Public Employee Press

"I try not to let the stress consume me."

Extreme stress has put her on the edge and even strained her relationships with coworkers and others, 911 operator Chrystle Bullock acknowledged.

"I try not to let it consume me," she said, reflecting on the excessive overtime that upends operators' lives at the 911 call center in Brooklyn.

"I try not to bring the stress home," Bullock said. "But in the last two months, the overtime has made me a person who is not always that nice."

A Police Communications Technician for 20 years, Bullock can't name a comparable period when she and her Local 1549 coworkers felt so besieged except for Sept. 11, 2001, when, sadly, calls from the nearly 3,000 people perishing in the World Trade Center ended quickly.

The PCTs understand that mandatory overtime is part of the job in a big city periodically hit by snowstorms, hurricanes, blackouts, crime waves and protests. But they blame today's long hours on mismanagement and say the current situation is out of hand and outright abusive.

Training time causes overtime

Training sessions for a new phone operating system take operators away from their posts and exacerbate long-term understaffing. Supervisors regularly demand two to three extra shifts a week of the remaining PCTs, giving them only eight hours to go home, take a shower, catch some sleep and grab a quick bite before returning, zombie-like, to work. The union has called for hiring 400 new PCTs.

It doesn't help that the operators work for a paramilitary organization not known for humane management practices.

"Morale is low. People are getting sick. We are beat from the excessive overtime and management having no understanding. It makes for very unpleasant working conditions," Bullock said.

"Management really doesn't appreciate the work we do," she said. "We don't get recognition. No one ever says, 'Good job.' "