Cleanup Crew

     Question: What do you do when a supervisor drops in and asks if you're busy? You're absorbed in something important, so you reflexively answer, "Never too busy for you." Of course, right now, you don't actually mean that. You're struggling with a deadline. But when you look up, the guy appears serious. He's valuable, maybe one of the most valuable people you've ever met. Your instinct says that whatever's on his mind is much more important than your current commitment, and maybe anything else you're planning to do for the rest of the week.

     Sure enough, it's important. One of your shifts feels as though they're doing all the housekeeping chores: cleaning the ambulances, the bays and the station, and taking out the trash. And what's more, you've heard it before. The supervisor is ready to quit. You had hoped your guidance would have prompted the shift supervisors to sort things out on their own. But that hasn't happened.

     Answer: You're in good company. The late Jim Page once observed that in emergency services organizations of all kinds, different ideas about housekeeping chores, personal neatness and order tend to be the most common sources of disagreement among workers. "The EMS worker who gets sucked into moderating those disputes," he said, "will unwittingly apply his own standards (gut-level values) to the problems. Besides creating a parent-child relationship in the workplace, the supervisor will satisfy no one in this role."¹

     Jim was a wise man, and I'm sure he was right about every word of that observation. But he didn't offer much advice about how you actually solve the problem. There are some of each of those folks in every organization. They may all be good people who simply have different ideas about what's clean and what's not. Or, some of them may not be good at all.

     I think that's where the chief comes in. I think the part Jim left out is the part where the chief says the housekeeping will be done according to a schedule and communicates that clearly to the shift supervisors. Then, he or she expects them to do their jobs. Or, replaces them with someone who will.

1. The Manager's Corner, EMS Insider, October, 1989

     Thom Dick is the quality care coordinator for Platte Valley Ambulance Service, a community-owned, hospital-based 9-1-1 provider in Brighton, CO. Reach him at boxcar_414@yahoo.com.