So incredibly pissed

[BillKaneEMT]

Not the good pissed either. Not taking the piss. Oh no. A little background first. 2 weeks ago my company did some layoffs. They closed one of the branch offices and let several emt's and medics go. Cutbacks, it happens. They've spent the last 2 weeks screwing up our schedules, making random changes and irritating the hell out of everyone while simultaneously telling us every day that things will get straightened out and everything will be fine. I tended to get ALS shifts because the medics generally have a few basics they like to work with for whatever reason and I happened to be one of them.

I started my ALS 24 at 1800 tonight. We have to call dispatch to clock us in and I asked our dispatcher (who shall remain nameless, since he doesn't deserve one) what was going on with next week's schedule. "We're just finalizing it now, give us a couple hours and we'll let you know. We're swamped with calls for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday so it's still getting worked out." Head out on a quick run about 1850, back by 2000 and our base manager was there. He hands us each a letter of termination, says the company is folding and to punch out and go home. Really? 2 hours into a 24, thanks for the wasted gas hoss. Oh, and wednesday when you took a cup of my famous coffee and stopped for a moment to remind me how well the company was doing and that there was no need to look for another job? I appreciate that too. Then I call to punch us out and speak to the same dispatcher who proceeds to make a joke about my gullibility and hangs up on me. Seriously? So amazingly professional. See if you make that joke to my face when I come to pick up my last check son. Then we have a couple minutes to grab our stuff and take it out to our cars so they can lock the place up and change the door code.

I should've seen through their BS and I didn't. Fine, I made a mistake. It happens. You wanna lie to my face and I don't realize it? Good for you. Give me a few more years to build up my shell of cynicism to an impregnable thickness. The way this was handled was blatantly unprofessional. Bush league. Unacceptable. I haven't been able to save anything, the job paid less than 10 an hour and my bills eat up every check. I get that companies have to go out of business sometimes. To lie to my face about it makes you look like a piece of excrement Just saying.

So, hopefully I'll be able to find employment with someone. I might end up working at McDonalds until I do. So yes, I'm pissed off. Just had to vent for a bit. Sorry if it came off a little ranty, I'm just having a lousy day. Later folks.

[DFIB]

Man, that really stinks. I feel for you brother. I hope you find work soon. Prayers for you and yours.

[DwayneEMTP]

You know what Bill? There's no apology necessary. That sucks. And there's not way to pretend that it doesn't suck. I'm truly sorry for you Brother...I know exactly how it feels.

Keep your chin up my friend. And please trust me when I say that I don't believe that that is easier than it is. But all of the anger doesn't hurt them at all, but it can make your life bad. Take a deep breath, my deep breath usually involves inhaling a bit of tequila, then wake up, make a plan and move forward.

If you've not believed anything I've said to you before. I've read your posts, I can see your spirit, You've got this!

Keep in touch with all of your friends that you worked with and find out where they land. People WILL start to get jobs soon, network with them so you know when and where and ask for them to speak for you. And when you land on your feet make sure to remember those that you worked with that weren't douches and speak for them, so that they land on their feet too.

Breath in, breath out, put one foot in front of the other until this is worked out, but don't let yourself sulk, and don't allow yourself the self indulgent self destructive right to stomp around angry.

Edit: If you had seen through their bullshit, what then? What could you have done? Done a bad job? Broken something? Quit? None of us likes to get blind sided my friend, but the option is to be suspicious of everyone and everything...and I find that option completely unacceptable. does that mean that I get kicked in the nuts sometimes? yeah, and I fucking hate it. But you know what? 99% of the time, I'm getting really cool things, not broken nuts, and those are pretty friggin' good odds, right?

[paramedicmike]

No need to apologise. Sorry to hear this has happened.

Hope to see you here in the very near future with a new job report.

[Richard B the EMT]

September, 1980, at Roosevelt Hospital, NY NY: Offices of the Taylor Ambulance Service. Crews noting that calls done for cash are suddenly being marked as having been canceled, but Medicare, Medicaid, and calls paid for by check remain on the books.

Came the day we were all called into the office, and the owner/boss read us a letter from the insurance carrier, stating, in essence, "You've not paid your insurance bill, you've gone past your grace period, so your insurance has been canceled. NY State and NY City Police have been notified of this, and if found operating on any NY State public roadway, vehicles and crew will be arrested."

THEN the boss asks if anyone is willing to take out an ambulance to do calls!

4 of our 20 accepted, and the rest got 2 weeks pay as severance. I started at another company the following Monday.

I found out about a year later, the owner/boss had been charged with Medicare/Medicaid fraud, and was already in a Federal Correctional Facility.

[Kiwiology]

Dude that fucking sucks. I feel for you bro.

