# How to handle this situation appropriatley



## unleashedfury (Sep 6, 2013)

I am sure many others have been in this situation. So I am humbling asking for ideas. 

We have a "volunteer" member at our association who has been there forever. No one will say a damn word to him as he just has a bad attitude and they feel like they owe him something at one point or another. Either way very disrespectful to the paid staff, the building and others. He comes into our station hops on the internet. and plants himself there all day. When trip sheets don't get done don't dare say that he had used the computer all day and wouldn't let you into it. Cause that's not a acceptable answer. When we are on a long shift a lot of times the crew will all put in for a nice dinner for us. Any leftovers or whatnot are put away for the later part of the shift This fine individual will help himself to our paid for meals without a question or even asking. Uses the facility to wash his car, his clothes, watches TV or utilizes the internet for his personal use. the paid staff of the company are expected to be his personal maids and clean up his dishes make way for him as were paid to be there mine as well do something right? If a accident happens or a error was made he will use the all call system at all times of the day or night to ridicule harass or downright embarrass employees at his dispense. 

But otoh he will refer to everyone as a "scumbag" Now this dude makes a decent wage. Like money we'll never see in EMS kind of wage. He lives by himself owns his home has no spouse or children. So obviously financial constraints aren't the reason why he comes to the building to make it his personal apartment. But everyone else is a scumbag? I would believe mouching off an association that you don't lift a finger to help. eating employees cooked meals is more of a scumbag than the people who are down on their luck or made bad choices and are trying to clear their name. Like for example the one girl that works with us was a former user. She turned her life around got it all straight and has no intention of returning to that lifestyle, But she's a scumbag because she went down that path 

I'm looking for solutions here. All of the Employees are tired of it, Management was made aware of the situation but since himself and the chief officers are "best buds" he allows him to do as he feels. myself and another employee were discussing a situation that occurred recently A crew accidentally broke the sure line for a truck since one truck we have doesn't have the auto eject and simply forgot about it. It happens I've done it and I'm sure many others have too. While they were on the emergency call he sent out an all call page that was worded "congrats you two dumba$$es you pulled the sure line out can't get the ambulance out the door with out messing something up!!! so instead of confronting the crew with the mistake or notifying the chain of command he made sure the whole company knew how it occurred. 

This has been an ongoing problem yet nothing seems to get done. We as a fellow coworkers are looking for solutions is there anyone that can lead me into the right direction?


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## DesertMedic66 (Sep 6, 2013)

All you can do is follow the chain of command. If enough employees complain then something is bound to happen. Is there anyone higher up that you can go to?


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## unleashedfury (Sep 6, 2013)

DesertEMT66 said:


> All you can do is follow the chain of command. If enough employees complain then something is bound to happen. Is there anyone higher up that you can go to?



The chief officer. "the head honcho" in our association is much aware. yet nothing seems to get done. As they are friends.


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## DesertMedic66 (Sep 6, 2013)

unleashedfury said:


> The chief officer. "the head honcho" in our association is much aware. yet nothing seems to get done. As they are friends.



Is your association a college, company, or something else?

All you can really do is start documenting everything.


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## EMDispatch (Sep 6, 2013)

unleashedfury said:


> The chief officer. "the head honcho" in our association is much aware. yet nothing seems to get done. As they are friends.



Does the Association have Trustees or other Advisors? If the operational chain of command is working I'd try the administrative side of things.


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## Handsome Robb (Sep 6, 2013)

If it has been passed up the chain of command if personally walk in and hand them my ID card and tell them it's him or me. With that said it probably won't do much unless you have multiple staff on board with it. 

Are you tax funded? I bet the tax payers would love to hear about it at a open forum.

Sounds like your chief officer needs to go too if he's allowing crap like this to happen.

There are generally checks and balances built into most organizations. Who checks the CO? Go to them? Someone already mentioned the board of trustees or however you guys are organized. Someone also mentioned administration rather than operations. That's a possibility too. He's misusing resources. 

