Dismissed from work.

[user1464187087]

Good evening,
Please be gentle with me.
I was dismissed from work a few months ago. I worked as a staff member for the police for nearly 26 years.
For many years I worked as a police 999 Call Handler and ended up sufferring with anxiety as a result. I took calls from people who comitted suicide, died in fatal house fires, people that witnessed fatal road traffic collisions and a hell of a lot more.
I was dismissed because of my sickness due to anxiety and feel it was unfair.
I was in a union and felt that they didn't help me.
Am I being unreasonable to think this is unfair?
I didn't have months off sick and had been back working full time for four months at the time of my dismissal.
I started working there when I was 17 and was dismissed when I was 42.
I can't seem to get over it.
Sorry for the long post.

Just wanted to say that the call handlers do an amazing job that all too often isn’t recognised, especially given some of the things they have to deal with.

Anxiety and depression is a silent killer in that it can creep up before you know it and then what seems like a small thing topples you. (yes, I have severe anxiety and depression that is now managed with medication). I worked through the beginning of a nervous breakdown so I totally sympathise. It took me nearly 5 years to recover to a point that I can now work 20 hours a week in a job I love - but who also understand that I am on quite heavy medication.

To have managed to pull yourself together enough to start a new job is fantastic. Don’t beat yourself up about the 999 job. The fact you did it successfully for over 25 years is amazing. I can understand how upset you are, but it was a medical issue. Hopefully the new job will help, but take it easy on yourself.

Good luck.

That is such a pity. You sound extremely conscientious so it is a real pity it went down this way.

I genuinely hope that very soon you can begin to look back with a large degree of pride with what you did for all of those years, being the person at the end of the phone at another persons worst time is an incredible thing.

I am sure when you fully recover from this experience and can put this behind you and maybe think about how you would feel if it was someone else who had achieved what you achieved you will be able to give yourself the credit you absolutely deserve for what you have done.

I really hope you have gotten something out of posting here because I totally agree with you that putting out some difficult experiences for others to look at can be very cathartic and can help to process a very difficult situation. You will get through this part. Clearly after doing that role for so long you have a lot of grit and resilience, that will get you through this part of the experience too.

That is such a kind message, thank you.
I'm so sorry to hear about your depression and anxiety. It sounds like the medication is helping, which is good.
I've had a few people on here saying that I shouldn't have gone off sick and in an ideal world I wouldn't have.
I had years of listening to trauma, and yes I chose to do it.
The calls from people who have found relatives who have hanged themselves (including children) were very sad.

Anyway, I also had a 999 call from a woman on Christmas day reporting that her turkey hadn't defrosted on time!! 😀

OP I appreciate what you’ve been through is difficult and I’m sorry for that. But sadly that doesn’t mean it’s unfair. As a pp said, you dealt with really tough situations, but so did your colleagues who manage ok. It obviously wasn’t the career for you ultimately. I would try to stop dwelling and move on.

I suspect this is fair, when you talk about the things you dealt wirh you do so like only you had to do that, where as they all do, and still are, it’s literally the job, your write about it with horror.

You did it for a long time successfully but ultimately you should have left the police when it started to impact your mental health.

i have some very senior police officers in my family and the things they have seen and dealt with over the years is horrendous, the worst crimes, the victims there in front of them, the worst sort of criminals, things I couldn’t even write here they are so so awful, and beyond comprehension.

beinf a call handler wasn’t for you, and that’s ok, your colleagues are still in there manning the phones, the front line officers still dealing with it in person. We all have different skills, you clearly have many, but when a job is not something we have the ability to do without impact we move on.

its sad they had to do that and not you, but it doesn’t mean it was unfair.

To be fair the standard turnover of call handlers is 2 years.
The people I worked with generally managed 2-5 years.
I did a lot longer than that.
I'm not dwelling, I'm just being honest. 25 years is a long time and god forbid it should take it's toll on you. How very dare I
Most of my colleagues did a fraction of the time in the job that I did, so it's not a fair comparison.

On a lighter note, thank you for your reply.

I find your comments slightly patronising.
I did the job for 25 plus years and I do write about it with horror, you are correct.
If people choose to be police officers then that's their choice and not something I could do.
I don't speak about the job like there is only me that did it, I worked in a great team.
For years I helped train up new call handlers also.
To say the job wasn't for me after 25 years is a bit harsh?

Thank you so much. What a lovely reply.
Quite a few people have said that I haven't given the full story here. I was off sick a lot in the end and I was dismissed.
I'm not disputing that at all. I do feel sorry for myself, but that in itself isn't a crime. And I should know! 😀
Take care x

I don’t mean to be harsh, but it wasn’t for you in the end surely.? Thays not a bad thing, I couldn’t do it. Many people couldn’t. But I mean this gently if it was for you, you’d still be there, I think accepting in the end it wasn’t for you, may help you move on and accept it?

OP I’m sorry you have struggled so much with your mental health. Hopefully this will be a blessing in disguise and you will go on to find a job that doesn’t take such a toll on you. However in terms of the actual dismissal I have to see the employers point of view. You have admitted that your sickness record was fairly abysmal due to your anxiety and that this poor sickness record continued at your new placement. The procedure for dismissing someone is so long and drawn out that despite your 4 month period of good attendance they likely felt that they couldn’t risk withdrawing the dismissal procedure and then possibly having to start the whole procedure from scratch 6 months down the line when your attendance starts to dip again. The 4 months sickness free could be seen as a last ditch attempt by an employee to save their job. I’m not saying that you’re a piss taker but there are plenty of them out there who do take the piss and try to play the system by having the maximum time off sick then return to work for just enough time to get away with it before going off sick again. Your employer was likely playing it safe by getting rid when they had the chance to save on the hassle and costs in the future. I really don’t want to sound harsh but just looking at it from the employer’s side. X

I understand that you would be dismissed from the call handler job for excessive sickness, but you'd resigned from that job and started a new one on the front desk, so surely they can't sack you from that job because of sickness at a previous job?

She was sick on that job extensively. You kinda need to read the ops posts as well.

I did. She said she'd worked there for 4 months and not had sickness. I took that to mean she started the job 4 months ago.

You need to read all her posts,

Some posters are just smug and wanting to but the boot in though, and lacking the empathy gene. Happens on most threads

This is such a lovely thoughtful response @user1464187087 and has really hit the nail on the head.
You’ve acknowledged throughout that taking sick leave had caused the problem.
It must have been so hard giving so much of your emotional self to your job which increased your anxiety. It can’t be easy to sleep at the end of a shift dealing with the issues you’ve mentioned and questioning whether you did the right thing.
So disappointing for you and I do hope you find peace.