do you like your job

R99

Forum Lieutenant
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What are your meal break rules in australia? over here its sometimes 5.5 to 7 or 8 hours into a 12 hour shift to get a break with nothing but sorry its busy better luck next time

at 5.5 hours we must have a break but you can get 1 minute into it and get a job that takes an hour or more so thats at least 6.5 hours and you might have worked the last 5.5 back to back with jobs again nothing more to show for it than well nothing except very sore hungry and tired
 
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Melclin

Forum Deputy Chief
1,796
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What are your meal break rules in australia? over here its sometimes 5.5 to 7 or 8 hours into a 12 hour shift to get a break with nothing but sorry its busy better luck next time

at 5.5 hours we must have a break but you can get 1 minute into it and get a job that takes an hour or more so thats at least 6.5 hours and you might have worked the last 5.5 back to back with jobs again nothing more to show for it than well nothing except very sore hungry and tired

Wow thats harsh.

People complain constantly about our working conditions but I've rarely seen better. In healthcare or any other field.

Now lets see if I can get this across without writing war a peace. We are entitled to one 30 min break on 10 hours shifts, 2 x 30 min breaks for 12 or 14 hour shifts. You take your 30 minute break sometime within a 90 minute window starting 4 hours into your shift (3hrs on a 14hr shift). During this time your break can be spoilt by any kind of job. If you don't get your break within that time, you are put on a code 1 warning, meaning life threatening jobs only. After another hour if you haven't had a break, you are put on a priority 0 warning, meaning cardiac arrests only until you get your break.

This can all be suspended in times of crisis.

We are paid penalties for late breaks, the later the break, the greater the penalty and if you don't get a break at all, you receive a reasonably sizeable penalty rate. If your meal break is spoilt by getting a job, you receive a penalty rate.
 

FreezerStL

Forum Crew Member
87
0
0
I can't envision myself doing anything else,

Trust me I've had many jobs I wish I could forget.

I absolutely love this field ^_^
 

DesertMedic66

Forum Troll
11,269
3,450
113
Wow thats harsh.

People complain constantly about our working conditions but I've rarely seen better. In healthcare or any other field.

Now lets see if I can get this across without writing war a peace. We are entitled to one 30 min break on 10 hours shifts, 2 x 30 min breaks for 12 or 14 hour shifts. You take your 30 minute break sometime within a 90 minute window starting 4 hours into your shift (3hrs on a 14hr shift). During this time your break can be spoilt by any kind of job. If you don't get your break within that time, you are put on a code 1 warning, meaning life threatening jobs only. After another hour if you haven't had a break, you are put on a priority 0 warning, meaning cardiac arrests only until you get your break.

This can all be suspended in times of crisis.

We are paid penalties for late breaks, the later the break, the greater the penalty and if you don't get a break at all, you receive a reasonably sizeable penalty rate. If your meal break is spoilt by getting a job, you receive a penalty rate.

That sounds really nice. We don't get anything like that. Today we got hit hard with BS calls. 12 hours with no food and only water to drink.

Our 24 hour crew has it worse tho. If they have been getting calls non stop dispatch will have a unit cover them for the first call in their area. But if a second call breaks out (and it always does) then they get ran.
 

Melclin

Forum Deputy Chief
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That sounds really nice. We don't get anything like that. Today we got hit hard with BS calls. 12 hours with no food and only water to drink.

Our 24 hour crew has it worse tho. If they have been getting calls non stop dispatch will have a unit cover them for the first call in their area. But if a second call breaks out (and it always does) then they get ran.

Yeah well if you compare that to an BSN friend of mine who is on less per annum than me from the get go, then often works straight through lunch, may never get a break at all and often ends up working OT for no extra pay etc.

All of my friends who wear fancy suits to work and have jobs a titles I don't understand might do up to 10 hours OT a week without pay, lunch hours are the kind of thing you work through in order to prove how dedicated you are. All of them make less than I do anyway. Have to buy and maintain nice work clothes all year round on their own dime.


The thing I like the most is the ability to augment income. If for some reason I forgot I had to pay my rent that week and was skint, or I had a bad attack of the drunken eBays...I can ring rosters, there is a reasonable likelihood that I can do an over time shift and bam, thats my months rent paid. I almost doubled my pay check last fortnight with a little OT purely because I was bored on my days off.

Like I said. There are things that could be better, but we're not on a bad wicket in many ways.
 

VCEMT

Forum Captain
297
2
18
I have no complaints. I don't buy into the BS that all the whiners whine about. I keep water and snacks in my rig and I nap often.
 

Handsome Robb

Youngin'
Premium Member
9,736
1,173
113
Wow thats harsh.

People complain constantly about our working conditions but I've rarely seen better. In healthcare or any other field.

Now lets see if I can get this across without writing war a peace. We are entitled to one 30 min break on 10 hours shifts, 2 x 30 min breaks for 12 or 14 hour shifts. You take your 30 minute break sometime within a 90 minute window starting 4 hours into your shift (3hrs on a 14hr shift). During this time your break can be spoilt by any kind of job. If you don't get your break within that time, you are put on a code 1 warning, meaning life threatening jobs only. After another hour if you haven't had a break, you are put on a priority 0 warning, meaning cardiac arrests only until you get your break.

This can all be suspended in times of crisis.

We are paid penalties for late breaks, the later the break, the greater the penalty and if you don't get a break at all, you receive a reasonably sizeable penalty rate. If your meal break is spoilt by getting a job, you receive a penalty rate.

You guys are way too lucky. Some shifts we get lots of down time, others we are running calls back to back all shift long, sometimes being asked to clear from the ER 10 minutes after we arrived for priority traffic.

My agency is pretty good about having our EMS rooms at the hospitals stocked with drinks and snacks though so you can at least grab something to munch while your partner drives. On a real busy day the other day I may or may not have accepted sandwiches for my partner and myself from a wonderful old lady while we were working on getting her husband with a fractured pelvis packaged. She even bagged it up so we could take it to go :D She offered, it would have been rude to say no. :ph34r:
 
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