Victoria is facing a public-safety crisis

[Haggis]

I read that sentence the same way you did.

To all who clarified - thank you. I think Haggis and I were on the same brainwave last night.

(Anybody else work a night shift, stay awake all day the day prior and after, then wake up curious to read what they posted on Army.ca? If not, and you’re looking for a middle aged sense of adventure, I highly recommend it!)

Two double shifts and an additional eight hours of OT in five days. I was lucky I could read at all.

 

[CBH99]

Two double shifts and an additional eight hours of OT in five days. I was lucky I could read at all.

Lately I've been covering a night shift for someone, in addition to regular shifts, and I've been in total zombie mode too

I'm not kidding, army.ca has been an adventure the last few weeks once our set ends. I come back here and read the responses to my posts I have ZERO recollection of posting

Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by what I've written. Other times, as I'm sure some have realized, barely qualify as words

 

[daftandbarmy]

Lately I've been covering a night shift for someone, in addition to regular shifts, and I've been in total zombie mode too

I'm not kidding, army.ca has been an adventure the last few weeks once our set ends. I come back here and read the responses to my posts I have ZERO recollection of posting

Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by what I've written. Other times, as I'm sure some have realized, barely qualify as words

It's OK, that balances out all the 'drunken posters' right?

 

[CBH99]

It's OK, that balances out all the 'drunken posters' right?

It's actually become something I look forward to reading in the mornings, If I'm going to be perfectly honest


"X replied to your post..."

Me: What DID I post? When? I wrote this? Why is exhausted me more articulate than awake me?

 

[RedFive]

I, too frequent the site after night shifts...

 

[mariomike]

Lately I've been covering a night shift for someone, in addition to regular shifts, and I've been in total zombie mode too

Bells / tones waking you up at ungodly hours was awful. Ever try to drive 60 seconds after getting out of bed?

 

[CBH99]

Bells / tones waking you up at ungodly hours was awful. Ever try to drive 60 seconds after getting out of bed?

Oh man…. I don’t know how you guys managed to avoid some major mess-ups when waking up, gearing up, and driving within 60 seconds.

Did you guys ever have a “Wait, where’s Bob?” moment? (Be honest… )


Worst part - for me anyway - was heading the tones go off when I WASN’T at work.

One night a rolled out of bed like I was on QL2 all over again, grabbed my jeans, socks, shirt, shoes, and car keys and flew out of the house at light speed!

Ran out to my car, got in, and started to pull out of the driveway until I had to decide which way to turn the wheel to face the direction I needed to go… only then did my brain stop & recognize I wasn’t at work, on a call, tones hadn’t gone off, and I was quasi-dreaming.

The gradual tone being used now is much nicer on the brain & heart

 

[mariomike]

One night a rolled out of bed like I was on QL2 all over again, grabbed my jeans, socks, shirt, shoes, and car keys and flew out of the house at light speed!

Ran out to my car, got in,

They called you at home? They never called, or paged us at home.

We worked 40-hours a week at the station. Like any other job.

After that, your time was your own.

Who calls people at home? I've heard of volunteer firemen using their own cars , but never heard of paramedics doing it. Just the thought of it is disturbing. - smile emoji.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Bells / tones waking you up at ungodly hours was awful. Ever try to drive 60 seconds after getting out of bed?

Try airborne in a helicopter within 10 mins…

 

[mariomike]

Try airborne in a helicopter within 10 mins…

I don't like being rushed out of bed by anybody...

I bid for no nights / no weekends ASAP. You lose the shift bonus. But, as far as I was concerned, it was worth it.

The gradual tone being used now is much nicer on the brain & heart

Much nicer than the bells.
Makes you want to roll over for another 40 winks.

 

[daftandbarmy]

One night a rolled out of bed like I was on QL2 all over again, grabbed my jeans, socks, shirt, shoes, and car keys and flew out of the house at light speed!

Bed?

 

[lenaitch]

They called you at home? They never called, or paged us at home.

We worked 40-hours a week at the station. Like any other job.

After that, your time was your own.

Who calls people at home? I've heard of volunteer firemen using their own cars , but never heard of paramedics doing it. Just the thought of it is disturbing. - smile emoji.

In a deployed police service, I got called out all the time. In smaller, non-24-hour detachments it wasn't 'jumping at the siren' type of thing, just 'get up and get in - there's a call'. Later in plain clothes it was 'you have an assignment', and most of the time it was get up and grab a suitcase.

It's not uncommon in some volunteer fire services for members to attend in their own vehicles. Usually it's arranged that those closer to the hall will roll with the truck(s) and those farther out will head to the scene, rather than hold up the truck.

There are some remote areas of Ontario than are 'x' km from a paramedic base that still have First Responders, I think with fairly basic first aid. Many are members of the VFS, but there are still some organized townships that don't have fire services.

 

[mariomike]

My life was pretty simple in comparison. No shift premium. But, it was worth it. In my opinion.

0700-1900 Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri.
0700-1900 Weds, Thurs, Fri.
0700-1900 Mon, Tues.

