(no subject)
I forget if I posted about my accident or not, so before I start this rant, I got creamed at an intersection in Wellesley and my foot was crushed. I now have a numb spot on my heel due to the nerve damage. All things considered, I could have had it alot worse, but still, I am changed forever due to this incident. I lost 4 weeks of pay, and spent 3 weeks in pretty serious pain.
With that said, my company did a few things which are so sleazy I don't even know where to start. First, they cashed out all my vacation time without letting me know. I got a check in the mail, cashed it, used the money to pay for bills, and waited for the next. As far as I knew, it was the first in a line of workmans comp checks. So a few weeks go by, I go back to work, get my first check, and It says I have 11 hours of sick time. I should have had something like 49.
WTF?! I call HR and they tell me a few weeks ago the accidentally put me in the computer as sick instead of on injury leave. So they took 40 hours out and mailed it to me in a check. No one thought to call me, or hey how about fix it! Nope, they just sent me the check. The HR lady says to me, well you weren't getting much from workmans comp anyway so it makes up for what you lost in pay right?
I was pretty upset and demanded that they fix this little "mistake." She tells me I can buy back my sick time, in other words, I can work for a week and not get paid, and literally pay for vacation time. I was a month behind on my bills, so this was really not an option. So I sucked it up and said forget it.
On my first day back I had a meeting with Christine Hamilton, she pretty much doles out punishment for a living. She tells me that I'm on driving restrictions for a while until they figure out what happened. Fair enough, I try to be reasonable about this whole thing, an ambulance was totaled, I understand they don't wanna just take my word that it wasn't my fault. So a few more weeks go by and I don't hear anything back. So I call up and say hey I was just wondering what was going on with that, are we still waiting for the police report? Nope we have it
... OK well how much longer am I gonna be on driving restrictions?
Indefinitely.
Well that doesn't seem very reasonable, can you give me a number, It's been a month. How are these things determined?
Let's just do with your on driving restrictions until further notice. I can't discuss this now, I'll touch base with you later. *click*
Driving restrictions means that every day, all I do is sit in the back of the ambulance and take care of all the work. I do all the paperwork, the majority of the patient care, and deal with 90% of the stress. Beyond that, I am now stuck with the suckiest partner ever. This douche has been doing the job for a few months, and thinks he's the balls.
He hits on all the nurses, asks for food in the old age homes, and doesn't even look at the patients. He refuses to help me out with the patients, including the parts of the job that are actually his, like taking vitals while I do paperwork. On top of that, the guy in the back, called the tech, is in charge when it comes to patient care, because in the end, any mistakes are on his shoulders. Which means what I say goes. On top of that, I am the senior EMT in the truck, which also means what I say goes.
I've worked at fallon longer, and I've been a licensed EMT longer. A lot longer actually, and I did a lot better than him on the state exam, and on all the company exams. I've seen 10 times as many emergencies as he has. I've done CPR twice, defib'd, used most of the medications we carry. He hasn't even splinted a limb. Yet, he still won't listen to me. It's gotten to the point were I had to request that I don't work with him anymore.
Now, we come to this week. It was bound to happen, and finally I am sick. Unfortunately, I don't have the fucking sick time, because fallon cashed it out on me! I had to call out sick, It was coming out of both ends, I could barely move the first two days. Today was alot better but im achey and exhausted and feel crummy all around, but I can't afford to take any more time. I don't get any overtime, I make 11$ an hour, and I'm getting screwed left and right. I think I hate fallon. I hate EMS! I love helping people, some of my most memorable calls are simple things like talking to an old lady for 30 minutes who keeps calling 911 because she's lonely. I talked a man off of a bridge in Milton once, who wanted to die because no one cared. I held a 12yo girl who was raped and drugged while she died in the back of the ambulance. I've seen and done some pretty amazing things in this job, I've been lucky to have had the experiences I've had, but I don't know if I can put up with fallon anymore, or the pay. It's ridiculous. Makes me want to go to a company like eascare, that pays 13$ to start, and has a garage in weymouth. Or cataldo, that will let you work 24hr shifts and hires 911 crews. Why would anyone stay at fallon, when there are so many better opportunities out there? It just doesn't make any sense.
