Last month, I wrote about burnout and how we as public safety telecommunicators can prevent, recognize and mitigate this pervasive effect. We all know what that looks like in ourselves and our co-workers. We become miserable, nasty, exhausted, jaded, depressed, sick and a gain a host of other physical, mental and emotional issues. This doesn’t need to happen. We can help ourselves and the other men and women we work with. Those people who have basically become family, especially since it seems we spend more time with them than we do with our actual family. But, there’s one other element that’s important when it comes to helping reduce burnout in the communications center and that involves management. After all, we all know that even when we love our job and our co-workers, if the higher ups make us miserable, we get bogged down and we often leave. If you are a supervisor, what can you do to keep this from happening? It’s understood that there are a lot of things that are beyond your control. So many times, those even higher than you are calling the shots, many of which are making your dispatchers burnout even faster than they should. What can you do to mitigate some of this? Again, Dr. Kelly Rasmussen, CEO, Success Communications, Inc. can help. She recommends these five tips on how supervisors can care for their people.
Know your people
Dr. Rasmussen, who worked her way up from the floor to Director understands what it means to go from working under the headset to managing the amazing people that continue to do that work. She states it is important to know those people. Know their normal. “Notice when they’ve changed,” she explains. “Know when it’s time to step in before they spiral downhill.” So many times, we look back after a good dispatcher moves into that problem dispatcher arena and can pinpoint when the shift happened. It’s important to get involved at that point. There is a lot less work that will need to be done.
Get involved
Again, it’s important to not just sit back and watch someone falter. As a supervisor, it’s important to be there for your people even if it means pulling them aside and having the tough conversation about what you see changing in their behavior. “As great questions that are open-ended,” Rasmussen recommends. She also reminds each of us to know our resources. We want to be able to help and often that means pointing a dispatcher in the right direction, such as to EAP.
Take action
It might seem this is just another way of saying the first two tips and in a way it is. Supervising the people who work in this difficult occupation is as complex as each person. What we do know about this work is that as someone is affected by it, it won’t just go away. Although there are numerous resiliency factors that come with each employee, everyone is affected somehow and for those that seem to be struggling with healthy coping mechanisms it’s important that their supervisor help them. “Interrupt the bad habits as soon as you notice,” says Rasmussen. “Do not think they will learn or they won’t do it again. When they act out, they are trying to tell you something. ASK WHAT.”
Practice what you preach
“You must be the good role model,” Rasmussen advises. “If you vent by cursing, swearing, smoking, drinking, etc. and expect them to make healthy choices, it will be a daunting task.” When we see burned out, jaded dispatchers become burned out, jaded supervisors it perpetuates a culture that each of us truly wishes would change. Nobody wants to face a career that will beat them down and leave them strung out after 30 years. When we watch a supervisor attempt to navigate this field using healthy techniques and good self-care, we learn that it is okay to take care of ourselves even if we don’t realize that’s a lesson we’re being given. “They are looking for guidance even before they are asking for guidance,” says Rasmussen.
Get them help
Becoming a supervisor means that you will most likely be buried under a mound of responsibilities. Often you have little support and are expected to move mountains while at the same time keep everything in the communications center under control ALL of the time. So how can you help others when you can barely keep your own head above water? “If you are too busy or think you can’t do right by them, then you must provide for them,” Rasmussen explains. “Hire them a coach who has been there, done that and can help you save a good dispatcher from spiraling downward and out the door or to an early grave.”
One of the things that Rasmussen has learned is that often dispatchers and their supervisors need to seek outside help when it comes to addressing burn-out. In response, she created the course Save Your Dispatcher! In as little as 12 weeks, she can work with someone taking them from a problem employee to a productive, positive person to work with. Whatever you do, whether that means seeking outside help or developing an internal program, recognize that you can no longer sit around and allow good people to drop under the weight of this work. Whatever you do, do something.
