7 Year Burnout

[ArcangelDurango]

Anyone out there have ideas on how to get past the 7-8 year burnout (dispatcher-wise)? I want to stay in this career, but I'm getting SO burned out. We had a bad two years, what with the Missionary Ridge fires, the mandatory 60-80 hours overtime, the back-to-back training... Granted, things are so much better now, but I'm not better. If anything, I'm worse. Someone told me it's because I had learned how to be an 'uber-dispatcher', and now that I can be 'normal' again, it isn't enough.

[LeeRoy]

I can't comment on dispatcher burnout but officer burnout has happened to me in the past. Nice long vacations by the ocean have helped me out immensely during burnout phases in my career. With the tourist season winding down you might be able to find something on the south caroline or georgia coast. If that's too expensive head down to Laughlin and spend a few days hanging out on the river.

[IM911]

I haven't had the dispatcher burnout yet. I have it scheduled around year 15. I do work with one who has been here 8 or 9 years and just went through it though. My best advice is to do what he did and take a month off. I'm sure you have the vaca time racked up, especially if you were on mandatory OT, you don't get much chance for a vacation then. We went to full staff this spring for the first time in years, so my co-worker took a month off. And he said it was everything he thought it would be. I hope you have the chance to do that, although when you ask your supervisor might send you for a drug test, it's a common reaction.

What's helped me on hell months is really enjoying my days off, even if that means bonding with my couch all day. I figure I'm busy enough at work I need to learn how to relax at home. The job makes us stress addicts. We don't know how to function without stress levels being dangerously high in our lives. I have it a little easier because I don't have kids, just a cat to take care of. But if you need a break and need to relax at home but you just feel like you have too much to do, ask yourself, is someone going to die if this doesn't get done? If the answer is no, RELAX. Trust me, the laundry and dishes will still be there waiting happily for you.

[ArcangelDurango]

Thanks, all. The time-off idea sounds wonderful, but I'm going to have to finagle to get it. We're spiraling down into another staff shortage, since our supervisor (who's also a dispatcher) is going to have maternity leave soon. I am one of only three trainers (we're trying to promote, but it's a long process) so that'll be an issue. Thankfully, we have restructured our agency wonderfully since we got a new manager, and he's very open to personnel problems and solutions. (He used to work for a fire agency in Aurora, and has 'been there, done that' all the way from the bottom to the top).

I'm thinking that the best thing to do might be to go ahead and schedule my second carpal surgery. They'd have to give me the time off then, no?