Steph, I will give you a hug anytime you want. :blush:
As for your original post, have you ever dispatched? not attacking, honest question. Have you actually done the job that you are fuming about another person doing incorrectly?
One other thing, I recently (in the last 6 months) became cross trained as a dispatcher at my per diem job. and I used to complain how horrible all the dispatchers were, and how incompetent many are. Since I have completed the training, and see all the stupid rules and regulations they need follow, and see why they have some of the issues they have, I understand why problems exist, and many want to correct them, but they are hampered by upper management's rules and regulations. Some dispatchers are poor dispatchers, and they should be better, and I like to think I do the job better than half the dispatchers that have been doing this for a while. And this was after I had been dispatching at my other job fora while, which was a much busier system, and was certified as a dispatch instructor by two agencies for the past 5 years.
Bottom line, you can complain all your want, but unless you can do the job better than they can, who are you to say anything about their job performance? and if you aren't willing to learn how to do their job, and actually work behind the desk, how can you say they are doing it poorly, since you can't even do it?
I understand that you aren't attacking. And I AM a dispatcher.
In this particular incident, I was not fuming about dispatchers, because I was the dispatcher.
I was fustrated and did not make anything clear because I was pissed and probably would have said the wrong thing. I was upset because just about everyone complains about dispatch, as you said but majority of them have never dispatched before. I DO have to follow ALOT of policies and get emails daily about new things that we are changing- including vocabulary, status and our procedures.
I have been told by many many many guys that I work for that they LOVE me on the radio. I handle and talk slow and speak clearly for them to hear me, I do slip in a little giggle every once in a while.
But it's those ones that WON'T come sit with me and see all the BS I have to follow and put up with, are the ones that aggrevate me. Especially when I say the address 5 times on the radio- they get a fax and alert to their station and then proceed to argue with me telling me that I gave them the wrong address. Thank GOODNESS for recordings.
But.. I am JUST a dispatcher.
I do everything I can possibly do, to make their job easier. Even with other dispatch centers, if I make one decision for myself- if I actually THINK instead of having the computer do it for me, I will catch wrath from the management. But If I do not think outside of the box, I will catch wrath from the guys on the streets. Never ending battle.
But thank you DrParasite. You may not have realized but you layed out my message for me.
Bottom line,
they can complain all
they want, but unless
they can do the job better than
I can, who are
they to say anything about
my job performance? and if
they aren't willing to learn how to do
my job, and actually work behind the desk, how can
they say
I am doing it poorly, since
they can't even do it?[/
Oh, and thanks for the hug.
