New job offer!

[fakingpatience]

So here is my update about a month into my new EMT job. Things are very different in this new town I am living in than where I was before. EMS is ridiculously political down here, it is all based on the money, and making sure not to upset the volunteer fire fighters. We run calls in two towns. In one town we run with volunteer fire fighters. Now for that town, we have to go hot to EVERY call, regardless of the nature, unless it is an "ambulance only," and the fire departments never down grade us. For the most part, there is not a great working relationship with the vollies for example, if we get to the call at the same time as them, they will rush in to get pt contact first, instead of helping us grab all our stuff, and holding doors and such, since we will be the ones continuing pt care.

The other town we run with is even weirder. They have paramedics w/ their fire department who are not fire fighters, and only go to EMS calls. We always go cold to those calls, regardless of the call coding. Once we are there (and we are an ALS ambulance, w/ a medic and basic), the fire medics can decide if they think the pt is ALS, in which case the fire medic jumps in the back of our truck w/ all their stuff, and techs the call, our basic sits in the back not saying a word or touching anything, and our medic becomes a driver. Talk about a redundant system/ waste of resources. If they decide the call is BLS, our basic techs it, and again, our medic drives. Pretty much, we are nothing but a taxi service in that town.

Now, as far as my agency goes, we have a good mix of people who like the job, and people who hate it, but almost no one I've talked to wants EMS to be their career. They are all in EMS as a stepping stone job, until they finish nursing school, move somewhere else, get into PA school... Part of this I think is because the company doesn't treat the employees well. The pay is crap, and they can force you to come in and work on your days off, which really doesn't work for people w/ families/ lives outside of EMS. Also, the equipment is really old, which just makes it harder to do our jobs. I got really lucky with my partners, and I got people who like their jobs.

I know most of this post makes it sound like I hate my job, but I really don't. I still can't believe I am working full time in EMS, and getting paid for it! Overall, I am pretty sure this company isn't going to be a long term career place for me, I just need to decide if I can stay here 2 more years, so I can get medic school done (they don't support you going through medic school, but lots of people are able to do it while working full time here), or if I want to move sooner than that.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I worked for a company like that at one time. It was AMR. After the 4th holiday that they called me in to work and I wasn't given a choice, I realized that (even though I knew it in the back of my head) that the company didn't care about me or the employee's. They cared about the company.

I finally told them one holiday that I wasn't coming in, they said it was a force call in and I still said I wasn't going to come in.

I got suspended for 4 shifts. On the very first shift I called a smaller hospital agency to see if they had an opening and by the 2nd suspended shift I had a job at the small hospital EMS system.

I never went back to AMR.

You have to draw the line somewhere with these types of companies or they will continue to walk all over their employees. I HATE companies like the one you work for. No one stands up to them so they keep on doing what they do, all to the detriment of the employee. You don't see the big boss getting F(&(&*KED like the front line employees.

I will never work for AMR or another company like them again.

[Lone Star]

I worked for a company like that at one time. It was AMR. After the 4th holiday that they called me in to work and I wasn't given a choice, I realized that (even though I knew it in the back of my head) that the company didn't care about me or the employee's. They cared about the company.

I finally told them one holiday that I wasn't coming in, they said it was a force call in and I still said I wasn't going to come in.

I got suspended for 4 shifts. On the very first shift I called a smaller hospital agency to see if they had an opening and by the 2nd suspended shift I had a job at the small hospital EMS system.

I never went back to AMR.

You have to draw the line somewhere with these types of companies or they will continue to walk all over their employees. I HATE companies like the one you work for. No one stands up to them so they keep on doing what they do, all to the detriment of the employee. You don't see the big boss getting F(&(&*KED like the front line employees.

I will never work for AMR or another company like them again.

Ruffles,

Unfortunately, I've hear too many stories like yours when the name AMR comes up in conversations. I've seen with my own eyes how they do 'buisness' and I've watched them get run out of damn near every county in the state of Michigan that they had a base.

AMR's only goal is to be the BIGGEST EMS provider in the U.S., but they seem to forget that in order to do that, they need to be able to keep people, and they have to have something called 'business ethics' as well. Big isn't always better, and if you're going to shit on the people that are allowing you to bring in the money, you won't have them for very long!

AMR is a 'stepping stone company', unfortunately, I've also seen where having AMR in your resume is a 'black eye' with other companies.

[fakingpatience]

Actually, I am not with AMR. I decided to go with the smaller agency in my area in hopes they would treat the employees better. From what I have heard from most people, private sucks, no matter where you go. My smaller agency doesn't seem to treat employees better than the big agency here, people just say "at (big agency) you can hide in the crowd, here they can see and punish everything you do wrong." Now I don't think there is anything wrong to being held to standards, in fact, I think my agency should hold us to even higher standards, it is how they run the business side of treating their employees that is wrong.