A Sheriff’s who guards our building died early this morning of a heart attack. At the ripe age of 43. He apparently died in his sleep so his passing was believed to have been peaceful.
From my perspective he was a great guy and well liked by all of us. He will be missed!
More drama on the work front. After the labor meeting last week, a certain supervisor has been going out of his way to antagonize me. He went so far as to try and write me up yesterday. He took a very simple mistake and tried to really over dramatize it. Even the shift manager thought it was over the top. Needless to say, I called in the troops. With one phone call from our Union rep, the write up was taken out of my file and destroyed.
Power to the People!!!
Is that a pose or what? One of my co-workers snapped off a pic of me. Not the best pic. I don’t like it because it makes my chest look non-existent. Oh well, you can’t say I only post the pretty pics…
I’m in a surprisingly good mood considering work was very dramatic yesterday. It’s been a busy week overall. If you are regular reader, you know I’m a Union officer at work and we’ve been having some real problems. Wednesday, my local chapter met w/an attorney to review our options and get some confirmations on what management can and cannot force us to do. Normal labor laws do not apply to us as one, we are a government agency and two, we are unionized. So we got that out of the way. It was a mixed bag of info as we got some good and some bad news. Yesterday was our monthly labor meeting w/management to discuss problems.
Our Union rep. basically started the meeting out by putting management on notice that we are prepared to get radical if they do not start keeping their promises. Often, management will state one thing and then do just the opposite. And the problem usually stems from the right hand now knowing what the left hand is doing. Our rep’ds speech tied into a problem I’ve been dealing with. After about 15 minutes of continued lip service from the deputy director, I lost my temper a bit and let’em have it. Let’s just say I put things in very simple English so there was no confusing it. I took off the gloves and started naming names too. I’m all for diplomacy but sometimes you just need to put it on the table to get people’s attention. I think it worked to an extent but I don’t expect much change. I fully expect in the next two months things are going to get ugly.
Who do you call when there is no one left at 911?
My schedule signup at work is underway. (We sign up for our schedule every 6 months based on seniority.) The good news is after 4 1/2 years, I’m at the halfway mark seniority wise. The bad news is I won’t be getting sat/sun’s off this next rotation. Due to the severe staffing shortages, not as many weekend slots are alotted for the shifts I want. I’ll still end up w/at least one weekend day off but not both. I’m ok w/that as I like having one weekday to get errands done. Besides, I knew getting a full weekend slot last signup was a fluke anyway.
The part that has me annoyed is the signup was delayed due to last minute changes by management. I’m gonna be cutting it close w/my school registration. (I’m planning to start paramedic training in August.) I originally thought they weren’t offering it this semester but they reorganized the listings for paramedics and I missed it. If the signup continues to move as quickly as it started I’ll be ok. If not, I’ll probably miss the deadline for City College. I’m gonna bummed if I have to wait to spring again.
Cross your fingers for me?!
It is a day like today that I hate my job.
(story)
A 11yo child was mauled to death by a pitbull today. My last trainee released solo took the first call and had to be taken out of the room after it was over. She was so upset, we had to send her home. I don’t blame her. I didn’t even take the call and I was in tears when I saw the child was confirmed dead.
The real pisser? The dog belonged to the family! I’ll reserve my comments for now as I’m so angry I could spit nails.
In the ongoing battle for a raise at work, the city responded to our counter offer w/their counter offer today. They’ve piddled around until the deadline is on top of us so we don’t have much choice. While we didn’t get everything we wanted, we did manage to get an 8% increase out of the deal. The increase takes affect July 1st. It is a permanent increase in our job classification which just means they can’t take it away later.
The sad part is the offer is probably too little too late. We are losing 10 bodies in the next 3 months. This offer may serve to keep 1 or 2 of those but that won’t help our staffing levels one bit. As we move into phase 4 of our training to take over the Fire/EMS function, we can’t really afford to lose anyone. The loss of 10 bodies is going to hit us very hard. Even with round the clock training of new people it simply isn’t enough. The numbers for the latter part of this year are going to be scary.
