Category: 911

911

Life is good.

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I am thoroughly enjoying my coffee life.  I started working in the coffee business only 5 years ago and have come a long way.  I started at Starbucks and learned a lot about coffee and customer service.  I never go there anymore but I can’t deny that without Starbucks I may have never entered this industry.

After two and a half years of  the same shit different day it became evident change was required.  My wife (fiancé at the time) suggested I apply at a local Olympia roaster Batdorf & Bronson, so I did.  My interview went very well, I consider myself a good interviewee and a few days later I got the job.  Thus started my two year relationship with B&B.

Working at B&B was refreshing.  Becoming the best Barista I could became my focus.  While there I learned to pull great shots of espresso, pour rad latte art, and delved deeper into the coffee world.  After almost two and a hlaf years I decided to try something new.  I became a dispatcher for 911, I quickly learned this was not the job for me.  I also learned that coffee has become the thing I am best at.

After resigning from my dispatcher job I applied at Olympia Coffee Roasting Company and a couple of weeks later started working there.  My coffee life has never been better.  I have learned sooooo much from working here in such a short time.  We have such great mentors here: Michael Elvin, Robbie Britt and of course Mrs.Sarah Dooley.  I have also learned a lot about roasting and production work, things I would have never learned at my former jobs.

Basically I LOVE LIFE, I LOVE COFFEE and I LOVE O.C.R.

 

Ugh!

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    If you have read my blogs in the past you know that in October I started training to be a dispatcher.  Well I tried my hand at it and I have decided that CAPCOM is not the place for me.  I didn’t pass my S.O.D (supervisor observation day).  I tried really hard but in my heart I know this is not the job for me.  I can;t do it!  You have to be soo quick with life and death decisions and my brain doesn’t work that way. 

    No hard feelings…..actually I feel really good.  I tried something completely new and out of the ordinary.  Not many people can say they have answered a 911 call, I can and it feels very cool.  It was a bad experience I went through things I thought I wouldn’t be able to.  Listening to someone be abused over the phone wasn’t fun neither was the time I listened to a woman yell at her kid so loud it made my ear hurt.  They weren’t fun to go through but on the other hand i helped those people…and that’s what felt good. 

    When it comes down to it you have to be very quick and able to multi task like a mad man.  Unfortunately for me the quickness and multi tasking thing were not on my side, if I could answer the phone on my time…you know every once in a while I would be fine.  The training and being able to see what goes on behind the scenes is something I’ll always carry with me.  The one thing I will be most appreciative about this experience is that now I know what Angela does !  I can relate with her on certain things that go on at work and now I can understand that after working a ten-hour shift at the call center it really does exhaust you physically without even having to get up.  So in the end, great life experience.

                                                                                            P.S. I need a job!

Anticipation

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    The next two days I work are the last days of training.  I am almost done which is both exciting and nerve-racking.  It would be nice to be on my own finally but it’s also a lot of responsiblity.  My trainer said I am doing a really good job, all my type codes are correct and I include good details in my comments. 

    While I am getting good feed-back I can’t help but be a little nervous.  I don’t know what it is but I have a hard time believing in myself.  It’s something that’s always been with me.  People tell me I can do it and there is no problem when it comes down to it, I follow through but for some reason it never sinks in.   I totally have faith that I can do my job but for some reason it doesn’t feel that was all the time.  I guess it could be a new year resolution….since I don’t have any.

Last day of freedom.

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    Today is officialy my last day of freedom.  I start training for my new job tomorrow.  I have been off for about a month and a half and it has been soo nice.  Angela and I had a lot of time to spend together and do fun stuff like go to the fair and camping in eastern Washington.

    I am really excited to start my new job as a dispatcher.  During my vacation I took time out to study fire and police codes as well as the phoenetic alphabet.  I visited the call center to listen to calls and I think that was a big help.  My main goal was to go into this with some sort of idea of what goes on. 

    Anxious and nervous are two words I would use to describe how I feel about tomoorow.

I wrote this a while ago but i totally meant it.

Would you like that for here or to go?

Posted on Posted in 911, dispatch, income, job, life1 Comment

    I have finally made my exit from the retail world.  Honestly I couldn’t feel any better.  I no longer have to spend my days making money for someone else!  Making money for other people is no longer in my job description.  Saving lives and helping to keep the county running smoothly is my new task.

    Since my last post the job as a dispatcher for 911 has been offered to me….full time even.  Serving coffee will be something missed dearly.  It has been part of my life for the past four years.  Interacting with the public will be what I miss the most.  If I had the opportunity to move up where I was things would be different but they were becoming stagnant.  Being under appreciated and having to deal with double standards in something as trivial as tamping too hard got me down.  Worrying about coffee is something I didn’t want to deal with anymore.  I needed something more.

    The best part is that the coffee world is still accessible almost at a new level.  Instead of a job it is now a hobby which is totally fine with me.  I still have a passion for coffee, something that no one can take from me.  Through all of my time on the other side of the counter I have realized how much I needed out.  I definitely will miss my co-workers very much and the relationships I built behind the counter.

Knots in stomach not fun.

Posted on Posted in 911, career, Change, dispatch, income, job, life1 Comment

I applied to become a dispatcher for 911 a year ago. I was subjected to all the tests and interviews and ended up being approved for hire. Unfortunately I didn’t get the 90% that was needed to be hired the first round. So I was put into a pool of people to be hired, and since August of last year I have been told to call every month to see if or when I was up for hire. Twelve months of calling in and being told to call next month. Due to the “economic situation” it has taken this long, but I believe it has come to an end. A few weeks ago I was told they will be hiring sometime in October and that I am first on the list!

I have had this never ending knot in my stomach. It’s been so tough because where i am at right now financially is the ghetto and this job would be an upgrade to a gated community. Three time more than what I am making now I would make there. I need that. I feel like I work so hard for so little and I need out! I feel like I want to do something more important than serve coffee. I want to help people in need. I have been doing the coffee thing for four years now and I feel I have hit the plateau. I don’t want to make money for someone else anymore. I want to make money for me. I want real responsibility.