in the middle of the statistics. (on the lower end) Everyone has bypassed us. So..... I'm going to switch over to a place with less stress, less back stabbing, and my own office and door where I can shut everyone the heck out if I want too!! Sherri

Some of that looks tough to resist. a vacation sounds like a really good thing about now!!! leave it to the already skinny dispatchers!!! brianna

First question is why are you working without a contract? Are you in arbitration or without a union right now? If you are still in arbitration you should still fall under the old contract for most issues, and breaks being one of them. It is a violation of FLSA to not allow for breaks and you folks need to stand up and demand them. Our sister center has this whole "we don't take breaks" thing going on and it's sort of a martyrdome for them because they can hold it high like they are overworked/underpaid, etc. Well, if you let it be dictated to you that you aren't going to get your breaks, you are just rolling over and peeing on yourself while others drive right over you. We run 6-7 dispatchers max on a shift and 1-3 calltakers on max per shift. We all take our breaks....even when it's busier than hell, and we never begrudge someone for getting their break in when it causes us to pick up their stations because we all know we need those breaks. We still eat at our consoles much of the time though as many of us use our breaks to de-stress in various ways. So we end up eating between radio transmissions...bad habits die hard. We do have windows - 2 whole walls of windows. I have heard the "security" reasons before but frankly if someone wants to blow up your building, glass isn't going to stop them. When I visited one dispatch center in the basement of the courthouse recently I felt less secure there knowing how many floors are above than I did in my center which is one level. Having seen what happened with the WTC, I don't think the windows were the problem...the problem was that concrete and steel will buckle under pressure and if you're on the bottom floor you may not fare too well. Anyway, that is just my opinion. If someone wants to hurt you, they will find a way. What if someone piped gas into the ventilation system. No windows to open or break...there ya go. As for shifts, why not look at 4-10's? We went to 4-10's a long time ago and it was a great answer for us. You just have to know how to schedule around the busier times, but it's great because you get 3 days off and if you are working overtime, it's going to be on a day off rather than attached to your shift. We usually never work over 12 hours a day. You should have enough people to be able to cover with a 4-10 shift. I can't see how you can work 6 on 2 off with 8 hour days not not incur overtime. That's just weird to me. Do you have a union or union rep? Maybe it's time to start revisiting some of this stuff... Dina