City of Ottawa FAQ

Pros

The city offered a good benefits package and security

Cons

Working in Transit the biggest con was the complete imbalance of work and life. You are not able to have a life working for transit, the expectation in particular in management is exceptionally unrealistic.

Pros

The pay when I got enough calls. Providing nutrition for our future Contributing to public service

Cons

Hands down the most discriminatory employer I have seen in my 10 year culinary career. Poor leadership who provided no feedback or growth opportunity in 4 years. Critical production errors commited and no corrective measures taken. No vacation. No benefits. No guidance or training Watched tax money squandered with no control. Not properly informed on upcoming opportunity. Cook positions awarded to teaching staff. Neopotism Lost out on 40 months of paid pension service when I left as I was kept in a precarious casual position and couldn't find the opportunity to buy it back.

Advice to Management

Next time you find yourselves asking why you can't keep good Cooks, know it's because you don't value them properly.

Pros

Good pension, Good pay, Good benefits

Cons

backstabbing culture - people competing with one another rather than working as a team

Pros

• full time employment from the start • immediate plethora of job experience • great people to work with (PCP and ACP frontline, not including management or superintendents)

Cons

• management prioritized numbers over people and will guilt trip you into continuing the shift even after a traumatic call. Instructed to “get back out there it’s level zero” because apparently it’s our fault there’s no staff • management publicly says they support mental health coverage for paramedics and staff but refuse to provide “debrief time” post traumatic calls because “levels are critical” • if you use “too much sick time” aka 13+ sick days in 12 months even if it’s certified by a physician, they will not promote you or allow you application for specialty teams or any other position within the service (ie getting surgery you take 2 weeks off, that will be used against you in the future) • doctors notes are reviewed by a man that has no medical authority, but he will decide whether it’s “accurate” or “applicable” and will deny based on his own opinion of the situation regardless of the fact a physician wrote it • in the last 12 months working full time (84 hours/2 weeks) I’ve had three uninterrupted 30 mins lunch break at a base. Every other time it’s either interrupted by a non-urgent call/transfer or we are stuck driving from one end of the city to the other for our “break.” Example: clearing Montfort Hospital (East), given Stittsville base (far west) • constant unnecessary driving across the city to posts. I’ve been to Constance Bay, Cumberland, Osgoode and Metcalfe all in one 12 hour shift for no justified reason other than “that’s the deployment plan” • no space at headquarters for new female staff so no locker storage for duty bag and majority of staff is already sharing a locker. Men however have three change rooms (one original and two that have been converted in the last five years for overflow) and brand new male hires are getting full sized lockers to themselves • expected to do “working isolation” where if exposed to Covid-19 you continue to report to work as long as you test negative and are asymptomatic but not allowed to stop at gas stations or grocery stores because you’re supposed to be isolation. Public is also not made aware of this so if you end up testing positive later, every patient you had becomes a contact. • when initially hired you’re “temporary” for 24 months (unless an internal posting runs) and you don’t really have a say over your schedule. It can change every 3 months because your position is “backfilling vacancies” so no consistency for your schedule • multiple superintendents (male) have been reported for harassment of females and the most that happens is paid leave and they return to the workplace • if you talk about the negatives happening within the service publicly, you will lose your job for it (many employees have been terminated for this exact reason) • the chief blatantly lies to the public/city council on a regular basis stating service “levels are adequate” when last I checked servicing a city of over 1 million (not including surrounding towns that aren’t included in that number ie osgoode, stittsville, Constance bay, Cumberland, etc) requires a lot more than 11 ambulances on the road at night. The city is constantly in “level zero” where no paramedics are available to respond to 911 calls, and it’s not the hospitals fault, it’s purely a staffing issue. • burnout rate is significantly higher than any other service across Ontario with multiple newly hired staff quitting and returning to part time employment because it’s “not sustainable”

Pros

Full benefits, support, great pay, flexible

Cons

Can’t think of any cons