Same station. Same partner. Nothing ever changed.

 

[RedFive]

Bells / tones waking you up at ungodly hours was awful. Ever try to drive 60 seconds after getting out of bed?

Ever try driving lights and sirens in a busy metropolitan centre during the morning rush when you've been awake your whole twelve hour shift, 1900-0700? At least you're awake when you get there to deal with whatever calamity has befallen the complainant...

It gets even better when it's your second 1900-0700 in a row and you didn't sleep more than an hour or two in between them because loud neighbours, daylight and a messed up body clock.

Not trying to suck measure, but being able to sleep between calls is something I very much wish I was allowed to do.

 

[CBH99]

They called you at home? They never called, or paged us at home.

We worked 40-hours a week at the station. Like any other job.

After that, your time was your own.

Who calls people at home? I've heard of volunteer firemen using their own cars , but never heard of paramedics doing it. Just the thought of it is disturbing. - smile emoji.

I’m so sorry. After re-reading my post, I completely forgot the ‘punch line’ of the story.

There were no tones, at all. No bells or sirens. No calls. Nadda. The ‘sudden & loud tones’ had jumped me out of bed when I was at work so many times, that I would actually hear them in my sleep sometimes.

So this time I flew out of bed, got dressed faster than a BMQ student on Day 2, and was out the door in a huge hurry to get to nowhere. And only realized I wasn’t at work, I wasn’t on a call, and I wasn’t in an ambulance once my brain finally caught up to my body because I literally didn’t know where to drive to

Much nicer than the bells.

Agreed very much so.

The gradual tones didn’t have me dreaming about them. The sudden ones I’m pretty sure jolted a few years off I know I wasn’t the only one

It's not uncommon in some volunteer fire services for members to attend in their own vehicles. Usually it's arranged that those closer to the hall will roll with the truck(s) and those farther out will head to the scene, rather than hold up the truck.

When I was younger I was a volunteer firefighter in my smaller home town. (About 3000 people, prairie town in southern Alberta.)

We had green LED strobe lights in our vehicles for when we would head to a call in our own ride. Gear was always organized and packed in the back

Try airborne in a helicopter within 10 mins…

Possible to let autopilot take over once off the ground?

 

[mariomike]

Ever try driving lights and sirens in a busy metropolitan centre during the morning rush when you've been awake your whole twelve hour shift, 1900-0700?

Not trying to suck measure, but being able to sleep between calls is something I very much wish I was allowed to do.

At least it was only 12 hours. Our city firefighters do 24-hour tours.

 

[lenaitch]

At least it was only 12 hours. Our city firefighters do 24-hour tours.

Not all of that is awake.

 

[mariomike]

Not all of that is awake.

Toronto Fire banned the use of CPAP machines in fire house bedrooms for fears their use could spread respiratory droplets potentially containing coronavirus.

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An email from Toronto Fire says those impacted by the ban have two options over the customary 24-hour, 28-day shift rotations split across four platoons.
In the first scenario, staff would report to their regular assignment at 7 a.m. and work until 7 p.m., while on the second day they would work the same hours but be assigned by the platoon chief to whatever may be needed to fill staffing holes.
The second option would involve reporting to their regular assignment at 7 a.m. and informing their platoon chief that accommodation is required. They would then work until 11 p.m., with the eight hour difference made up for after the crisis ends by either giving up times earned or working additional hours.

 

[brihard]

Who calls people at home? I've heard of volunteer firemen using their own cars , but never heard of paramedics doing it. Just the thought of it is disturbing. - smile emoji.

Totally normal for probably a couple thousand rural/remote police. RCMP have lots of members working in small detachments (som as small as two or three members) that don’t have police on shift 24/7. So they’ll work their 40 scheduled hours a week, and then among the members of the detachment, there will be paid on call to ensure that al all times there can be two police officers on or recalled to duty if needed. They bring their gear and their car home, and if the phone rings they wake up, pull on as much of it as they need, and go.

Predictably, dispatchers have some funny stories about things said by officers who are awakened totally sleepf***ed and dispatched to a call.

 

[mariomike]

So they’ll work their 40 scheduled hours a week, and then among the members of the detachment, there will be paid on call to ensure that al all times there can be two police officers on or recalled to duty if needed.

We called it Standby. It was not a normal requirement of the job. It was voluntary. I never did it. I'm not sure if anyone did.

But, it was in the collective agreement. So, I guess they could have forced the issue, if they had wanted - by reverse seniority.

Standby paid a minimum of three (3) hours at regular straight time.
If ordered in while on Standby, all hours were paid at time a half. Four hours minimum.

I did, occasionally, accept voluntary Overtime, when offered. If it was a day shift. 0700 - 1900.
OT paid a guaranteed 12 hours - at time and a half. That made it worth while.
And, you had plenty of notice.

If you did not want to be offered OT, they would put you on a Do Not Disturb list.

Predictably, dispatchers have some funny stories about things said by officers who are awakened totally sleepf***ed and dispatched to a call.

Reading that, I've got to say, when we were off duty - they left you alone.