Hello Constant Reader. There are lots of things poppin’ in my world these days. Here’s a quick run down.
I received a letter from the Paramedic program. It looks like my application was in order and I have been invited to move on to the next step in the selection process, the “EMS Knowledge Exam”. It’s about a month away, on a Monday afternoon. I’m guessing it will just be a basic EMT knowledge exam. I don’t think I’ll have much of a problem, but I’ll study the hell out of my textbook none the less.
Over in IFT land; I was invited to a long sit-down with the station chief on Friday afternoon. I have close to 20 years of experience in managing diverse teams and he told me several times that he values my opinions and experience. So, we had a lengthy discussion about his management style, problem employees and morale. It was a good meeting, although I don’t think he heard much of what we talked about. He’s the kind of guy that likes to bluster and pontificate just to hear himself talk. It was an open dialogue that he initiated, so rather than candy coat it, I decided to just tell him exactly what I thought. I mentioned that many of the other crew members, and me, felt that he had been assigning far too many supervisory duties to a couple of unqualified employees, simply because he was buddy-buddy with them. I said to him, in a slightly more diplomatic fashion, “Dude, you can’t invite these two guys over to your house, drink with ‘em, pal around with them both on and off duty, and then expect the rest of the crew to not think that they’re your evil minions”. He got very upset, telling me that “who he hung around with was nobody business and the rest of the crew should mind their own business”. I just laughed and told him that he was making a management mistake that I made years ago.I learned that there is a really fine line between being social and being buddies with your employees… When you’re a new manager, you want to be friends with everybody, and you just can’t. Sure, you can act social, but your friends need to be from outside the workplace. He’ll learn. Or, maybe he won’t. After all, his prior experience consists of a couple of years as a used car salesman.
But then some slightly more exciting news! It turns out that none of that discussion really mattered, because it seems that IFT, as a company, has lost interest in continuing business in this area. The rumor of our impending demise had been floating around for a while, but the boss man confirmed it. No word on when the doors are closing for good, but I expect it to be soon. An interesting point is that he mentioned “The Borg” may be one of the companies interested in buying IFT. The boss will be going to the IFT main office in another state, and he mentioned that I might want to consider the same. “Uhhh, no thanks. But I appreciate the offer.”
As I said, those rumors of the station closing had been around for at least a month or two, so even before I talked to the boss I had that feeling that the end was near. Friday morning I spoke with the HR woman at the other ambulance company that I had mentioned in prior posts. She was very excited to talk to me and couldn’t wait to get me in for a final interview. During the call she said, “There’s some good openings. I know you want a 24 and we can do that. We have lots of stuff happening. We just got a new 911 contract and we’re getting 8 new rigs!”
Hmmm. IFT has 8 pretty new rigs. 6 BLS ambulances and 2 wheelchair cars.
I wonder… nah.
Can’t be
I just received my matriculation packet for the EMT-I course that I’m taking this spring. I still think it’s a good mid level step, in case I don’t make the cut in the medic program selection process. I have my text books and I’ve been reading ahead and doing the workbook activities outlined on the syllabus. Looks like fun. This summer I’ll spend 14 days in Augusta doing my clinicals, National Registry testing and precepting with a medic.
I received my final grades for the Winter Quarter. I ended up with a 4.0 in A&P II and a 3.7 in Medical Terminology. (I always messed up the damn spelling!)
I took today as a “sick day”, and I’m glad I did. It’s a beautiful Sunday, rare for Seattle. There’s lots of sun and my wife and I are heading to a wine tasting this evening. I’m looking forward to interacting with people who don’t need an ongoing assessment or are not wearing polyester navy blue uniforms with trauma shears wedged in their belt.
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