Looking for new tricks to play on new hires

[JakeEMTP]

Myself other than talking to the person the worst I do is tell them they are in charge as it's my day to freak out on all calls.

That is funny right there! I don't care who you are!

[dragonpaco]

personally i love some light hazing. it makes me feel more comfortable like i fit in. as long as it isnt anything that could cause injury or very severe embarassment

[AnthonyM83]

If you do it, you do it because the guy's getting along with everyone well and he thinks it'd be funny, too. You don't do it simply because he's an easy shot being new. Nothing that's going to make him feel bad about his new position or question his being there. I'm pretty sure we've had trainees leave our company because of stuff like that.

[EMSPROFESSIONAL]

Joshing some person is fine, within bounds. Be careful with new people as you do not know their past and they may be hurt or kick your a.. . Pardon my vulgar reference please.

[brentoli]

At dispatch, the first foggy morning, the day capitan calls in and asks for the "fog lifters."

Thats funny, espically when the trainee starts to call the highway department to ask for them.

[spenac]

Kind of like in construction sending the new guy around to see if anybody has a board stretcher.

[NREMT-Basic]

Hazing and initiation "rituals" are against the law in almost every state and as with most things like this it is usually up to the victim of the act to determine if it was funny or made them feel embarrassed, scared, etc. Virtually nationwide there are laws against this kind of behavior. Im not against jokes and having been the new guy on several services, Ive been on the receiving end of many myself. What you fail to see is the difference between a joke, and hazing. Hazing is illegal because it is legally defined as behavior that intimidates, embarrasses, injures or frightens the person who is the brunt of such behavior. Do those of you who advocate it feel good about causing such feelings in people? Do you somehow imagine that filling an ambulance with smoke from a smoke machine and then sending the new guy in to retrieve equipment makes him "part of the team?" Not to mention the fact that your supervisor should fire you for the damage that liquid smoke machines (which produced an oil/soap based smoke) is going to contaminate the inside of your rig. So now you not only advocate hazing but vandalism of the property of the company you work for? Im guessing these are the same people who say they will shock an unruly patient with the LifePak (which by the way, I challenge anyone to come forward and prove that they have ever done, though Im sure no one would because it is considered aggravated battery by means of a weapon). We get all the whiners here all the time griping and moaning about how EMT-Basics shouldnt be on rigs, they have no place in EMS, etc. I say the only people who dont have a place in EMS are the chuckle-heads who think its funny to embarrass or scare someone. I work for an agency that is run directly by the Illinois Department of Public Health and our regulations expressly forbid this kind of behavior and make it clear that the guilty party will be penalized (up to an including being eliminated from the agency) and reported to the DOPH EMS division. Usually on this board, when we talk about newbies, we are talking Basics. Most of the Paramedics I know on this forum would go ballistic if a Basic did this to them. I see nothing wrong with practical jokes and while the joke of the newbie being told he has to give a weather report on the tac channel and I personally think it is harmless and actually funny, there are a lot "Noobs" who wouldnt. Here's a good test: when your getting ready to play that jokes, think about whether it could potentially harm or embarrass that new employee to the extent that he feels uncomfortable coming back to work for his next shift. If so, you are probably in violation against the various state laws against hazing.

On the flip side of the coin, remember what they say about paybacks. You may well end up on the down wind side of a "joke" much more intense than the one you yourself perpetrated. I know a female firefighter/EMT who was the victim of a particularly nasty little "welcome to the club" prank which all the the prankers (who happened to be men) thought was hysterically funny, until the female fire fighter/EMT who had been on the receiving end sent letters to the significant others of the men who had played the joke on her saying she was having an affair with their husbands, boyfriends, etc accompanied by polaroid photos she had taken of herself sitting on the various firefighters laps with her arm around them and herself wearing those firefighters' turn out coats with their names on them. Oops. But hey, what the heck. Its all in good fun, right?

[heather2704]

I ran out of tricks to mess with the new hires. Anyone have any good ideas??

ha no Bur , if the kid has problem take him out back a explain the whole brother hood thing and get him completely and totally drunk!

[heather2704]

aww be nice, he just a rookie u was a new youngen once too , just get him totally drunk like it is in tradition.... and laugh your a## off when he turns out to be a light weight ...

[heather2704]

Or ya could do what they did in the movie ladder 49 When they did the whole roman catholic thing and made the rookie think he was talking to the father confession all his sins.