“I’ll put this thing in the harbor.”
You may have read the EMS1 Article released last year in which a Baltimore City Paramedic was so done with the run volume for the day, that he did what we’ve all felt like doing from time to time. He snapped.
“For the third time, we told you we are out of service, I am completely prepared to tell my driver to disembark, and I will drive this thing in the Inner Harbor.”
Right, wrong, or indifferent, the city response was precisely the wrong one, but demonstrates so perfectly why I rail against apathetic leadership. At the end of the article, it reads “The Baltimore Fire Department declined to comment. A spokesperson said they were unable to discuss as this as it is a disciplinary matter.”
What a wasted opportunity to talk about a real problem! Instead they used the opportunity to destroy goodwill with an employee who was obviously dealing with burnout. That’s how it happens. One little thing at a time. High call volume coupled with exhaustion and inadequate resources. Was it the employee’s fault that there weren’t enough trucks to answer the call volume? Was it his responsibility to shoulder the ramifications of that? How long has that city been understaffed, overextended, and shifting the burden onto others?
Good leadership would have used the opportunity to highlight these very issues instead of silencing the discussion and disciplining the employee. Great leadership would have played the transmission in front of the city council or the city manager and said “THIS is why I need more employees, more trucks, more money.” Happy employees don’t threaten to drive a truck into a harbor without giving a damn about the consequences of that statement. Is it his fault he’s burnt? Almost never. And yet the burden is always on the victim to remedy the problem. We never learn. If we keep doing this… well, we do keep doing this and the result is predictable. During COVID, providers shouldered a whole bunch of burden with almost no support and now, we are dealing with a staffing crisis that is worsening. 1/3 of EMTs quit in 2021. That is an astounding statistic. Less staffing equals more hours worked. More hours worked means more burnout and compassion fatigue. More burnout and compassion fatigue means more people walking away. And more walking away means less staffing. It’s a vicious cycle. So fix the problem. I am in management so I get it. I don’t have the magic solution to bring people back to a profession that government has so grossly neglected. But, there are things we do have control over, and it starts with not blaming the victim and putting the burden on them while refusing to provide the two things they desperately need; Time off and support.
Stop talking about it. Do it.