Does anyone work in the emergency services?

[Pinkyandthebrainz]

Who can give me an honest answer about what that sort of job is like? Do you enjoy it, would you recommend it etc.

What do you mean by “a certain level”?

You're not wrong @Icequeen01 I also noticed the obvious lack of police mention when thanking emergency services.

@Nicknacky I'd like to be earning 35-40k eventually

Yes police. Yes love it. But then I am a person with a positive outlook and love going to work.

OP it's fantastic you are even considering. I've mentored several people through application please feel free to pm me

Ah got you, missed the word “pay”🤦🏻‍♀️

Im police but I went the Detective route - Some of it interesting but probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Too many cases, insufficient resources, never knowing when you’re going to go home ( working 24 hours straight, sleeping 3 hours and then doing another 24 hours) Paperwork up to your eye-balls. I did work as a trainer and loved that but my job was moved 2 hours away. Im now doing something boring but very very flexible and have worked from home the entire lockdown ( not busy). I work in a very niche specialism that’s interesting but not “ proper policing”. My final off putting fact is you’ll be made to feel responsible for every police officer in the world. You’ll be Relentlessly subjected to social media stating that All Police are bastards etc. Nobody will care if you get assaulted because “ you knew what you were getting into” ( you’ll probably make great friends though - friends who would get their head kicked in for you 🤷‍♀️)

OP -could you have a conversation with a 16 year old kid who hates you? A homeless person in need of a bath? A crackhead ? A posho who complains about you daring to stop him from driving in a shit fashion and bangs on about “ I know your Superintendent”. Could you coax an account of abuse from a 5 year old kid who’s frightened ? Could you be first on scene at an armed robbery? Sort a Fight at a traveller funeral ? Death from hanging? Pick up body parts on the railway line? Give CPR to a collapsed person, evacuate a street because of a suspect package with 20 people going “ I know my rights “ and filming you ?

Thanks @Juanmorebeer Glad to hear you enjoy it.

Thanks @Divebar, all important points and situations to consider. I think I'm pretty strong at communicating but no doubt some of those situations would be horrific and testing to say the least.

I was clueless OP. I thought they needed me because I had a degree and was “ nice” but qualifications are really irrelevant unless you really want to move up through the ranks. ( above Inspector level). Some of the best police officers I’ve known have had no qualifications to speak of beyond GCSE but a great way with people and a memory for names and/ or faces.

Get used to your friends introducing you to new friends as "oh this is tiredvom, they're a police officer" yay 😒

Paramedic of 20years and for the most part I love it still.
I've always managed shift work well, but the nights will sap your energy for your rest days sometimes.

When I joined, it was a career for life, being 'on the road' - now, there seems little longevity to it as the the paramedic career progression is quite vast.
I joined and it was in house training. Now, you can get a paramedic science degree which leapfrogs you to all sorts of band 7 and beyond roles.
I do not have a degree. I could convert my current IHCD qualification but I have neither the time, or commitment to it. I'm happy on the road.

Day to day, it can be pretty mundane, frustrating even. There is such a widespread inappropriate use of service. People still think they will get seen quicker if conveyed by ambulance (not true)
A huge part of our call rate are made up of elderly fallers, social problems, MH and alcohol related problems. We have many frequent flyers. But, we do get to meet the most lovely and interesting people too!
We saw a massive dip in call volume a couple of weeks into lockdown (prior to that a nearly 100%increase in call volume leading up to lockdown)

I have been physically assaulted 3 times in 20 years. Verbally abused more times than I care to remember.
Mostly, people want us there. Unlike the police, where most people don't.

I wouldn't change my job for the world.

Divebar, that sounds like just one shift where I used to work

I would also recommend applying to be a Special first, as PPs have suggested, to see if the police is for you.

I spent several years working in a role that allowed me to essentially "job shadow" a variety of officers across different departments and concluded that I wanted to join full-time. Even so thought I would become a Special first just to make sure (there was also a recruitment freeze on the regulars). I am so glad I did as I discovered it was not the job for me.

A little was to do with me - I found being a short female with a youngish looking face an additional barrier to the already difficult task of dealing with a number of the "you can't tell me what to do" brigade. On the flip side, my appearance often seemed to make me more approachable to victims.

