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Re: Finding and Keeping Good Dispatchers
From: Paul Lane 911 Dispatcher St. John’s, Nfld. Canada
Date: 26 Nov 1997
Time: 21:55:49
Remote Name: stj148.nf.sympatico.ca
Comments
I don’t know what your wages are like but it has been myobservation that in many 911 centers the wages don’t match thejob. Quite often there is a perception out there that 911dispatchers and call takers are “glorified telephoneoperators” and because there is usually no formal educationrequired to qualify for the jobs govts and municipalities ratethe job on par with a secretarial or clerical position. Anyonewho is involved with 911 knows that this is certainly not thecase but as long as the people responsible for classifying thejobs are of this mind set then the wages will stay at therecurrent level and there will be problems in finding staff andkeeping them. Lets face it, why would a person want to work insuch a stressful environment with all of its responsibilitieswhen he/she could work as a data entry operator or filing clerkfor approx the same pay. In terms of the problem of havingpersons apply for the job who are not cut out for it, I can onlycomment that if you rank the job as clerical in nature and adjustyour wages accordingly then you are only going to have clericalpeople apply. I am not suggesting that this situation is the casewith your organization because I have no idea of what your payscales are, but I am saying that this scenario, in my experience,is often the case.
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