The 20 somethings. The young men and women my kids age. Not all of them, not even most of them. I know, because I work with them and they are the children of my friends and co workers, that many of them are sacrificing their comfort, their youth, their limbs, and even their lives fighting our enemies. I know all that, but sometimes it seems like they are few and far between. Or I end up with the slugs and slackers.
Go read this at The Transmogrifier Files.
If she thinks it’s bad teaching them, try working with that generation.
I can’t get a Saturday shift off because there are too many sick calls among my co workers who want to go to a cool party and hate the idea of rotating weekends. Guess what? So do I. Still, it was explained to me about the time your Daddy figured out that Mr. Winkie was good for more than peeing that the job requires “rotating days off, nights, weekends, holidays, and working in all types of weather”. It was right there on the job posting and I’m willing to bet that it’s still on the job posting all these years later.
I’m the senior guy in the station. By guy, I mean person, not just male. In fact, at just about any station I might work at, I’m the senior guy. As was said to me all those years ago, “Seniority sucks until you have it”. I have it, you don’t. Therefore I don’t appreciate your refusal to clean any part of the station, including washing your dishes after you eat. Yeah, that’s why when you back from your days off Mommy’s Tupperware was no where to be found. Unlike her, I didn’t wash it and get it ready for your next meal. I tossed it into the trash barrel that you refuse to ever empty. Then I emptied the trash. The Tupperware is being burned for energy or recycled or something. Mommy might not be too happy, but I’m perfectly content especially since the flies have found someone else to bother.
I leave you a truck that has a full tank of fuel, is stocked, the monitor has fresh batteries, any blood and yucky stuff has been cleaned from the patient compartment. So, why when I come back in are we missing IV solutions, drugs, needles, and the truck looks like a abattoir? I’d ask of you leave your room that way, but looking at your wrinkled shirt, pants, and five O’clock shadow, I think I know the answer.
Oh, you spend about two hours a shift, when you can, cleaning your SUV. Which last year when you worked for a private doing the renal round up you couldn’t afford (but I digress), but you piss and moan when the supervisor asks you do give the ambulance a quick bath. Really dude, it’s not that onerous a burden. It wouldn’t hurt to take a towel and some alcohol to the inside of the cab either. That takes about another five minutes. Surely you can take five minutes out from playing Angry Birds on your ‘Droid to do your job.
Notice it’s been colder the last few days? Yeah, I thought so because you’re wearing a jacket at work. So, swing by supply and get some of those nice wool blankets the service buys. Remember, we deal with sick people sometimes and they like to be warm. Those cheap cotton blankets you snagged at the hospital might be nice for quick naps at the station, but when the temperature is below about 60, they are useless for keeping people warm.
Since I’m ranting like the old guy I am, let’s talk about late calls. No one really likes them, even OT hounds like me, but like the other things I listed a couple of paragraphs back, they are part of the job. Besides, you get overtime for them. So, stop taking the patient to the hospital that is most convenient for you and take them to the hospital that is best for them. ‘kay?
Finally, even though we wear uniforms that look a lot alike we are not equal. I (and I’m saying this more and more) have been doing this job since before you were born. I’ve carried a lot more sick people than you have even seen. If we need all hands on the stretcher, then I’ll be there and I’ll out lift you. It’s technique, not strength. That I’m arguably in better shape than you isn’t important, it’s your turn to carry the patient while I do the hard part. Which is figuring out what’s going on. Since you missed the five obvious clinical clues that this was a sick person or conversely the five that showed me he wasn’t all that sick at all, you can do the easy part, which is the lifting. After all, I was doing lug jobs back about the time Daddy… Being the diversity loving guy I am, that includes you young ladies. You took a test that included a lifts and carries component. And you passed. Or at least someone closed their eyes and checked off that you passed. No matter, you signed up for a job that included lifting sick and sometimes heavy people. Chivalry might not be dead, but it’s not working tonight. If you can’t carry your weight, go to dispatch. Or try a rewarding career in the fast food industry.