The work was also mostly as expected - a lot of unremarkable routine jobs mixed with plenty of good to offset the downright terrible. Also incredibly understaffed on some shifts.

The main issue, and I can only speak from my experience of my own force, was the culture. Lots of discrimination, lack of support from supervisors, a "put up and shut up attitude"... For me, personally, this was not an environment I could work in. I have known a few other colleagues (across different roles and stations) to also leave because of this.

I do often miss the job itself though.

Very very cynical post sorry...

I wouldn't recommend policing. Like most people up thread have said, you will be assaulted regularly with zero support from the government, courts, public etc. (have seen a court fine of 50p issued for assault on police). Not just low level assaults either. A colleague of mine was knocked by gang members and had multiple bones broken in his face (in around five seconds flat). What did the public do? Pulled out knives to threaten to stab us, filmed it and chanted anti police stuff whilst calling us all racists 🤷‍♀️ BUT to be fair, this is on the upper end of assaults and is not an everyday occurance. He returned to work the next morning thankfully (with a swollen and bruised face!) You very rarely hear about these things on the news.

The low level of support/active hate from the public is quite worrying and the worst part of the job I found. A lot of it is fueled by the media, who you will learn to despise! It's disturbing how far they 'manipulate' the truth when it comes to reporting on police activity.

You will do a LOT of overtime. Your shift times are basically a guideline and the minimum amount of hours for that day. You generally can't leave before you paperwork is completed for the day. Your holiday/shifts will be changed with little warning.

Initially you go from call to call with the genuine intention of trying to help people in the worst moments of their life. Unfortunately you soon realise that you are actually policing a very small proportion of society and many 'good' people are being let down due to a severe lack of resources and crappy policies.

When one arsehole officer fucks up somewhere, we're all to blame and all the same. You need a thick skin to deal with the hate.

There is a lot of tension with race relations at the moment (as we all know). People will assume you are racist based on your uniform/skin colour only and before a word comes out of your mouth. Yet you will be the first person running to help the victim of a racist attack and working your butt off to put their attackers behind bars.

You absolutely cannot do a thing right. There's a saying in the police "dammed if you do, dammed if you don't".

Everything is your fault and you will spend time being investigated for false accusations from people trying to get off charges/trying to get compensation. Thankfully body cams are amazing and very welcome to help with this.

Everybody I know in the job plans to discourage their children from joining.

Despite all this negative waffle, the pay is quite good and you will make good money through overtime/bank holidays. You will also have the best laughs of your life and will see the most ridiculously funny/odd things that nobody could ever imagine!

I wouldn't go back to it unless public opinion changed though. It seems to be getting worse and the media more bias, making the job more dangerous and depressing.

Oh and if you're anything like me, you WILL always need a shower and hair wash when you return home, even at 2/3/5am, because you don't want to get the germs/spit/sweat of smelly people and sweaty/smelly/druggie/hoarder houses in your nice clean bed.

There were paragraphs I promise!

I was an A&E nurse for many years, did several ambulance ride-alongs and knew many paramedics. I was always grateful to work within a hospital, rather than out of the road. I still felt I was in the emergency services, but more protected than frontline outside. Some of my colleagues found being a paramedic very hard emotionally. They'd drive around town and remember the awful incidents they'd seen at certain spots- car crashes, drownings in canals, train accidents etc.

At least by the time they got to the A&E department, they had a basic dressing on. We still saw horrific things, but in a more controlled environment. Visiting people in their homes was difficult. The drug abuse, filth, hoarders, animals etc. Its hard to believe some people live in such conditions.

I'm sure policing is similar to nursing, in that there are just so many areas you can move into. I'm unsure if the ambulance service has an many different areas to move into- but may well be wrong. For me, once I got sick of the nights and weekends, I moved out of the NHS and havent looked back.

Some very smart and truthful responses here. I too agree that the paperwork is endless, it's not unusual to work in excess of 18 hours. They change things ALL the time so nobody knows their arse from their elbow. They change the shifts, change your teams, change the policies, change the uniform, change the bloody law and worst of all they hire terrible companies to create terrible computer systems (Athena anyone?).

