One of the things I’ve hated about my patrol district in the last few years is the closing of an abandoned multi level parking garage in my beat…if you needed a shady and cool place to write a report, catch up on paperwork or just close your eyes for ten minutes and wake up refreshed and alert it was perfect. I would often see other cops and ambulance crews there….it was great.
Naturally something that good couldn’t last :<(….they’ve closed the ramps because the homeless kept trespassing. Thanks guys.
But back to your point taking ten and just shutting your eyes can do wonders. I had a fellow field trainer who was in the training office and he was exhauster (extra job followed by court…suffice to say he’d been up for a while) and he kept falling asleep. I suggested he go to our down room and take a fifteen minute nap. He did and was actually able to work again. Ten-fifteen minutes will do wonders for your alertness and therefore your safety.
Why You Should Goof Off (Some) On the Job by Dean Scoville
Perhaps you're reading this from the relative safety of your patrol car. If so, I hope you're backed against a high wall or some geographic barrier and situated so as to minimize the chances of some sneaky bastard getting the better of you (such as some patrol sergeant trying to make rank on your badge).Stop thinking out the box man...they don't like that! But good points about taking ten to get alert again so you can handle your job. This is a safey issue.
But then, I've always been out of sync with most administrative mindsets when it comes to entertaining peripherals while on duty (a.k.a. goofing off).
Now I'm a proficient rationalizer who shamelessly colors things to my advantage. But it's equally true that there are many anal-retentive SOBs who, on the one hand, never give a ... how disruptive our jobs can be to our personal lives, and on the other prove to be proficient martinets when it comes to counting minutes on the clock....
...Perhaps most maddening was finding that those most vigilant about others' goofing off failed to see any irony in chewing out some poor bastard for taking five minutes longer than he should to eat, and then driving three cities away themselves - on-duty and in a county car - to watch their kids' afternoon baseball games. Or spending hours playing solitaire on their computer. Words and phrases such as hypocrisy and "cognitive dissonance" come to mind.
...Being more lazy/touchy feely/idealistic/free thinking/whatever, I thought it'd be nice to cut some of our own some slack. Maybe let hard workers work out on duty; or, indulge themselves with some down time (a.k.a., get them in touch with their inner fireman). Just about everyone could use the occasional sanity break.
...Don't get me wrong. I'm not an advocate of wholesale goofing. But I do believe that some things that might be considered peripheral endeavors can be profitable. Apparently I'm not alone.
Study after study has validated the import of seemingly extraneous factors that foster better work habits (and therefore better work product).
...Whether it's in-house or in the field, it's damn hard to pay attention all the time. Doris Jeanette, a psychologist with the Center for New Psychology in Philadelphia is on record as saying, "Humans can only concentrate for 45 minutes at a time." She advocates employees work for 50 minutes of the hour and use the other 10 minutes to change focus or shift gears. How many have that luxury? Especially in a training environment where it seems that the instructor gets paid to speak by the minute?
(BTW, how's this for a utilitarian concept: Rather than disrupt the sleep patterns of 30 people to have them attend training when they're going through the somnambulistic paces, have the trainers themselves go to the shift and train? Makes a hell of a lot more sense making one guy tired than screwing things up for everyone else.)
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