Shift Change

This is my last Saturday with my guys. And yes, they are MY guys. I have been with this team almost since I started here at the PD and I have so much fun with them and will miss them very much when the shift change occurs. I will stay on the same work days but have an entirely new team. I am totally fine with the guys I am going to have for the next six months (two of them for the next year), they are all very nice and cool and my new Sgt was a dispatcher for ten years, so it will be a great learning environment. But I will still miss my guys.

They have been, from the very beginning, very supportive and patient while I have been learning the ropes. I have passed many a slow hour just hanging out and talking with my officers and getting to know them alot better. A significant moment of happiness for me was when I went out on my own and no longer had my trainer with me (who is good friends with everyone at the PD as she has been here 12years), the officers still came down to talk to me. Why would that matter? Cause that meant that they were not just putting up with me because they really wanted to talk to my trainer, but when she was gone, they still wanted to come and talk to me. Silly, I know, but it was a nice feeling. They have all also expressed the wish that I was going to continue being their dispatcher upon the shift change. A nice feeling for being so new and unlearned, to know that I am still wanted despite my limitations.

I have had so much fun with these guys. Case in point: today we decided to see who could get the most "meows" on the radio. For those who have seen Super Troopers, it is a running gag that they try to slip in the word "meow" wherever they can without someone noticing it. So that's what we have done today. FYI the game has progressed throughout the day and we are all now tied at 2 meows. We are hoping that we are so smooth that Admin doesn't pick it up and kick our butts for it. Meh. When you want to have fun, you just gotta push it sometimes. :)

My Sgt is someone who gives me more positive than negative feedback, even when pointing out or correcting my mistakes. He says he feels safe out in the field with me as his dispatcher and I just can't ask for more than that. Because I have come to like my guys so much that my goal when they go out on calls is to get them there safe, and get them back home safe. Not that if I didn't like them, I would leave them hanging or anything...just my motivation is that much stronger and more personal.

It has been one of the most hectic and busiest days since I started working here, and I have just had so much fun because of the great team I get to work with. I will be sad upon shift change because of what I am losing. It really is a bummer because when an old teammate goes to the other side of the week, you really don't get to see them. But, as I said before, I do look forward to my team to come, and the fun I can have with them. I just love my job and I feel like my team has simply been the frosting on the cake.

****final tally of meows: me - 4, 11 - 2, 13 - 3. I win!****