Dispatch calling your personal cell

Brandon O

Puzzled by facies
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A recent thread got me thinking. How do you guys feel about dispatch calling you on your personal cell phone to get in touch -- even when you never gave it to them or authorized its use? This is a fairly common practice that I've seen, usually when they're having trouble reaching you on the radio, and always seemed vaguely odd to me. (What if you have prepaid minutes or something?)
 

TransportJockey

Forum Chief
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Doesnt matter to me, and a working cell is required where i work right now
 

DesertMedic66

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I don't care really. Each unit has a cell phone issued by the company however no one really uses them and they are rarely even charged.

Dispatch will only call our personal phones if the radios are down (frequent issue) and they are unable to get a hold of us by other means. I call out dispatch center at least once per shift so I know they have my number haha.

Our supervisors also have the master list and employees are able to get contact information for other employees for shift bids, shift trades, and other questions.
 
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Brandon O

Brandon O

Puzzled by facies
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I mean, one supposes you could be a **** about it and start sending them itemized receipts to get reimbursed for your minutes.

Although that might be one of the things you reflect upon when you're mysteriously out of a job two months later.
 

DesertMedic66

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A decent number of employees write their phones off on taxes due to calls to supervisors, schedulers, CES, dispatch, and the hospitals.

Are prepaid minutes even still a thing?
 
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Brandon O

Brandon O

Puzzled by facies
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A decent number of employees write their phones off on taxes due to calls to supervisors, schedulers, CES, dispatch, and the hospitals.

Are prepaid minutes even still a thing?

Sure, just watch The Wire.

Wouldn't writing it off mean determining what portion of your usage is work-related? Or do they just put down the whole cost of the phone? I suspect that's naughty.
 

DesertMedic66

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Sure, just watch The Wire.

Wouldn't writing it off mean determining what portion of your usage is work-related? Or do they just put down the whole cost of the phone? I suspect that's naughty.
No clue at all what they do. I know there used to be a local tax guy who would focus on EMS/Fire to really help them out but I haven't heard anything in a while about it
 

CALEMT

The Other Guy/ Paramaybe?
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A decent number of employees write their phones off on taxes due to calls to supervisors, schedulers, CES, dispatch, and the hospitals.

Didn't know that was a write off, pretty cool.

For the most part it seems that I or my partner landline dispatch ourselves. It seems if dispatch can't get ahold of us over the radio, they page our pagers telling us to landline.
 

DesertMedic66

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Didn't know that was a write off, pretty cool.

For the most part it seems that I or my partner landline dispatch ourselves. It seems if dispatch can't get ahold of us over the radio, they page our pagers telling us to landline.
Until the paging system goes down.... again
 

CALEMT

The Other Guy/ Paramaybe?
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CALEMT

The Other Guy/ Paramaybe?
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Tigger

Dodges Pucks
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No clue at all what they do. I know there used to be a local tax guy who would focus on EMS/Fire to really help them out but I haven't heard anything in a while about it
We had a woman here that would do that. Then all of her clients got audited and no one got refunds anymore...

Fortunately neither of our dispatch centers have my cell phone numbers as they are both law enforcement and provided no other services too us than calltaking and initial dispatching of calls. The crews handle who takes what call and all that.

My AMR place has my number and sends me 8 trillion texts a day, though I could opt out of it. A supervisor once called me on my cell that he looked up off the list, but that's the only time it happened and it generally never happens. I don't believe dispatch has our cell numbers.
 

DesertMedic66

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Also for the emergency response team it is required that they have your cell phone number as that is the only form of communication that the communication center has with us
 

cruiseforever

Forum Asst. Chief
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I would not answer it. Cell phones are not required. Let them leave a message, if it's important I will call back.
 

AtlasFlyer

Forum Captain
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For us it's not dispatch but our immediate supervisors who call our personal cells (if need would be, dispatch would tell the supervisor to make the call). They only do so if there's an operational need, and I really don't care. I have all the supervisor's cell phone numbers in my phone and I know who it is when it rings.

To itemize the number of minutes used would be silly. It would seriously be like 10 minutes or less for a month. That's not worth getting fussy about.
 

ViolynEMT

Forum Chiefess
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We have cell phones that the company gives us. If we don't respond on the radio, they call us. It also gives us addresses in a text which can be really handy. We also have MCT's. The only time dispatch called me on my cell was one time when I was waiting to be reassigned.
 

MMiz

I put the M in EMTLife
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I often used my cell to contact dispatch if I was inside a building with poor radio coverage or to contact a hospital for online med control. Used it all the time to contact shift supervisors.

I'd be careful writing off your cell phone bill on your taxes if you use it for both work and personal use.
 

Ewok Jerky

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Each unit has a Nextel that is generally used for things you don't want the other units to hear, or you don't want recorded. I would sometimes use my cell to call dispatch from inside the hospital if the Nextel wasn't handy. Only time they call/text me is for personal chit chat or like "hey we are swinging by OPs do you guys want Starbucks?" Anything that is job related I want on a recorded line. So sometimes if they give me some info over my cell I will acknowledge it over the air.
 

exodus

Forum Deputy Chief
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Each unit has a Nextel that is generally used for things you don't want the other units to hear, or you don't want recorded. I would sometimes use my cell to call dispatch from inside the hospital if the Nextel wasn't handy. Only time they call/text me is for personal chit chat or like "hey we are swinging by OPs do you guys want Starbucks?" Anything that is job related I want on a recorded line. So sometimes if they give me some info over my cell I will acknowledge it over the air.

I have all but one of our dispatchers on facebook, if I want to ask or say something not recorded, I send them a message on there. But it's fairly liberal out here on what can be said on the recorded line. One of our dispatchers vocabulary consists of the f word every other phrase!
 
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