#this job is not for you

[hexalene]

Looks like you average 175 calls a day! :O

Depending on your shift length that's about 20 calls an hour, dang. I've heard 911 inbound calls are very mentally taxing, sometimes. How do you handle it?

It depends!

There’s kind of a mentality you develop doing this, which is that there is no closure. Once the line has disconnected, it’s over, you’ll never know what happens next.

It gets easier to compartmentalize. There are a good number of calls I think about a lot, but for the most part I let myself forget them.

As for the bad calls, I take breaks. My center has a policy that if you need a break, you take a break, it doesn’t matter how much the phones are ringing, if you need to step away, step away. This helps A LOT. I can go outside or to a private room and breathe, cry, talk it out, whatever I need.

If I’m being really really honest, I can compartmentalize terrible emergency calls a lot better than other difficult calls. With the emergencies, I do whatever I can to help and close the call knowing I’ve done all I can.

The calls I have trouble with are the people who call to verbally abuse us and the mental health frequent fliers, who also call to verbally abuse us in a different flavor. These suck because they’re just on the line to scream, cuss, threaten, and abuse you until you confirm there’s no emergency (and they’ll avoid letting you know if there is one to keep you on the line).

But even those? They’re fine. I might be annoyed with them, but they don’t know who I am and I don’t take the insults personally. It’s just exhausting to see a particular phone number in the queue and be like “oh boy, time to take my headset off because Jane Schizophrenia is about to call and scream as loud as she can into the microphone.” Or worse, to be answering in succession and be shocked when the scream belts out at full blast.

But again, even that? Not that bad.

There’s a LOT of talk about how awful the job can be and how not many people can do it, but honestly?? I think a lot more people could handle this job than they think.

Like bruh have you worked in an abusive retail environment for shit-tier pay and stayed calm while a 45 year old woman with a cropped haircut screams for the manager? Have you gotten into an argument with a coworker and managed to de-escalate it without mediation?

Have you successfully been in behavioral health therapy and have a good regimen of SSRIs, ADHD meds, anxiety pills, or all three (guess who) and can hold off the big emotions until you’re in a safe environment?

You’ll be fine. You can do 911.

[daylighteclipsed]

ENTRY LEVEL MEANS NO EXPERIENCE. IT MEANS NO PORTFOLIO OF RELEVANT SAMPLES. ENTRY LEVEL IS ENTRY LEVEL

[beif0ngs]

Over the Garden Wall 10th Anniversary stop motion short by creator Patrick McHale and Aardman Animations

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[kenapiece-main]

Can you believe I'm having to make this meme even after successfully finishing up taxes and applying to job

[soaptaculart]

Postcanon Farcille indulgence

[tuttle-did-it]

David Tennant for Prime Minister, please.

edit- Since this is getting so much attention, edited to include descriptions of screenshots.

This woman has lost her fucking mind.

Jo, are you okay?

[beebfreeb]

[morganbritton132]

No one tells you when you get a Big Serious Job™ how many fucking abbreviations you’ll be forced to learn.

[doom-dreaming]

"when i was your age, i was working three jobs to help support my family" and "when i was in college i was sleeping on a mattress on the floor and living off of soup"

YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO DO THAT. NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO DO THAT. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN TO YOU THAT THIS ISN'T A CHARACTER-BUILDING LESSON, IT'S JUST BAD

[ato-dato]

Piss off!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!! :)))))

[seren-dipitous-art]

I’ve been obsessed with the Olympics for the past week, and obsessed with Dick Grayson for longer, so here’s the crossover we all deserve.

Plus, gorgeous sweaty acrobat in gymnastics poses? Only positives.

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Job interview tip I got from a tiktok but it's genius:

If you were unemployed for a while, they're going to ask if you can explain the gap in your resume. Unless you were actually doing something cool & relevant, this is hard to answer in a way that makes you sound like a good corporate cog. So here's the best and infallible answer -

No you cannot, because you signed an NDA.

You now sound mysterious, desirable, worldly, experienced. They can't even really ask you more about it! Perfect.

[canisalbus]

✦ Freshly ordained ✦

[mo-mode]

AU where Mr. D claiming to be Percy’s dad accidentally counts as Claiming according to Greek god law or whatever and now all the other gods legitimacy believe Percy is his son, but if Mr. D corrects it, he has to explain to Zeus why he pretended he was Percy’s dad so now he’s like “YEP ol’ Perry Johansson is MY child wowie just look at the little fry, you have your mother’s eyes. Please stop standing next to water or you will blow my cover”

Meanwhile Poseidon is just standing off to the side like “how on earth did I dodge THAT bullet”