I previously called myslf a free agent, I am afraid I am not as cool as that implies. I used to work for "Wonderful PD" from here on out "WPD" but I was laid off due to budget issues. WPD is so awesome that they called over to their sister city "Evil PD" (EPD) and asked them to give me a job. I then became per diem (hourly) at WPD and full time at EPD. After almost dying giving birth to Danger, I stepped down from FT at EPD and now per diem for them as well. The drive is way too far to work as many hours, as I have been lately, so after an amazingly long backgrounds, I was just hired at "Close to Home PD" (CPD) this Friday. That is if I can pass the Psych and medical. I used to live really close to Evil and Wonderful PD but we could not afford to buy a house in this area so right before Danger was born, last August, we moved 75 miles away. So after that massively long version of why I call myself a free agent it all comes down to: because starting in September I will work for three different PDs. Ironically I still work FT most weeks but now I work whenever I want, I take whole weeks off without having to sign up for it and I make more per hour, than I did as FTer. I am very lucky my husband's PD has amazing health care coverage. EPD and WPD share a radio frequency so sometimes I call the units each others identifiers, but not too often. WPD and EPD also have identical CAD systems and phone systems, so besides knowing where the heck I am, it is very easy to go back and forth between the agencys. Here comes the confusing part. CPD's only shared feature with the other two PDs is they all use Vesta phones. Not only do they use completely different computers, they do not use 10 codes. Not even 10-4! They use 9 codes. So beginning in September I will share with you how difficult it is to work at such absolutely different places at the same time. Oh, I forgot to mention EPDs comm center got sold out to a different agency so after about November, I will only work at WPD and CPD.
When I came from Huge PD (HPD) to WPD originally, it was very hard to learn to multi-task. Answering the radio, business lines and 911 seemed absolutely impossible the first month or two, but I got it now. I think it is harder to go from one agency to the next than to start fresh with no previous experience, because I have ingrained habits that I've had to break. Also I have found that my previous experience has worked against me with some officers. They want to know why I am not up to speed immediatley since I have done the job before. Also EPD officers don't like WPD officers, so some were mean to me at first because I came from there. Petty! Anyone else's agency ever feel like High School? Well, hope that explained some stuff. Til later!
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3 comments:
It's scary that I understand everything you just said.
Bummer. I thought you were some cool new hybid dispatcher! I heard in a NIMS class that somewhere in the southeast US dispatchers were cross training w/other local agencies so in a disaster they could 'shuffle' dispatchers around the state where they were needed. I was thinking maybe CA had picked up on that. Its a good idea in theory. Your blog title takes on a whole new meaning.
We tried borrowing dispatchers from South Florida for relief during Hurricane Ivan. It was a complete failure. No one was willing to cut the leash on them and let them work.
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