Closeness With Co-Workers

[MSDeltaFlt]

EMS= Extra marital sex...doesn't it?? :roll:

Unfortunately it usually does in my experiece of observing. But it depends on the crew makeup (emotional/maturity/psychologically) and the overall mood of the base/shift.

Louis Grizzard once said, "Naked is when you ain't got no clothes on. 'Neked' is when you ain't got no clothes on and you're up to somethin'."

There is a service I work part time and a crew (who no longer work there) were walked in on and they were "neked". Hence why they no longer work there.

But there are others, my full time base, where the crews are very comfortable with each other, and their families know that their family members are safe with the crews.

My 0.02.

[Scaramedic]

What happens in quarters, stays in quarters!! :wink:

[LisaO925]

What happens in quarters, stays in quarters!! :wink:

[Ridryder 911]

What happens in quarters, stays in quarters!! :wink:

Yeah, no one e-v-e-r talks about things in EMS :roll:

R/r 911

[firedoc5]

firedoc5 then said

" So at the risk of sounding rude, which I am by no means trying to do, lighten up."

Firedoc5- You asked for opinions, so telling people to lighten up when you hear their opinions might not be the way to go on this one. At the risk of you telling me to "lighten up" I will state my opinion. I always made it a point to keep work life professional. I saw too many people get caught up in the "like family" stuff and pretty soon they were like a backwoods Arkansas family having sexual relations everywhere up to and including on top of kitchen counters. For me personally, I have always avoided getting to close to anyone at work for that purpose and the fact that someone can always take something the wrong way, and that's your job. Or as I've found in EMS, people are always looking to "better" themselves at someone elses expense. I would say that type of work environment is a breeding ground for a lawsuit or STD...maybe both.

I'm sorry, I guess the phrase of "lighten up" was not appropriate. It really was actually aimed at what someone else had said. I understand and respect the point you made. I guess we were lucky that we didn't have a misunderstanding like the one you mention. As far as I know we didn't have anyone cross that "back woods Arkansas family line.

As far as trying to keep things separate between professional and personal life separate, it was sort of hard to keep them separate for us since there would be be 3-5 of us living at the ambulance building. And many of those that did spend the night did so on such a regular basis you might be able to consider them residence too.

Again, my apiologies. I really am sorry for my inappropriate choice of words.

[SWM_Medic]

I work in a private service that is about as nazi as they come. Luckely most of the people there are really close we joke around and have alot of fun. It seems the only people I associate with are in health care. I know its not healthy but I never said I was. Anyway my point, You can't help but get close to people you spend that much time with. It's not like the 9 to 5 jobs where your around hundreds of people every day. You know everybody you work with and get close with them. In my service there are three couples that meet there and are now married. I wouldn't do that, but I am just trying to say its impossible to avoid so just go with it.

[AnthonyM83]

I guess we have so many shift trades and such a high turnover rate and station transfers that people don't get that close (usually...definitely many exceptions...but not the norm). Also, at least at the stations I work at, there's hardly downtime... when you're lucky enough to get 1 - 3 hours intermittent downtime, everyone just crashes out right away.

[firedoc5]

And I guess I should have mentioned was that about 95% of the time you just get back from a call, and you are still completely dressed is when you collapse onto the bed when you notice someone else is there. It's not like you are up watching TV when someone says, "Well, I'm going to bed, whose gonna join me?" Occasionally you'd be laying in bed and someone would come in and tell you that they didnt want to sleep in a chair and for you to move over.

Most of the bunks were the old type hospital beds that were somewhat larger and we would have a "three some" where two people would lay one way and on would lay the other way. And not too many had too bad of foot odor. :fart:

[Dustdevil]

And not too many had too bad of foot odor. :fart:

LOL! That's always a plus!

It is an unfortunate eventuality in EMS that, because we are paid crap (and, of course, also because we employ a lot of losers), people tend to wear the same nasty pair of boots until they disintegrate. And by then, the inside of those boots are growing toxic strains of bacteria and fungus that haven't even been labelled yet.