Family on Duty Together

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I'm curious as to how many of your departments have policies against family members who are related from working on the same shift together. I'm on two volunteer departments, and one of them would never be able to support that policy if we wanted to get people out the door because its a very small department personnel-wise. But the other department I'm on now has enough volunteers that it's probably no longer necessary to allow relatives to work on the same shift together.

I'm curious as to what the policies are in other volunteer places (obviously at paid places it's a lot easier to have these policies because they are paying for the people!).

 

[Handsome Robb]

We aren't volunteer but I've seen plenty of husband and wife crews on OT shifts or special events.

I doubt they'd let you bid an entire 4 month shift with your significant other, I've never heard of anyone trying it but then again, I doubt anyone would want to do that!

What's wrong with allowing family members to work on the same shift? Yes this job is dangerous but we're not facing a situation like the Sullivan brothers in WWII. If they're acting professionally, completing required tasks and not being "problem children" I don't see an issue.

I personally don't see the difference between allowing close friends and "couples" or family members to work on the same shift.

In the fire service I could see it potentially being an argument (see the Sullivan bros reference above) but I don't really think it holds any water.

That's just my .02

 

[shfd739]

The only place Ive volunteered routinely had husband/wife/son/daughter on the ambulance/fire truck/scenes together.

Our EMS coordinator and his wife were both EMTs and made a crew. Another couple were both first responder/ambulance drivers(this is a level in Alabama) and would have a basic or medic to make a 2 or 3 person crew. My wife and I made a double medic crew when we had the unit inservice.

We worked well together but I wouldn't want to do it all the time. 1-2 times a week on a vollie ambulance was tolerable as we kept it in our driveway and could do our own thing around the house till a call came in. Actually all of our family crews ran from home.

Same thing on the fire side. Same people plus some others that were relatives. Never caused us any problems as far as favortism was concerned. Everyone was pretty good at separating family from the duties.

I know of a few couples that worked as a crew together at the paid job and they got along fine with no issues. Company doesn't mind them working together as long as they get along.

Similar to how some older couples are still sweet and nice to each other and others (like my grandparents) constantly nag and nitpick the other when they have too much together time. Some couples can be together a lot and others not so much.

 

[Handsome Robb]

One comment I hear a lot is "it must nice to be engaged to the dispatcher 9directed at my friend) or "it must be nice to be good friends with the guy who's engaged to the dispatcher and friends with her as well (directed at me) because we both happened to get a string of a couple weeks where we both got the plush hard posts and didn't run any calls for 3-4 hours at a time while other crews ran their asses off.

She's buried both of us in paperwork just as bad as any other crew gets buried, just the luck of the draw that we both got a slow week and ended up in hard posts. Never actually seen any obvious favoritism from dispatchers towards their significant other on the ambulance. I have seen it from dispatch towards supervisors working on the box or acting supervisors working their regular shifts though.

 

[shfd739]

It's like that everywhere with the comments.

Our dispatchers don't care who is on a unit. To them it's a number on a screen and gets treated as such.

 

[Veneficus]

One comment I hear a lot is "it must nice to be engaged to the dispatcher 9directed at my friend) or "it must be nice to be good friends with the guy who's engaged to the dispatcher and friends with her as well (directed at me) because we both happened to get a string of a couple weeks where we both got the plush hard posts and didn't run any calls for 3-4 hours at a time while other crews ran their asses off.

She's buried both of us in paperwork just as bad as any other crew gets buried, just the luck of the draw that we both got a slow week and ended up in hard posts. Never actually seen any obvious favoritism from dispatchers towards their significant other on the ambulance. I have seen it from dispatch towards supervisors working on the box or acting supervisors working their regular shifts though.

There has always been a rivalry between field crews and dispatch. Sometimes friendly, sometimes not. Aside from some friendly ribbing, I never had a problem with any dispatcher.

They are still tainted though even if they get back into the field.

I find if you go to work expecting to work (and I was always one to volunteer for the busy stations, especially in the inner city) you will never have a problem.

If you go to work expecting to sleep, get errands done, etc, you set yourself up for conflict with the dispatchers.

As was said, their job is to send the closest appropriate unit, the really good ones remember about crew readiness and make sure you do get something to eat, etc. But It is hard to find any real fault in people doing their job.

 

[Handsome Robb]

There has always been a rivalry between field crews and dispatch. Sometimes friendly, sometimes not. Aside from some friendly ribbing, I never had a problem with any dispatcher.

