Spending as much time sitting in an ambulance as I do, there’s a part of the job that I’ve come to enjoy that I never would have thought of before: listening to the radio chatter. The company I work for is relatively small, so I actually know/have met most of the other EMTs. That being said, when we’re working, it’s generally just the two of us on a single crew, or sometimes two crews depending on what the call is: not exactly a busy, bustling office surrounded by lots of coworkers.
Now, when I drove for a rideshare company a while back, one of the things that drove (ha!) me nuts was the fact that it was so very lonely. Sure, you had your passengers, many of whom were enjoyable to talk to, but of all the jobs I’d ever worked, that was the most isolating by far.
You might think that it could feel the same way, though perhaps to a lesser degree, with it for the most part just being you and one other person all day, though I’m the first to admit that even one other person doing the same thing as you and working with you is so much less lonely than the alternative. But even then, I suspect it could get a little alienating if it was just the two of us.
Which is where the radio chatter comes in. We get to hear what everyone else on shift is doing– for the most part. Who’s going to a call. Who just got on shift. Who just finished theirs. It’s so little in so many ways, but it’s a reminder that there’s a whole bunch of us out there together. Perhaps I’m romanticizing it. Perhaps not. Either way, I enjoy it.
((On an entirely different note! Check back in tomorrow for a new short story!))
F.A. Hakimian 