But, when you are sat there on your 13th hour waiting for CPS to answer the phone, you feel sick from eating too many haribo and crappy crisps from the tuck shop/vending machine, and you're with your buddy, your crew mate whom you've been through so much with, you will laugh. You will laugh until you cry. You will become closer to some of those people than you've ever been. Nobody outside the job will understand you any more. Shit will make you smirk as it reminds you of some bizarre encounter at work but you couldn't explain it if you wanted to. It is 'the best job I've ever had' and equally 'the worst job I've ever had'

Your family relationships will suffer. You will miss important events and you will be permanently knackered. Your humour will warp and your language end up in the gutter. You will learn to hate large groups of people. Especially if there is alcohol or 'a cause'.

I have been verbally attacked by my own 'friends' when they've been drinking because of some law or some opinion they don't agree with. People like to 'challenge' you. People send me links to things other 'bad' cops are reported to have done expecting me to have an opinion. 'What do you think about this then shoulda'?

If you do take the plunge, my advice is this. Stay grounded. Maintain friendships and relationships outside the force. Don't get embroiled in other cops issues. Don't complain too much as it's bad for your own mental health. Accept cops are simply evidence gatherers. Not judge and/or Jury. You win some, you lose some. Work hard but don't take it home. And enjoy it. Have fun. Don't take it too seriously when someone walks past you drunk in the street and calls you a fat c**t just for existing (this really happens).

Some very smart and truthful responses here. I too agree that the paperwork is endless, it's not unusual to work in excess of 18 hours. They change things ALL the time so nobody knows their arse from their elbow. They change the shifts, change your teams, change the policies, change the uniform, change the bloody law and worst of all they hire terrible companies to create terrible computer systems (Athena anyone?).

But, when you are sat there on your 13th hour waiting for CPS to answer the phone, you feel sick from eating too many haribo and crappy crisps from the tuck shop/vending machine, and you're with your buddy, your crew mate whom you've been through so much with, you will laugh. You will laugh until you cry. You will become closer to some of those people than you've ever been. Nobody outside the job will understand you any more. Shit will make you smirk as it reminds you of some bizarre encounter at work but you couldn't explain it if you wanted to. It is 'the best job I've ever had' and equally 'the worst job I've ever had'

Your family relationships will suffer. You will miss important events and you will be permanently knackered. Your humour will warp and your language end up in the gutter. You will learn to hate large groups of people. Especially if there is alcohol or 'a cause'.

I have been verbally attacked by my own 'friends' when they've been drinking because of some law or some opinion they don't agree with. People like to 'challenge' you. People send me links to things other 'bad' cops are reported to have done expecting me to have an opinion. 'What do you think about this then shoulda'?

If you do take the plunge, my advice is this. Stay grounded. Maintain friendships and relationships outside the force. Don't get embroiled in other cops issues. Don't complain too much as it's bad for your own mental health. Accept cops are simply evidence gatherers. Not judge and/or Jury. You win some, you lose some. Work hard but don't take it home. And enjoy it. Have fun. Don't take it too seriously when someone walks past you drunk in the street and calls you a fat c**t just for existing (this really happens).

@shouldhavecalleditoatabix I'm on an Athena Helpdesk as the case SPOC wait until version 6.7 hits (currently 5.3.8)

I’m so glad I’m in Scotland and we don’t have that CPS nonsense 😂

@Cherrytangfastic thanks for your post. You're the first person I've read on various forums saying that the public hate/media/public support are the really bad bits of the job. I do worry that the constant anti-police rhetoric would grind me down when you're trying so hard to do a good job because it seems to be just everywhere.

*lack of public support that should say

@shouldhavecalleditoatabix thank you, 18 hours sounds awful but I do recognise the paperwork and seeing things through to the end is essential so needs must.

And to be honest, I barely comment on police posts on MN as I get ripped apart. There is no point!

However, it is still a great job. The last 18 years (well, it’s 18 years tomorrow)! have flown by and I have made friends for life.

Omg, yes to everything @shouldhavecalleditoatabix said, especially about being late off on the phone to CPS and feeling vomitous with haribo