gon2seed
(and me! - Ed)
Tommorrow night, (as long as we are quiet), will be my last night in a fire station dormitary. The beds are going!
Staffs, as usual, are near the front in the race to modernise, but pretty soon every firestation the length and breadth of the UK will be a bed free zone.
Now I am a not trying to enlist your sympathy, because I realise that as I get paid 25 grand a year, and can potentially spend up to 14 hours tucked up during a block of duty, I am unlikely to get much!
The message of this posting is; you f*&$ with this government at your peril!
Wholetime Firefighters in Staffs currently work the following shift pattern:
Day 1 09.00 - 18.00
Day 2 09.00 - 18.00
Day 3 18.00 - 09.00
Day 4 18.00 - 09.00
Day 5 off
Day 6 off
Day 7 off
And then the cycle repeats itself! Forever!
On nights if we have finished all our work, and there is no emergency, after 12.00 am we have traditionally been allowed to go to bed until 07.00, whilst being ready to leap out of our pit and save the world.
Now you can see why it is such a popular job! Apart from weekends and bankholiday working, and unsociable hours, it is a very attractive proposition. If you are lucky with calls, you can get some sleep on nights.
Well all that will now cease! During the strike when our esteemed union leadership took it upon themselves to bad mouth New Labour, we made more than a few influential enemies, and the chickens are coming home to roost! You p*ss John Prescott off, and your going to get a slap, as that fella with the egg found out!
We have been told that "beds and sleeping on duty, have no place in the modern fire service", so at a cost to the Poll Tax payers of Staffs of over £400 a piece, we are being provided with reclining chairs in which we can rest for up to four hours of a night shift (No sleeping)! Any one want a second hand bed?
And because they know what naughty boys and girls we are, they are going to send officers round to make sure we are not sneaking airbeds into the stations, and that we are not dozing when we should be working!
All good stuff I am sure you will agree, but my problem is that they are unable to detail any extra tasks for us to do at this time of night. Training is out, too dark, and its too noisy for the neighbours. Extra maintenance of equipment is again too noisy for the neighbours! Not many residents want a visit with a smoke alarm at 02.00 am either!
So here is a challenge for Forumites, what can we do between 12.00 am and 6.00 am that will be any use to the residents of this fine town? Remember it must be silent, and not too dangerous because we are likely to be tired!
Time after time the audit commission have praised the fire service as the best performing public service, but maybe they are talking bollox. I would suggest that if we have completed everything we need to do, to a suitable standard, the best thing we can do is get a little shut eye, so that when we get a call, we are as wide awake as possible, and ready to deal with the emergency, but maybe i am mad! I reckon that if I gave a victim of a road traffic collision, stuck in their car bleeding to death, at 03.00 am, the choice between a team of firefighters who'd had a couple of hours kip, and a team who's eyes were on stalks, having spent the day awake ... well you know what i mean!
So with that thought I bettter turn in! Think I'll sneak off early tonight, get one over on that poacher turned gamekeeper Prescott one last time ...
B*lls, there's the bells! Tyre place in Tunstall! Must be a big 'un if they are dragging us up there, won't need my quilt tonight!
Staffs, as usual, are near the front in the race to modernise, but pretty soon every firestation the length and breadth of the UK will be a bed free zone.
Now I am a not trying to enlist your sympathy, because I realise that as I get paid 25 grand a year, and can potentially spend up to 14 hours tucked up during a block of duty, I am unlikely to get much!
The message of this posting is; you f*&$ with this government at your peril!
Wholetime Firefighters in Staffs currently work the following shift pattern:
Day 1 09.00 - 18.00
Day 2 09.00 - 18.00
Day 3 18.00 - 09.00
Day 4 18.00 - 09.00
Day 5 off
Day 6 off
Day 7 off
And then the cycle repeats itself! Forever!
On nights if we have finished all our work, and there is no emergency, after 12.00 am we have traditionally been allowed to go to bed until 07.00, whilst being ready to leap out of our pit and save the world.
Now you can see why it is such a popular job! Apart from weekends and bankholiday working, and unsociable hours, it is a very attractive proposition. If you are lucky with calls, you can get some sleep on nights.
Well all that will now cease! During the strike when our esteemed union leadership took it upon themselves to bad mouth New Labour, we made more than a few influential enemies, and the chickens are coming home to roost! You p*ss John Prescott off, and your going to get a slap, as that fella with the egg found out!
We have been told that "beds and sleeping on duty, have no place in the modern fire service", so at a cost to the Poll Tax payers of Staffs of over £400 a piece, we are being provided with reclining chairs in which we can rest for up to four hours of a night shift (No sleeping)! Any one want a second hand bed?
And because they know what naughty boys and girls we are, they are going to send officers round to make sure we are not sneaking airbeds into the stations, and that we are not dozing when we should be working!
All good stuff I am sure you will agree, but my problem is that they are unable to detail any extra tasks for us to do at this time of night. Training is out, too dark, and its too noisy for the neighbours. Extra maintenance of equipment is again too noisy for the neighbours! Not many residents want a visit with a smoke alarm at 02.00 am either!
So here is a challenge for Forumites, what can we do between 12.00 am and 6.00 am that will be any use to the residents of this fine town? Remember it must be silent, and not too dangerous because we are likely to be tired!
Time after time the audit commission have praised the fire service as the best performing public service, but maybe they are talking bollox. I would suggest that if we have completed everything we need to do, to a suitable standard, the best thing we can do is get a little shut eye, so that when we get a call, we are as wide awake as possible, and ready to deal with the emergency, but maybe i am mad! I reckon that if I gave a victim of a road traffic collision, stuck in their car bleeding to death, at 03.00 am, the choice between a team of firefighters who'd had a couple of hours kip, and a team who's eyes were on stalks, having spent the day awake ... well you know what i mean!
So with that thought I bettter turn in! Think I'll sneak off early tonight, get one over on that poacher turned gamekeeper Prescott one last time ...
B*lls, there's the bells! Tyre place in Tunstall! Must be a big 'un if they are dragging us up there, won't need my quilt tonight!