I don’t know about you, but I feel better now that that’s off my chest. Then again I’m not Dr. Phil so I’m not overly concerned how you feel.
True. Nicely written
[Stands]
[CLAP] [CLAP] [CLAP]
Epic.
Chivalry might not be dead, but it’s not working tonight.
This made me LOL.
Yah….just yah.
I hate having pretty much anything to do with them, and I’m not that far out of that demographic either.
Oh, and I don’t expect chivalry if its my job. If I need help I’ll say so, but if I don’t say so then don’t use chivalry as an excuse to get out of YOUR job and then expect me to help you with it.
So, who writes their evals?
Hell, we have guys that have been on for a while doing what you’re describing and the younger guys doing their jobs.
Let’s be fair, there are plenty of us in that age range who wouldn’t mind (to steal a phrase) taking a rolled up copy of JEMS and smacking our partners on the nose with it. Trust me, I loves myself a nice clean ambulance (and after wiping down the cab with a couple of cancer wipes, grab that bottle of Windex and clean the windows, inside and out, front and back), but I’m not afraid of shaming my partners into doing it because I’m already outside cleaning.
Hey! You stole that rolled up JEMS line from Ambulance Driver, who stole it from me!
Fuckin’ A. I am a young one and I’m ashamed of my generation around me. I was raised by a fire family and taught to respect rank, senoirity, and do your job and like it. I’m sorry that people still don’t understand that they are in a one of a kind job that can go away quickly. At least you know we aren’t all like that.
I love this. Well said. I am a twenty something, and I guess because I am much closer to 30 than 20 I agree with you, though sometimes I have the 5 o’clock shadow thing, but hey, up until 4 or so years ago, I was a touring musician in a metal band, so I am trying! It bothers me to no end when people can’t do the simple parts of the job. Refuel/stock the truck, clean the pt compartment of the blood, bile and who knows what else that is splattered all over the back.
Again well said, love the blog, keep with the good fight!
The nice thing about being 33 is that the kids think I’m one of the old-timers and the old-timers think I’m one of the kids. Nobody likes me much, but nobody really expects me to take their side in the Generation Wars.
Ditto to that Don!
I, unfortunately, have reached the age that when cute young female EMT’s smile at me…
… it’s because I remind them of their fathers.
Ah..thanks for that! As a woman in EMS I’m right there to carry bags and lift the stretcher (won’t think twice about asking for an assist on a heavy pt…but the key word is ASSIST, not you lift the stretcher and I watch). It drives me batty the women that come in and EXPECT and DEMAND the men to do all the lifting, carrying, toting, you name it and they sit there and pretend to file their freshly manicured fingernails with their thumb pad.
ALS does NOT stand for AINT LIFTING SHIT… and if you specifically promoted up or went to school to be a Paramedic so that you don’t have to drive or partake in lifting then this field’s not for you…….it’s not fair that all women are grouped together as being the typical lazy ones to dive to the head of the stretcher or jump to the compartment to avoid manual labour.
By the way…I’m not only a girl, but I’m also 25. A little different than your typical younger EMS generation.
A lot of the more senior women are more disgusted with this generation, particularly the women, than am I. They worked here when sexism inside and outside the department was rampant. They proved their worth just like everyone else, they didn’t ask for favors. Now they see the whining and complaining about having to carry patients and shake their heads.
I, for the time being, also fall into the twenty something age group. I feel like there is also two different types of age groups. You have the kids that didn’t go off to college, or another career field, and they went right into EMT school bound for a zero to hero status. Then you have the groups of people that either went off to college and got away from living with mom and dad, and the people that started their careers in a different specialty. I am not sure if maturity is the word, but it seems like they are two different groups of people.
I will say that I thoroughly enjoy reading your post, thanks for sharing!
RMA
Nicely said…
TOTWTYTR,
As a member of said generation, I too am a little ticked as my generation keeps shooting ourselves in the foot.