Honestly, this guy is the type of person we DO NOT need in our services. If a Volly disrespected me they'd get an earful then asked to leave the premises or scene. If they didn't comply PD is coming to remove them for me. After that I'd go to the top of the food chain about it. Sounds to me like you've tried that though...have you tried the middle? With enough supervisors on your side the "Chief Officer" can't really argue for the simple fact that he could either lose his job or lose all of his employees.

One other thing ill add is if I had reports to do and he was using the computer for personal stuff and refused to move I'd go straight to a Supe and have them remove him and if they didn't me and my short fuse would probably remove him myself. Don't mess with my job or my off time.


Sounds like this dude is a loser who has no friends and this is how he makes himself feel important.


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## jediwill (Sep 6, 2013)

Ill refrain from saying what id do cause its legality is questionable.....needless to say that wouldnt fly at my station....he'd be gone no matter WHO he was friends with.


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## unleashedfury (Sep 6, 2013)

heres the kicker.. 

The immediate supervisors, board of trustees and chain of command are all volunteer basis they will not hire anyone to be a supervisor so to speak.

We had that setup last year where you had a platoon of 4 with one shift supervisor it worked well. But the bean counters felt that this wasn't effective and to save money cut back the shift supervisors and allowed for a volunteer board of trustees, and chain of command. the girl who does the scheduling and payroll for us does it on her time because the person who is in charge of it screws it up never puts it in on time or we never get a schedule and she said it wasn't fair to employees to have to wait to get they pay, or wait forever to get a schedule or anything that needs to be accomplished done. Well needless to say all the volunteer workload got dumped on her. 

As far as the board of directors goes. its a joke its a good ol boys club that each of each other padd their ego's to make themselves feel important. Employees are not allowed to attend meetings to voice their concerns. As people leave the association they just find more "warm bodies" to fill their shoes. I've been the target recently as they know I'm searching for work elsewhere mainly because the commute since I moved is getting to be a little much. I was originally brought in as a experienced provider with management experience to assist in getting day to day operations up to standards with the rest of the world. Yet no progress has been made. 

I've considered voicing my complaints to the local EMS regulation but they only concern themselves with patient care and operations I am not sure if their is any lines that have been crossed that the dept. of labor and industry will investigate.


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## mycrofft (Sep 6, 2013)

Petition and all agree to walk out if it is not met by a certain date.
Any organization that lets that sort of thing roll needs to be deserted. I bet they'll back you if things get iffy about a call...not. So respectfully list the grievances, use as many dates sand times and names as possible, and strike if they fail. Then go to the local paper.

A professional has to be willing to pull the plug sometimes.

As for the food thing, every container needs to be marked as to name and date. Use nice big freezer tape and Sharpee marker. We had a lunch rustler once; I left a throwdown lunch in the break room and he bit (so to speak), a luscious grape jelly/peanut butter/methylene blue sandwich....


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## unleashedfury (Sep 12, 2013)

The general consensus is most of us are leaving. my partner has a interview tonight, as does 2 others. I was at my clinical site yesterday and we were talking about how it was when I "used to work there" well I left years back and was on good terms so the idea of coming back to work there has been tossed around. So I put my application in. Same rate of pay.. But more employee encentrives.


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## VirginiaEMT (Sep 12, 2013)

unleashedfury said:


> The general consensus is most of us are leaving. my partner has a interview tonight, as does 2 others. I was at my clinical site yesterday and we were talking about how it was when I "used to work there" well I left years back and was on good terms so the idea of coming back to work there has been tossed around. So I put my application in. Same rate of pay.. But more employee encentrives.



Do you think this guy really cares if you leave? He is going to do exactly the same thing to your replacement. There are many volunteer agencies in my are that have career staff as well, me being one of them. Some people just loathe the fact that we get paid for something they do for free. It needs to be dealt with, not run from.... This guy has a jealousy issues and needs to be put in his place. Journal things that are happening for future use.


