To be annoyed by everyone telling me?

[WooWooCocktail]

So I’ve applied for my dream job. It’s a 999 call handler. I’ve been unsuccessful in the past and have waited a long time for another opening. But every time I tell anyone what my career goal is they all say ‘oh that’s difficult, you hear some really horrible things’

AIBU to not want to be a patronised about this? Do people honestly think I don’t know what I’m applying for when it’s a job that will require 12 shifts on days like Christmas and think I don’t expect unpleasant calls on the other end of a line for life threatening situations.

Just a rant but god it’s annoying

It does seem to be a tough job though. My fear would be receiving a call from a parent who’s child is choking and there is nothing I can do but listen to the heartbreak that the parent is going through. Even if it was to turn out well, the stress of that is just too much for me.
I am the same with jobs such as carers, ambulance, police, firefighters etc. I am not emotionally balanced enough to deal with the ‘what if’s. I do however have respect for the people who can and do the jobs like this. My response would probably be the same if my friend told me they were doing the job. Not to patronise them though!

I have to be honest, I have never in my entire life had anyone say their dream job is to work in a call centre. I don't know if you understand what is involved. Working in a call centre is considered the lowest level of work bar ditch digging or toilet cleaning. Basically you are seated in tiny cubicles, can take around 500 calls a day in some centres 800, depending on the industry. You are timed to the second for each call, you have to go faster and faster, you are timed if you take a toilet break and they watch you go and come back. It is basically factory work via phone. You are all squashed in next to each other in teeny tiny little cubicle cells, the common term is battery working, ie all caged up like chickens in factory farming. And that is inbounds for telecommunications and govt benefits call centres. Add on the trauma of 999, it sounds like pure hell. Call centres have the worst reputation and the highest turnover of any industry in the workplace.

I really don't think you understand even remotely what the job entails.
From a former call centre worker.

They're just making chit chat. Of course they're not patronising you. You're just overthinking what is small talk.

And yes, if you are this sensitive over people asking if you're sure (obviously they know what the job entails), then let me tell you this for free: YOU WILL NOT LAST ONE MONTH! You are being abused by people every day. Shouted at, people insinuating you don't know what you are doing and want to be transferred to someone else. How I lasted one year at my former call centre, I will never know. I was told by my Dr though that at a blood pressure level of 170 / 140, I had to get out of the job or I'd be dead in a year. When you're given a stat of 20 secs per call/3 calls per minute and average 800 calls per shift, as I had, it is rare anyone stays long. Working in a call centre is considered something you do while getting through uni, it is the phone version of working in McDonalds, but with far FAR more stress. As I said, and as others say, you don't seem like you will last long at the job at all, because you cannot afford to take offence at anything. And you will be abused. You will be shouted at. You will be called names. You will be treated like shit. Both by the centre and by callers. And you will have prank callers and even pervert callers (yup. Most call centres, even emergency ones, get perverts ringing and asking operators what colour underwear they are wearing, etc). You have to be tough and rough as nails. By your posts, I lay odds on you lasting one month TOPS.

It’s not patronising; it’s correct and if you don’t understand that you might be in for a shock. The level of dismissal of the psychological impact might just be part of the reason you haven’t yet been successful.
A 12 hour shift isn’t the hard bit. Listening to a mother screaming as her badly burned toddler dies in her arms and being unable to do anything about it. That’s hard.
Listening to an elderly person whose fallen and broken their hip but not having a vehicle to send for three hours. That’s hard.
I’m not convinced you’ve really understood the job.

Welcome to health care! It's what people say be because what else can they say? Oh I hear the pay is fab?
That's amazing sure it will be easy?

It's a tough job yes you know and fair play still wanting to go into it! But its what people say 'oh that must be so hard', 'I couldn't do what you do' and 'how to you cope with all the sad stuff?' I'm 11 years in it doesn't change! You just have to remember people are being nice not patronising.

I did this job for 8 years. Yeah its really tough but its so so rewarding. Good luck!

It's what people do.

I dont think YABU for being annoyed by it but .. its human nature.

If I'd had a quid for every time someones responded to 'im a dog trainer' with 'ooh like the dogwhisperer off of telly' or 'ooh like Cesar Milan'... I'd be bloody rolling in it by now...

Drives me nuts, im nothing LIKE him (ha i dont kick dogs or talk bollocks about being the pack leader) but its what folk know, its what they will say.

My options are, grin and bear it or.. tell them I do something else instead :D

Well good luck OP. I'm glad that there are people who pick up the phone when I dial 999 and even more pleased that they want to be there and do it.

@trulybadlydeeply I think that's highly specific to your force, as it won't be the same everywhere. I was a Controller as we were called in our Force, so came into the role doing 'dispatching' (we never called it that), we didn't build up to it. It certainly wasn't seen like a degree at all! Police Officers were heavily replaced by civilians well over 20 years ago in that force area.

However as a Controller you ran the incidents and the officers did as directed, we didn't just send people to them - that is dispatching.

999 call handling (and controlling) is a fabulous job, I loved it and all it's vagaries. Call handling alone is a separate role, but Controllers did this as well in their shifts.

The calls range from heart rending to nuisance to repetitive. I've spoken to sobbing rape victims, convinced women to leave the house and get to a safe place while I get someone to deploy the firearms teams to meet them because their husband has a shotgun / knife / machete and is threatening to kill anyone that approaches him. I've taken reports of toddlers that have gone missing from houses, shops and gardens and fortunately all were found safe and well. I've had to deal with perverts wanking whilst pretending they were in danger, and ensuring their phones were cut off in response. Old ladies who can't recognise their husbands and call 999 thinking there is an intruder in the house claiming to know them are some of the saddest. Phonecalls about death are very common - they may be matter of fact from a GP, ambulance control room or carer, or very distressed from the public.

On the other hand, some calls are hilarious as well!

The woman who rang 999 having a very angry rant because she couldn't find B&Q got short shrift from me about misuse of 999. Kids calling 999 is super common and some of them are really cute when they are just babbling away - their parents are always mortified when you speak to them!

RTCs called in by people who haven't the faintest idea where they are are really common, so you soon learn how to map read REALLY well and work out all sorts of rural locations in your county/counties....

However, it is ultimately still a 24hr call centre and there is a high turnover of staff on the call handling only side of it.

I loved it so much that when I joined up as a police officer after doing this job for a few years, I carried on doing this for overtime work throughout the rest of my career. I do miss it.