I’m not saying I’m any better than the rest of my generation, but my parents taught me the value of work, and common sense. Sure my room’s a little messy. Does that mean that my workspace should be the same way? Hell no! I’ve been trying to get a EMS gig here in the state for months now. I guarantee you that any ambulance I run in will be kept neater than my own room. I take pride in my work. I have been told I care too much about things. Well, I don’t like things half-assed, that’s why!
And that’s basically what my generation is full of: excuses, BS, and half-@$$ed things. We need to relearn what work ethic is.
I’m not sure I can save my generation, but I’ll be damned if I don’t do my best to fix our reputation.
[Claps loudly!!!]
Every so often I miss those days of working the truck, before I blew my back out and moved into teaching (which I do enjoy, much)
Then I read and remember this type of crap and as a Supervisor dealing with the same…
Yeah you nailed it!!
Outstanding!
I’m adding this to my collection of blog posts to occassionally print & post at the base.
Hey I know my generation can be selfish morons who think they know everything and believe you older, experienced ambos to have the collective intelligence on a T-Rex fossil, but please don’t lump us all in the same group. PLEASE give us half a chance – I can’t speak for all my colleagues but if some of your wisdom, insight and experience will stop me from killing someone then I want to ride with you. Some of us will damn near kill ourselves to be a better ambo.
Awesome….I love it…wish I had said it …
Wonderfully written and very true. Thank you!
One of the things that annoys the living daylights out of me, is how this younger generation feels entitled to all the perks life has to offer with out working for them. It’s almost as if they demand them… I see this all the time with new nursing and EMS grads. I can not tell you how many times I have been to mangers and HR to complain about these younguns’. I once suggested to my manger that for every one complaint given equals one whole shift of janitorial, transfer or other scut work for the offender. Sometimes it works. I saw one new nurse who was given morgue duty until she cleaned up her act. She’s now one of the best nurses I work with. She “gets it” now. Only took 96 hours in the morgue.
I also notice that men, esp. older men, don’t complain about this issue as much as women do. Feel free to step more often….
Great post.
And you kids stay the hell off TOTWTYTR’s lawn!
I’ve spent some time trying to figure out what makes some young folks abstain from their work. Some of it’s laziness, but since we’re generations removed from depression and WW-2 children, there’s a lot many take for granted.
Food was something you probably helped grow during those times, even in urban areas. My mother described eating fresh tomato, or cucumber, sandwiches. It wasn’t what she wanted, but when many of her classmates didn’t have anything to eat, it was a feast, which she would sometimes share. They had a garden, so they didn’t go hungry.
The second world war had rationing. Rationing meant you may only get part of what you needed, but that’s all there was. Even women’s nylons were rationed. Enterprising young ladies would trace a seam on the back of their legs to make it look as though the had on seamed nylons, that were fashionable for the time.
There were blackouts, also. No visible lights after dark. It didn’t matter how hot it was, you either placed heavy blackout curtains, or stayed in the dark. Nobody was given any special privilages. It was the rules because there were real threats off the coasts. Submarines would constantly sail within firing range of U.S. coasts. Give them a target, and they would take advantage of the opportunity. Sunken wrecks off the near coasts are reminders of the victims.
So, there is a lack of history, which means a lack of the understanding of how it’s fallacy to take things for granted. I can only hope the necessary changes happen because of a willingness to not repeat the past. If not, we’ll eventually have some crisis – probably due to the government – and changes will be harsh.
From a member of the “younger generation” to my fellow youngsters: Shut up and just get it done! You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it. In fact, once you start accepting this fact, you WILL start to enjoy even the less pleasant aspects of anything you do.
Reminded me of something son said shortly after made sergeant: had to nail a guy hard on a matter and the guy bitched and griped about it, way son put it was “He’s 20 years old and he’s still acting like a standard-issue teenager!”
Ha Ha!. The 20 somethings are so cool. They get all the jobs with their degrees and fresh young spirit. Then they ask this 50 yr old how to freaking spell( even after I trained you for my job and then was laid off). All the hard earned work my forefathers and my generation put in to have it shot to crap by a bunch of snot nosed prima donnas. This country is going to hell in an accelerated hand basket