Find Respect and Giving Respect…
Regardless of the field you work in, it’s extremely important to always treat people with respect. Why? For one, we have absolutely NO idea what someone is going through. Let’s think about the public safety field for example. Obviously we know that the majority of the time, we are working with the general public, seeing them at their worst moments. Whether it’s police officers taking a report for theft, investigating a homicide, doing a traffic stop, etc. Or a firefighter responding to an accident with injuries and the occupants are trapped, a structure fire, etc. Or a medic responding to a cardiac arrest, a lift assist, transporting from a hospital to a nursing home, etc.
We never know what someone else is going through. It’s easy to treat people with empathy during major events like a cardiac arrest, structure fire, etc. It’s not so easy dealing with the next member of the public AFTER. I can think of countless times where I responded to a fatal car crash around midnight, and then an hour later, I’m responding to a 20 year old kid who thinks their toes is broken after using it to find the night stand, trying to get a glass of water. The toughest part of those two calls isn’t the fatal car crash. I’m prepared for that. I’ve trained for that. What I wasn’t ready for is how to treat the patient that calls 911 AFTER. How do you treat someone who calls the emergency line for toe pain after a fatality? It’s easy to consider sitting at my desk typing this blog, just as I’m sure it’s easy for you while you’re sitting on the couch, or in the truck waiting for your next call. You treat that next patient the same way you would treat the loved one of the fatal car crash. The loved one that came to the scene to see their dead relative. Obviously you aren’t going to treat them the exact same way, that would be ridiculous and impossible. But you treat them with dignity and respect. You show them you care for them, and that, while you may not understand exactly what they are feeling, you care. I could call that next patient every name under the sun, but where would that get me? Maybe a meeting with the Chief or my supervisor, but it certainly wouldn’t change the situation, nor would it make me feel any better later on.
At the end of the day, we always want someone to treat our loved ones with dignity and respect. In fact, if I ever found out one of my coworkers cussed out my grandma at 2 in the morning, I can tell you that my next conversation with them wouldn’t be pleasant. Knowing that, why would I expect anything different if I treated someone that way?
Everyone’s definition of an emergency is different. The vast majority of people know that an emergency is typically a life or death situation. Sometimes, however, an emergency to someone could be that they just didn’t know who else to turn to and needed to correct an issue quickly. Sometimes people, especially the elderly, are just lonely and need someone to talk to. Regardless of whether you think their definition of an emergency is right or wrong, it’s not your job to judge them.
With that, it’s important that we educate. If someone calls 911 and then hangs up because they know it will get someone to them faster, and it turns out it wasn’t an emergency after all, that’s when we educate. We educate that caller and inform them what 911 is for. We also inform them that when they call on the emergency line, we are dumping resources in to help them in what we think is their time in need. They are taking resources away from someone else who may really need us for a life or death situation. We’ve all been in those situations before. I can tell you, I’m not perfect. I have gotten pretty upset with someone over this exact situation. Was I in the right? Well, yes and no. I was in the right for educating, but my delivery wasn’t the best.
The same thing goes for outside of public safety. Whether that’s on your off time, or if you’re like me and you left the field for another career. Working in Occupational Health and Safety, most people have ZERO clue why something is considered dangerous. They get a gut feeling, but a lot of that is based off of their training and policies, not necessarily because they understand. For all they know, that may be the only way to accomplish whatever task they are working on. Think about this; how many times were you at home changing a lightbulb, and you didn’t flip the switch to OFF first? Or how many times did you connect multiple extension cords together to reach the outdoor Christmas lights to the outlet? Did you realize that doing those things could be extremely dangerous? With that being said, we all make mistakes, and it’s human nature to try and find the quickest way to do something, especially if we have more than one task to complete.
Treat everyone with respect. As mentioned before, you never know what someone else is going through. I’ve heard stories many times where someone was considering suicide. They stepped out of their house for a few hours to get their affairs in order before they proceeded with the act. It took one individual to smile and ask them how their day was going. It took someone to show that they genuinely care to change that person’s mind about suicide. Maybe that person you’re talking to just got a divorce or their spouse died from cancer. Maybe their child has been missing for a few days. Whatever it is, you never truly know what someone is going through at any given moment.
Respect is not always earned, but it’s always deserved. Giving someone respect is more for you than it is for that person. It shows that you are the stronger person. You treat people how you want to be treated. You care enough about giving back to the community, and you’re all in. Don’t half ass your job but treating someone like shit. Go all in, and show your community you care.