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## mycrofft (Sep 12, 2013)

VirginiaEMT said:


> Do you think this guy really cares if you leave? He is going to do exactly the same thing to your replacement. There are many volunteer agencies in my are that have career staff as well, me being one of them. Some people just loathe the fact that we get paid for something they do for free. It needs to be dealt with, not run from.... This guy has a jealousy issues and needs to be put in his place. Journal things that are happening for future use.



There are some games better lost than won, and some best not played at all.


Let hem be happy together without the current employees. Don't fall for any BS, short of them firing that Bozo. THEN leave anyway.


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## ZombieEMT (Sep 19, 2013)

Honestly, I think this really depends on the situation. Is the paid side part of the same organization as the volunteers? If they are seperate, what organization owns the building? 

To try to get to the point, the company that I work for has a similar issue but should not really complain as much. We provide paid staff to a local volunteer organization but are actually employees of our company. The volunteers own the building, the trucks and the equipment. Personally, I feel they have the right to sit around the building, watch the TV, go on the internet, and eat what ever food is left within the building. If there is a problem with reports getting done, its not the volunteers fault it is the fault of the company providing the EMTs (unless stated in a certain agreement). It irritates me when I hear my coworkers complain about the volunteers when they are actually guests in the volunteers building.

Dont get me wrong, being disrespectful is wrong. Nobody should be calling anyone a scumbag or be treating each other like crap. I also hope that the paid staff are not doing anything disrespectful to the volunteers (which happens way too often).


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## unleashedfury (Oct 11, 2013)

HaleEMT said:


> Honestly, I think this really depends on the situation. Is the paid side part of the same organization as the volunteers? If they are seperate, what organization owns the building? *The building is actually owned the municipality*
> 
> To try to get to the point, the company that I work for has a similar issue but should not really complain as much. We provide paid staff to a local volunteer organization but are actually employees of our company. The volunteers own the building, the trucks and the equipment. Personally, I feel they have the right to sit around the building, watch the TV, go on the internet, and eat what ever food is left within the building. If there is a problem with reports getting done, its not the volunteers fault it is the fault of the company providing the EMTs (unless stated in a certain agreement). It irritates me when I hear my coworkers complain about the volunteers when they are actually guests in the volunteers building.
> 
> Dont get me wrong, being disrespectful is wrong. Nobody should be calling anyone a scumbag or be treating each other like crap. I also hope that the paid staff are not doing anything disrespectful to the volunteers (which happens way too often).



we are paid providers of that specific organization, The problem with charts is we have one computer. And when he hoards it for his personal use during shift times employees cannot get their documentation done in a timely manner. If he would simply allow the employees to do their charting and return to the internet when completed this wouldn't be a problem. 

The amenities were put in place for the staff to use as necessary I.E. wash sheets and linens for the bunk rooms, keep dishes clean, Soap and brushes to wash the trucks and keep equipment clean. we discussed getting wifi but it was a shot down when staff members stated simply. Why should we have to purchase or maintain our own computers to use for company business. Which I agree with My laptop is for my personal use. But I use it for charting every now and again. 

There are volunteers that show up. some ride the trucks with us, and others just come down to hang out or do "special event standbys" like football games and the such don't get me wrong they are just as welcome as staff members but when it affects the staff members from doing their job appropriately or here how "we spend too much money on supplies" when a volunteer is using it for his personal use. And this is an excuse for not getting raises and new equipment. I see where this can pose a problem. 

On top of that I am no ones mother. I don't mind doing station duties, maintaining it doing chores as necessary but when the attitude is "your being paid to be here your also going to clean up after me, vs. just sitting there and being lazy" Its a problem


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## oleg (Oct 15, 2013)

unleashedfury said:


> The general consensus is most of us are leaving. my partner has a interview tonight, as does 2 others. I was at my clinical site yesterday and we were talking about how it was when I "used to work there" well I left years back and was on good terms so the idea of coming back to work there has been tossed around. So I put my application in. Same rate of pay.. But more employee encentrives.



if you have options to find another job is good. also, upon leaving the place, consult the local attorney about the situation, you can get unemployment.


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