They are still tainted though even if they get back into the field.

I find if you go to work expecting to work (and I was always one to volunteer for the busy stations, especially in the inner city) you will never have a problem.

If you go to work expecting to sleep, get errands done, etc, you set yourself up for conflict with the dispatchers.

As was said, their job is to send the closest appropriate unit, the really good ones remember about crew readiness and make sure you do get something to eat, etc. But It is hard to find any real fault in people doing their job.

I agree 100%. I'm the same way, personally would rather be busy than sitting on my ***.

When you really break it down dispatching is a real crappy job, no offense to the dispatchers on here. They're the ones that have to tell coworkers and often friends that they aren't going to get to go home on time or they have to leave their meal they were waiting on that has already ben paid for with no guarantee that the crew will be able to make it back to get that meal. Not a job I'd enjoy doing.

 

[abckidsmom]

One place I worked barred "immediate family members" from working together. I had much of the bitterness because it was only against the rules if you were legal. All the living together or engaged people could still ride with their SO. I was married to mine so no dice.

I like working with my husband and I don't like policies like this, and I don't think I would back up a family member partner any differently than any other good partner.

 

[Veneficus]

One place I worked barred "immediate family members" from working together. I had much of the bitterness because it was only against the rules if you were legal. All the living together or engaged people could still ride with their SO. I was married to mine so no dice.

I like working with my husband and I don't like policies like this, and I don't think I would back up a family member partner any differently than any other good partner.

Some FDs put "no family" rules in place in order to prevent the possibility that both parents of a child would be killed at the same time.

What made it unrealistic is those departments were so small that the duty crew could not handle anything that was of significant danger and off duty people had to be recalled regularly. So if by some chance there was a married couple in the Dept. (which never was when I was there) they would likely be on the same scene anyway.

I noticed, especially in the South, there is a major problem with nepotism. They also don't share the aversion to it that us yankees do. Quite the opposite in fact. We see it as unfair and favoritism of a small club, they see it as going to somebody they know and trust. (which is why you see things like "no bid" contracts in government more often from certain administrations)

Here in this part of Europe, because there does seem to be a more heriditary professional development in families, it is not uncommon to see multiple generations of the same family in not just a particular industry, but in a particular place. Especially in medicine where not only are children of grads easily accepted to med school, but also because both parents often met at school or at work. Moreover, if both of their parents were in medicine, that is their entire social circle growing up. One of the local departments has been headed by the grandmother, mother, and now the daughter is expected to be the next head. (not undeservingly I might add)

Think about kids that grow up listening to their parents and being around them in any particular field. My 3 year old (almost 4) can describe prostaglandin synthesis right from Miller's. One of my mentors (a Gyn, with a PhD in anatomy) has a 7 year old that corrects his health teachers by naming the very structures on the bones she is teaching the names of.

A cardiologist here that I know is the daughter of 2 cardiologists, her knowledge and passion for it is amazing. She is the youngest assistant department head in the history of the academic hospital. (I am sure one day will be the youngest department head too)

It represents an interesting conundrum. People can claim favoritism, but these people really are the best at what they do. They grow up with it.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Our company tries to avoid having husbands/wifes, boyfriends/girlfriends, relatives working the same shift but it does happened every now and then.

Our city fire department will not all any direct relatives to be hired on with a relative already working regardless of shift.

 

[bahnrokt]

Ive run calls with my wife. I hate it. She loves to calm/distract patients by pointing out the driver is her husband and then going down the laundry list of my flaws.

We also have a teen boyfriend / girlfriend combo that developed in our Corps. Long story, but lets just say they were good emts on their own but not mature enough to ride together. So I can see where some companies get sketchy on letting families ride.

 

[AtlasFlyer]

I think couples/families working together can work fine, and it can be an absolute disaster.

It depends entirely on the individuals involved. I would NOT want to work with my husband. But I'm not going to say that NO ONE should work with their husband/wife, just because it wouldn't be a good situation for *me*.

I would be able to work just fine with my brother, my sister-in-law (his wife) probably not so much...

So I'm not a big fan of blanket anti-family-working-together policies, because I think it just depends entirely on the individual people.

 

[chillybreeze]

My thoughts exactly. We have a husband and wife team who work with my dept and things work out great! Would I want to work with my husband.......no!

 

[nemedic]

For my brief time in the box, I had a few calls with my dad/uncle in the BRT. Code and a combative psych. Worked well, as we already had that 'flow' where everyone works together seamlessly and are able to anticipate each others needs.