When I was an Ambulance attendant with Metro Toronto Ambulance my "perks " were my liberal time off periods. I worked there for 10 years, from 1977 to 1987.
In our 6 week schedule, we only worked 20 shifts of 12 hours so we had 22 days off in 6 weeks . That meant that in 5 of those weeks I worked either 3 or 4 shifts out of 7 days in that week. Once every 6 weeks I had one complete 7 day period off, to compensate for the previous week where I had worked 6 days out of 7. That 7 day off period was NOT vacation , it was rest days. In our union contract with the city of Toronto we got 21 days of vacation in the first year of our employment, with a further 7 days of vacation added for each year we had worked on the job. By the judicious use of shift changes with others, I was able to spend almost 2 complete months off one summer. I went to Australia and New Zealand that year. I repaid those who worked for me during the following winter months.
Working statutory holidays was also well worth it. If I was not scheduled to work Christmas Day I would offer to work for others who had kids at home. By working a stat holiday that I was not scheduled to work, I got paid time and a half for the 12 hour shift, which equaled 18 hours of my regular hourly rate. BY working both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, I earned 36 hours of overtime pay. The same thing if I worked New Years Day for some one else who wanted to go out and party the night before. If I worked all 3 holidays at time and a half, my first pay cheque in the new year would have an additional 45 hours pay on it. Happy New Year !!!
On the other hand, over that ten year period of time, I reckon I responded to about 15,000 emergency calls in all types of weather and road conditions. That 15,000 number breaks down this way. In a typical 12 hour shift ( in the largest city in Canada with a population of about 3 million people ) each Ambulance crew would respond to about 10 calls per shift , multiply that by 3 or 4 shifts per week, times 12 months per year, times ten years.
Put it another way, I have seen every type of way that people can be injured, or die. Fires, explosions, automobile accidents, pedestrians hit by vehicles, kids dying from drowning, people jumping from rooftops, hanging themselves, assaults, floaters who have been in Lake Ontario for weeks, and subway suicides. Multiple victim murders, delivering 26 babies over the years, talking a 16 year old girl off the Bloor Street bridge, only to learn that she hung herself that same week at home. A lot of horrible stuff, which is why our union contract had such liberal time off, and we ( as Ambulance Attendants ) were the highest paid outside workers in the City of Toronto at that time
I left in 1988, due to recurring back problems. Too many 400 pound people who lived in a 3 story walk up apartment building who could not walk, so my partner and I had to carry them down to the street. Too many falls on the ice in the winter, too many drunks, too many domestic fights. too many crazy street people, too many uniforms that went into the garbage because of the blood, vomit, urine, and the grease from crawling under a subway train to remove a dead body that was wrapped around the axle of the car, and put it in a Stokes basket to take it to the morgue. Now, 34 years later, I can still see some of that in my mind. But as the years went by, and I was doing other things in my life, the bad stuff has kind of fallen away.
Today the 1360 Toronto Paramedics are all University medical school trained, in a 2 year long course and they get paid a lot more money than I ever did. BUT they are so much better educated and equipped than we could have ever imagined back then in the days before Paramedicine and advanced life support techniques. And unlike in my days, where there were no females on the job, the current Toronto Paramedics are just about 50 percent female and 50 percent males. Highly educated and very well equipped. I know, because I have had to call them recently for my Wife. Quick to arrive, complete physical assesment, IV started, cardiac monitor leads in place, and off we go to Toronto General. Diagnosis ? Atrial fibrillation, meds prescribed, home in 3 hours, with a follow up appointment at the cardiac clinic the next Monday. All good now.
JimB.