In the middle of the night, Janice Miller answered the phone. A woman was on the other end of the line.
“My house is on fire!” the woman screamed.
Miller replied calmly, “Are you inside?”
The woman said she was, and Miller told her to get out immediately. “Call me back when you’re safe,” she said, hanging up.
Who was this woman? Miller didn’t know. She didn’t have time to think about it, either, because less than a minute later, the phone rang again. This time someone had spotted a prowler in the front yard.
To Miller, a 911 dispatcher, receiving back-to-back calls is second nature, but it took her a year or two to get comfortable with it. She and three of her coworkers spoke about the wonders and woes of the job to more than 100 people at the 911 Career Night on Tuesday.
The dispatchers handed out self-screening questionnaires to help people find out whether they matched the job description. One of the first questions tested the prospective applicant’s ability to handle crisis calls calmly.
“Coping skills aren’t something we can teach people,” said dispatcher Kelly Scates. “It’s something they should come in with.”
But every dispatcher is only human, said Scates, and sometimes even she needs to step out when she gets a particularly moving emergency call. Her co-workers always understand.
“It’s really easy to talk to my co-workers about how I’m feeling, because they know what it’s like,” she said.
Along with building up a tolerance for tragedy, dispatchers must be able to multitask and be good at solving problems.
“Starting out is frustrating because you don’t know it all yet and sometimes you won’t know what to do in a specific situation,” Scates said. “It helps to be a good problem solver.”
Like most Oregon dispatchers, Scates attended a two-week training academy in Salem and finished the rest of her training at the Eugene Fire & EMS Department. Even though her training qualified her to become a dispatcher three months later, no amount of training could have prepared her for her first call at work.
“I was so nervous to press the button,” she recalled, “and when I did, the person hung up! They didn’t even want to talk to me.”
Dispatcher Molly Jessie also vividly remembered her first call. “I pressed the wrong button and hung up on them. Luckily it was a non-emergency call.”
Miller managed not to embarrass herself when she answered her first call, but her first few weeks as a dispatcher were difficult ones.
“The hardest part was getting into that rhythm of four days at work and three days off,” said Miller. “It was hard for me and my family.”
Miller said many new dispatchers, who usually have to work the graveyard shift from 9 p.m. to 3:30 a.m., have trouble juggling work hours with family time. “That’s when we lose people.”
Those who are able to adapt to the unorthodox schedule enjoy good salaries, job security, health and life insurance, and excellent on-the-job training.
All Eugene 911 dispatchers agree that the variety of calls is both a good and a bad aspect of the job. On the positive side, it keeps work interesting and unpredictable. However, receiving a call about a trivial parking matter and hearing of a child’s death, all in the space of five minutes, can be confusing or traumatic. In order to keep calm, dispatchers require the ability to compartmentalize.
To most, said Miller, the job doesn’t sound at all ideal.
“This job is not cookie cutter,” she said firmly. “It’s either for you or it’s not, and we can determine that early in the training process.”
No other line of work will satisfy those who fit the job description, said Jessie.
“I love this job because it’s interesting and challenging,” she said. “I always rise to a challenge.”
Jessie admitted that sometimes work can take a toll on her sanity, but the people she helps over the phone make the long hours worthwhile.
“You can come through for people, and that can be so rewarding.”
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