Get your ass down to Indyland, we can find a spare rig, crank up the Sugarland and various other forms of redneck country music, wear giant cowboy hats and go save people when they OD on the Greatness that the Great Nation of Indiana exuded at 300mph in a series of flaming crashes and left turns. You can drive during the night and spot letterbox numbers, other than that we are good to go ... I even know a fire station on the far west side we can go park at who do not hate on Ambulance.

Now, be a good sport, hit the air horn for me, HONK HONK, ok works a charm, Medic 302 calls Control, top of Moller Road and 34th St, responding ...

[BillKaneEMT]

Hahaha. Ok, first of all, thank you everyone. Dwayne, I always believe you:) Richard B, that story made me feel a lot better. Mike, Here's hopin, I'm going in to Prompt, the local big boy, tomorrow. I got a call from one of my former coworkers which leads me to believe we might get hired en masse by them since they're shorthanded and for a couple other reasons. Kiwi, my brother (who lives in Indy) just suggested the same thing. I'll be putting in apps statewide starting monday.

I honestly feel quite a bit better now. I posted right after I got home, having just been blindsided then spending 40 minutes behind the wheel just getting angrier. I had to vent and I didn't want to start yelling at nothing so this was my best option. I spent my early 20s going off at the drop of a hat, a decade later I pride myself on maintaining, at minimum, my outward calm. I haven't actually yelled at anybody in like 2 years. I'm a firm believer in "what goes around, comes around" and I try to handle everything as though that were true. Pay it forward and so forth. To be clear, I'm in a better situation than many other people would be. I'm single and childless so all I have to worry about, financially, is myself. I'm sure I'll find something soon and I'll get by doing odd jobs if need be til I get hired by another service. The majority of my anger was caused by the callous and extremely disrespectful way I feel management and my dispatchers have acted throughout this process. Seriously, I get canned 2 hours into a 24 and you're mocking me for not assuming you were lying earlier? It's ok though. I'm not gonna let some snotty kid get me down. I needed to blow off some steam and I'm glad I had an outlet for doing so. A decade ago I woulda stopped at a bar and ended up in a brawl. This way is better.

And no, I wouldn't have done a bad job or broken anything:) I would, however, have about 20 applications out already It's all good, I'm updating my resume and checking the local company sites right now. I'll be fine, and thank you everyone for the good wishes and moral support. Good night folks.

[DwayneEMTP]

Before seeing your post I'd started one on my blog titled, "You may love EMS, but it will never love you back..."

I'll try and remember to post a link to it here when I'm done...

Good on you Brother. What they did was truly shitty, and you should never have seen it coming. For what it's worth, for each time I've been forced to leave a place, either fired or whatever reason, it seemed to be forcing me to the next thing that was way better, but I'd have never gone to one my own.

Good to see you taking the high road..

[lpndj6]

Sadly these things happen more then we want to admit. I remember back in the 90s I was a tech geek who moonlighted EMS (reality I loved helping others but the tech jobs paid better) went through periods where I felt like a hired gun one job and then off to another.. I had been contracting in Washington DC for nearly 2 yrs when a Dot com offers me 50% pay raise with better benes. So Of course Im gonna take it (this was March 2000), besides honestly after the Y2K crap and dealing with DC paper pushers I was ready for a change... Things seemed great all was well Had a crew of 5 of us Network Engineers keeping 60+ servers up and running plus doing desktop support for well over 100 employees making well very good money.. First warning issues were coming was pay checks were late 2 pay periods in a row in November. Then without warning they terminated 20% of the staff 7 days before Christmas (talk about Scrooge City).. Only satisfaction was they went Chap 7 a few months later.. I wanted to add though on a side note where I live now same thing happened with an ambulance provider who did nearly all the interfacility transports within the largest county by area in the State of NC.. No warning no nothing.. They notified the county on Friday that as of Monday morning they would cease transports.. Now the Brunswick County where this happened has a hybrid system of sorts. There is Brunswick EMS which is paid county. Then there are individual Fire/Rescue and EMS only companies who have paid staff as well as volunteers. The problem was this dumped the transport issue square in Brunswick EMS' lap to fix because the individual depts were never supposed to nor could they handle such calls. Leading to BEMS having to shell out a buttload of OT while they tried to get new staff hired.. I havent heard anythingelse and dont know if the other private company who primarily covers the area of Wilmington NC and the county was going to assist at least on the North end or not its like the story just disappeared after 2 weeks just like the company did nearly overnight..

**It is highly likely the company shut down because about 2-3 months prior an ambulance of theres was involved in a fatal accident the driver was speeding and apparently many called into question how this person was even allowed to be driving with the previous driving record he had**

[Richard B the EMT]

I have to clarify a bit re my last post. I had already been job hunting, and hired at the next company, but they allowed me time to resign from the company that the insurance had dropped. Wow, 5 days off!