Another week on night shift

[mousme]

Well, it's only five days this time, and another girl wants to take my next two night shifts, which will be very nice. So this is the last time I'll be working nights during the week for the forseeable future.

I find working nights to be a bit hard on the system. My sleep cycles get all messed up. For instance, today I will be awake most of the day, but once I get to work I'll still have to be awake all night. I'm going to try to have a nap this afternoon so I'm not up for 24 hours straight (that never works out well for me).

I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to join in the festivities at fearsclave's this weekend. Instead I spent two days working twelve-hour shifts. I gotta tell you, even though I really like my new job, it was not my first choice of how to spend my weekend.

I'm learning a lot about my new coworkers as I work on shifts alone with people (nights, evenings and weekends are conducive to conversation the way day shifts are not). I'm also getting a much better sense of the internal politics of the place, who is friends with whom and who doesn't like whom, and who gets along with the supervisors and who doesn't and why.

I also find that I get along much better with the "old-timers" than with the relative newcomers, on the whole. This is hardly surprising, as I generally get along with the "old-timers" in any job setting. I'm not sure why that is: perhaps I find them more reassuring to be around because they've been there forever, they know the ropes, and they have nothing to prove and therefore aren't a threat to me. Maybe. It could be also because I find many people of my generation to be annoying and poorly-educated and generally not very polite or pleasant to be around. I haven't really figured that part out yet.

On a fun note, I got a call from a Crazy yesterday who wanted me to put him in touch with Céline Dion so that she could bear children for him. He assured me that he, Céline and René (René Angélil, her husband and manager) go "way back" and that they would be happy to do this for him. He told me that he was doing really well, that he hadn't had anything to drink or taken drugs in a long time, and that he hadn't been hospitalized in years (which I took to be a sign that he probably ought to be hospitalized now), and that "babies don't make themselves, you know." He was also convinced that the RCMP was the obvious choice when looking to get in touch with Céline.

I felt sorry for him, but it was also really funny.

Today has been declared a Domestic Cay at Casa Phnee. I am doing laundry, doing a bit of cleaning, and will be making bread and chili. I am annoyed with myself because I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer, but I'm sure I can think of a way to thaw it in time to be cooked. I did a more thorough clean-up last week (as the post about my new Scooba will have indicated), and now I'm attending to details. Sometime this week, probably Thursday or Friday, I'm going to do some re-decorating by shoving furniture around and getting around to hanging some of the artwork I've been meaning to hang for, oh, two years or so now. Sheesh.

Comments

[whiskeygirl8.livejournal.com]

I hate missing things, too, but it seems to bother me less than it used to. I think because I've been doing this job for so long that I'm used to it now. In some ways, I really like having a different schedule from everyone else. I really wouldn't trade my evening shift for getting up early in the morning, fighting traffic to get to work, and fighting traffic to get back home and having to take off work to go to the doctor and having to go to the store on the weekend or evening when everyone else is there. But, then, I lean toward hermit, so that could just be my anti-people feelings coming out.

The crazy people are interesting. The "frequent flyers" I usually just let ramble (unless we're really busy) because it's easier (Janetha gets mad if you cut her off and Mr. Spears is just a sweet old man who thinks he's part of our narc squad and I would feel bad hanging up on him. He, however, knows what it means if we say, "My light is flashing" and will let you go.)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

We have a few "frequent fliers" as well. My favourite is the guy who calls on one of the detachment lines and says "This is Eagle 234 checking in." and then hangs up before you can say anything else. I've got another guy who calls pretty regularly on another detachment lines and gives me latitudes and longitudes before hanging up.

They're harmless. We're not allowed to let the crazies ramble, though. The lines are always pretty busy, so unless we think they're an immediate threat to themselves or others, we have to gently get them off the line as fast as possible.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I also like having a different shift. The only shifts I'm not really happy about are weekends, because it means I almost never get to see some of my friends (like fearsclave. Other than that, though, I really enjoy being able to get stuff done in "off" hours.

[whiskeygirl8.livejournal.com]

So, is it one, great big, huge dispatch center for all of Canada, or are they split up in areas? If they're split up, how big of an area do you dispatch for?

(I ask because of the "always busy" part.)

[whiskeygirl8.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky because I've been at my job long enough that I get enough vacation time to both take a week or two off at once sometime in the year and I can also take off a weekend here and there. We also get two floating holidays a year and there are, I think, 11 holidays that we can either get paid for working it or we can take 8 hours of time and use that whenever. At the end of this year, I start earning even more vacation time per month because I'll have 10 years. WOOHOO!

[mousme.livejournal.com]

We dispatch for all of Quebec and for a part of Southwestern Ontario (all the way to Cornwall, if that means anything to you).

We're not an "emergency" call center the way they have in the other provinces (except Ontario) because we have our own provincial police who deal with 911 calls, but we handle long-term investigative stuff, and as such we have officers calling in all day long requesting name checks, plate checks, and other assorted information.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

That's really exciting!

I'm lucky in that I'll soon be getting a decent amount of vacation time as well, and I can "combine" them with my regular time off to get two weeks' vacation at a time.

[luvenditti.livejournal.com]

my students are dying to know why I'm laughing so hard at 7:30am. hee hee hee