Pros
Some really great EMTs and Paramedics. Great stepping stone to other services and healthcare positions. You get experience doing EMS if you are in the right garage and service area.
Cons
The great EMTS and Paramedics move on to Fire Departments, Municipal Services and to other healthcare positions(don't blame them). The dumb, unmotivated and slackers stay on protected by a useless union. Poor Management. They are losing service areas and contracts(you reap what you sow). Pay and Benefits. Too much nepotism and cronyism. Keep your mouth shut and don't criticise a coworker because you don't know who is related to who, who is a buddy with someone or simply sleeping with someone. Examples personally witnessed, a male and female crew who happen to be lovers, a scheduler and paramedic both married cheating on their spouses, a dispatcher and paramedic sleeping with each other. Also management and supervisors get their relatives hired. How does this affect the service and morale? Well in the case of the scheduler and paramedic, the paramedic gets to pick and choose his overtime shifts which should be open to everyone else. The dispatcher and paramedic sleeping together, well the dispatcher will screw the other paramedic crews with late calls and long distance transports just so that their paramedic lover gets off on time. Also be very wary of the cliques. Even though this is supposed to be a union shop where seniority should count for bidding on shifts especially during a shift reorganization, there is backroom dealing where the cliques try and skew the bids. Prime example is of course above where the scheduler is sleeping with the paramedic. Scheduler knows what shifts are and her paramedic lover gets inside info to pass on to his buddies. See conflict of interest for definition. AMR has a lot of rules on the books but they don't get enforced. There are employees who smoke in the ambulances, constantly on their cell phones when driving, game the system when taking calls by holding inservice and radio signals and much more... This outfit and unit is a case study on how to not run an ambulance service.....