So I had lunch w/Mostovic today. Normally, lunch w/him is great but today I came away angry. We started discussing some of the issues w/my work. Specifically, the work I’ve been doing w/the Union to help get a raise. I was a bit taken aback when he actually began arguing as if I didn’t deserve a raise. Like, HOW DARE I ask for more money in such a rough economy. I guess more than anything it surprised me. I didn’t expect it.
However, during the discussion, it did serve to remind me of the reasons why I’m fighting for a raise. The main one, my job was doubled two and half hears ago and am just now getting a chance to plead my (our) case. The other reason is I value my skills. I’ve learned (the hard way) that if I don’t stand up for my rights no one else will. Sometimes that means a new job and sometimes it just means playing hard ball where you’re at. And it’s definitely been an uphill battle. The city is facing another large deficeit and is looking for ways to save money. So, naturally giving me more money doesn’t figure into their plans. (In case you missed it, I’m a dispatcher for SFPD. Two years ago, we were forced to take over Fire and EMS dispatch as well)
Even before we took over the extra duties, we were the least paid in the nine Bay area counties. Now with the increased workload, we have stopped asking and started demanding more money. At a time when Sacramento’s dispatchers just got a 41% pay increase, I think our small 10% request is not going to break the bank. And considering there is only 1 dispatcher on duty for every 100,000 (yes that was one hundred thousand) people in the city, I think it would be in SF’s best interest to at least try to keep the dispatchers they have.
Remembering this put me back in a good mood and my day has been peachy since!
Another glaring example of how corporations are out-of-control in this country.
(story)
Internet phone providers were ordered Thursday to begin supplying reliable 911 emergency call service after regulators heard an anguished Florida woman describe how she was unable to summon help to save her dying infant daughter….
…Her voice breaking, Cheryl Waller of Deltona, Fla., told the commissioners before their vote that “120 days is seven days longer than my daughter lived.” Julia Waller “died at 113 days old because I can’t reach an operator,” she said.
Waller said she got a recording when she used her Internet phone to call 911 after her daughter stopped breathing last March. By the time she was able to summon help with a neighbor’s phone, the child was dead.
Instead of focusing on issues like this, our leaders are worried about who I’m poking at night or who I choose to marry. Where were the morals of the company exec’s who rolled out this service knowing that it was missing a critical component? Once again, we wait until a problem bites us squarely in the ass before we act. Shameful to say the least.
Well, the weekend was blissfully uneventful. After a hard week, it was more than welcome. Saturday was spent hanging out w/Bobby. We took in a flick, House of Wax. You can definitely wait for DVD on this one. It had a decent plot but the movie dragged along until the end. There were some good scary scenes toward the end.
Sunday, I met up w/Mostovic and we hung out at the Eagle. The weather was kinda overcast so it wasn’t overly crowded for a change. It was so nice just to hang out and socialize. A group of the BCC boys were there as well.
Afterwards, Mostovic and I had dinner in the Castro. Not too bad of a weekend if you ask me.
On a side note, I got an email from the ex this morning. Apparently, someone cut the convertable top on his car over the weekend. He needed help getting a police report filed. The irony is back when we were together, our place was sort of on the outskirts of a bad neighborhood. His vehicle was never once broken into. Now, he lives in a sorta well-to-do spot in the city and his soft top gets sliced. I would have been just as upset so I tried to help the best I could. As luck would have it, he got a report pretty quickly and his insurance is on top of it.
This week, while not as busy, is going to be interesting. I have a new trainee tomorrow. I have no idea of her skills so time will tell. More importantly. the city is also submitting a proposal to our Union on Wednesday in regards to our raise. (Our job duties were doubled almost tripled two years ago. This is to address that) As a union officer, I will have first hand knowledge Wed. night. I’m hoping they come up w/a good offer so we don’t have to bicker back and forth about it. Keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed.