Does anyone else hate pretty much everyone else in your job field? I'm back in school now but in the year I was working at a full time job, basically every other engineer was a chud who absolutely refused to consider other people and were only doing engineering because they got paid a lot. I know it's good to get to know everyone you work with and build solidarity but it's basically impossible when they're all so insufferable.
How do all of you deal with it?
I work in the EMS field.
We see firsthand how inefficient and inadequate the current system is, how high health illiteracy is, how people put off trips to the doctor for months or years until that little problem balloons into something life-threatening, etc.
Yet the overwhelming majority of EMTs and paramedics I know are hardcore conservatives who say we have the best healthcare in the world, we can't afford socialized medicine, we can't do universal healthcare because that might also benefit some lazy people, etc.
Fuck's sake. None of us are making six figures. We're all closer to those food stamps ("handouts") you bitch about than having a cool million in the bank, but you would never know it from the way they talk about "parasites."
EMTs are criminally underpaid, at least here in CA they are, especially for a specialized, trained field in an industry that makes hand over fist in money
We're underpaid everywhere.
The hospital I work for took the opportunity to redo the stencils on all of our ambulances to say 'heroes work here!'
But they also told us we can only have a new N95 mask once every two weeks and only if we turn in a sufficiently soiled or damaged old one. If it looks too neat and clean, they'll tell us to keep using it. So now we just make sure we smear some dirt on it or step on it a few times before we turn it in. Right at the very start of the pandemic, there was a $500 bonus as hazard pay but only if you worked so many hours over the last month. We know the hospital makes all kinds of money, but anyone who thinks we'll see any of that is fucking bonkers.
Edit: And if you lost your N95, you'll get raked over the coals for trying to "steal" an extra.
God I hate it here. Wtf is the point of PPE if you have to keep reusing it over and over like that?? Like seriously, there is a reason they are meant to be disposable. That is so frustrating to hear but also unsurprising
Have the cops rubbed off on them? That’s basically my take on how firefighters got so reactionary.
Possibly
A lot of people in fire/ems/law enforcement are ex-military, which is conservative as hell. I'm also living in a red state, so I look like a bomb-throwing radical when I suggest that diabetics shouldn't have to die because they can't afford insulin.
My coworkers try to talk around it, but their stance on any given issue usually boils down to "just don't be poor/black/a woman!"
Can't afford your medication? Your fault for not working hard enough and getting a "real" job. Live in fear of police? Your fault because you listen to rap music about cop killers. Got raped? Should have kept your legs closed, you stupid slut.
I thought we went into this field of work to help people, but the majority of my coworkers are hateful shitheads who laugh at the pain of others. It's no wonder the EMS field has trouble with retention. It's a field that underpays and overworks you while forcing you to put up with the worst humanity has to offer. It's bad enough you just had to see someone die. Now you have to listen to your partner spewing Qanon conspiracies for the rest of your 13 hour shift.