I think I'll go apply at boston EMS now.
~Mark
With that said, my company did a few things which are so sleazy I don't even know where to start. First, they cashed out all my vacation time without letting me know. I got a check in the mail, cashed it, used the money to pay for bills, and waited for the next. As far as I knew, it was the first in a line of workmans comp checks. So a few weeks go by, I go back to work, get my first check, and It says I have 11 hours of sick time. I should have had something like 49.
WTF?! I call HR and they tell me a few weeks ago the accidentally put me in the computer as sick instead of on injury leave. So they took 40 hours out and mailed it to me in a check. No one thought to call me, or hey how about fix it! Nope, they just sent me the check. The HR lady says to me, well you weren't getting much from workmans comp anyway so it makes up for what you lost in pay right?
I was pretty upset and demanded that they fix this little "mistake." She tells me I can buy back my sick time, in other words, I can work for a week and not get paid, and literally pay for vacation time. I was a month behind on my bills, so this was really not an option. So I sucked it up and said forget it.
On my first day back I had a meeting with Christine Hamilton, she pretty much doles out punishment for a living. She tells me that I'm on driving restrictions for a while until they figure out what happened. Fair enough, I try to be reasonable about this whole thing, an ambulance was totaled, I understand they don't wanna just take my word that it wasn't my fault. So a few more weeks go by and I don't hear anything back. So I call up and say hey I was just wondering what was going on with that, are we still waiting for the police report? Nope we have it
... OK well how much longer am I gonna be on driving restrictions?
Indefinitely.
Well that doesn't seem very reasonable, can you give me a number, It's been a month. How are these things determined?
Let's just do with your on driving restrictions until further notice. I can't discuss this now, I'll touch base with you later. *click*
Driving restrictions means that every day, all I do is sit in the back of the ambulance and take care of all the work. I do all the paperwork, the majority of the patient care, and deal with 90% of the stress. Beyond that, I am now stuck with the suckiest partner ever. This douche has been doing the job for a few months, and thinks he's the balls.
He hits on all the nurses, asks for food in the old age homes, and doesn't even look at the patients. He refuses to help me out with the patients, including the parts of the job that are actually his, like taking vitals while I do paperwork. On top of that, the guy in the back, called the tech, is in charge when it comes to patient care, because in the end, any mistakes are on his shoulders. Which means what I say goes. On top of that, I am the senior EMT in the truck, which also means what I say goes.
I've worked at fallon longer, and I've been a licensed EMT longer. A lot longer actually, and I did a lot better than him on the state exam, and on all the company exams. I've seen 10 times as many emergencies as he has. I've done CPR twice, defib'd, used most of the medications we carry. He hasn't even splinted a limb. Yet, he still won't listen to me. It's gotten to the point were I had to request that I don't work with him anymore.
Now, we come to this week. It was bound to happen, and finally I am sick. Unfortunately, I don't have the fucking sick time, because fallon cashed it out on me! I had to call out sick, It was coming out of both ends, I could barely move the first two days. Today was alot better but im achey and exhausted and feel crummy all around, but I can't afford to take any more time. I don't get any overtime, I make 11$ an hour, and I'm getting screwed left and right. I think I hate fallon. I hate EMS! I love helping people, some of my most memorable calls are simple things like talking to an old lady for 30 minutes who keeps calling 911 because she's lonely. I talked a man off of a bridge in Milton once, who wanted to die because no one cared. I held a 12yo girl who was raped and drugged while she died in the back of the ambulance. I've seen and done some pretty amazing things in this job, I've been lucky to have had the experiences I've had, but I don't know if I can put up with fallon anymore, or the pay. It's ridiculous. Makes me want to go to a company like eascare, that pays 13$ to start, and has a garage in weymouth. Or cataldo, that will let you work 24hr shifts and hires 911 crews. Why would anyone stay at fallon, when there are so many better opportunities out there? It just doesn't make any sense.
I think I'll go apply at boston EMS now.
~Mark