Simple words that save lives: lessons from “expert talkers”
<i>When asked why she is incoherent, he replied: “How the hell do I know?” When chastised for cursing he said: “Well I don't care, ya stupid-ass questions you're asking.”</i><p>It's my understanding that some people are particularly sensitive to cursing and aggressive language, while others don't really care much. When we read something like the above, both our worlds collide. The language sensitive people will relate with the dispatcher, while others will think <i>what the hell</i>, because it seems that she was not listening to what was being said, but rather focusing on how it was said.<p>In society it's each person's responsibility to be civil and courteous, but emergency dispatchers should not expect this from callers. Not everybody is polite, but everyone deserves to expect help when they call for it, regardless of the way they talk. Emergency response is not customer service, where you can just tell a client that you'll have to drop them because they berated one of the phone clerks and that's against company policy.<p>I'm not playing devil's advocate for bullies, nor saying that   people who hate swearing shouldn't do certain jobs. But I believe that if the work is to be a public respondent to emergency situations, maybe learning to not take things so personally should be part of the training.