Dispatching: A Profession or a Job?

To work in public safety communications, an individual must be trained and educated in a unique set of skills that goes beyond just knowing how to answer the phone. (Photo A.J. Heightman)

Many years ago, I had a heated discussion with my sister about whether or not public safety dispatching was a job or a profession. At the time, she had just started working as a dispatcher with an agency that was different from my own. She was going through initial training, learning the skills and tasks associated with her new position and thinking about it as a temporary job until she could return to teaching.

My claim was that the position of public safety communications dispatcher, or telecommunicator, was a profession. Her opinion was that it was a job. (Both of us are opinionated, intelligent and stubborn individuals, but willing to debate our differences.)

First, we looked at the definitions of job and profession. A job is a “group of homogenous tasks related by similarity of functions. When performed by an employee in an exchange for pay, a job consists of duties, responsibilities and tasks (performance elements) that are 1) defined and specific; and 2) can be accomplished, quantified, measured and rated. From a wider perspective, a job is synonymous with a ‘role’ and includes the physical and social aspects of a work environment. Often, individuals identify themselves with their job or role (foreman, supervisor, engineer, etc.) and derive motivation from its uniqueness or usefulness.”*

We agreed that being a dispatcher fit the characteristics of a job. I, of course, couldn’t let that go because my stand was — and still is — that being a dispatcher is more than just a “job.” So we considered the definition of profession.

A profession is an “occupation, practice or vocation requiring mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills through formal education and/or practical experience. Every organized profession (accounting, law, medicine, etc.) is governed by its respective professional body.”*

Let’s look at what formal education really means. Formal means “official; being in conformance with generally accepted standards; the opposite of casual. Generally accepted formal standards usually denote professionalism, whereas the absence or lack of standards would be seen as casual.” Education is “the wealth of knowledge acquired by an individual after studying particular subject matters or experiencing life lessons that provide an understanding of something. Education requires instruction of some sort from an individual or composed literature. The most common forms of education result from years of schooling that incorporate studies of a variety of subjects.”*

This aspect of formal education is what we could not agree on. She said that dispatching doesn’t require a formal education. I agreed that it doesn’t require a college degree, but it does require a mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills obtained through specific and specialized education and practical experience.

I conceded that emergency dispatching does not have a governing body that sets rules and standards. But I argued that it should have set rules and minimum standards for the people who are taking 9-1-1 calls, dispatching emergency personnel and making decisions that could have life-or-death consequences.

Then, my sister argued that almost anyone could be trained to answer a phone, gather information and dispatch personnel. I vehemently disagreed and argued that a formal education, by her definition, doesn’t inherently guarantee success in any profession or job. (A degree is just a piece of paper that says you attended classes and passed a series of exams, which proves you can take a test and regurgitate information.)

We debated for a while. I told her she was wrong; she told me I was wrong. We finally agreed to disagree on the subject because we were on vacation together and wanted to have fun rather than fight.

This debate stuck with me long after the vacation was over. I considered my career a calling — something that required special skills and abilities. I took pride in being a dispatcher, and the thought that others might not think of dispatching as a profession bothered me. If I couldn’t convince my own sister that what I had chosen as my path in the work world was a profession, then how could I convince others?

We’ve all met people who think being a dispatcher may be stressful, but not very difficult. You answer the phone, ask a few questions and send help. How tough can that be?

But those who have done it, still do it or try to train people for it know how tough this “job” really is. No, we don’t “practice” dispatching the way doctors “practice” medicine or judges “practice” law, and both of those jobs are considered professions. And like medicine or the interpretation of the law, dispatching is not an exact science. It has just as many variables and idiosyncrasies as these professions because it deals with people and all the various things humans think, feel and do. In addition, as dispatchers, just like doctors or judges, we’re expected to be perfect in all of our actions. Is that not a profession?

Throughout my career, I’ve found that, just like citizens, many in the public safety community don’t think the job is difficult. We do a disservice to ourselves in this area because good dispatchers make it look easy. I’ve talked to numerous law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics who don’t understand the complexity of what a dispatcher knows and does to gather information and relay it to them. This lack of awareness has come up time and time again when we’ve hired officers, firefighters or paramedics for communications and they go through training. They always obtain a new respect for what dispatchers do and many of them have said that they owed their dispatchers an apology. Also in my experience, many of them did not make it through training because the skills and abilities required to be a dispatcher are unique and different from those of a firefighter, paramedic or officer.

The idea that public safety dispatching is not a profession is present on a higher level. In many states, dispatchers and emergency communications personnel are not recognized as having a public safety job worthy of the same considerations as law enforcement personnel or firefighters. There are no nationally recognized standards or minimum training requirements for dispatchers. Many states don’t have minimum standards. The benefits are not the same as those of firefighters, paramedics or law enforcement officers.

By a large percentage, fewer dispatchers retire from the profession than quit. Turnover is high, and retention is difficult. There’s a perpetual shortage of dispatchers nationwide. If the job — dare I say profession — was easy, I don’t believe that employee retention would be an issue. If the profession didn’t require specialized skills and abilities, you could, as my sister argued, train anyone to be a dispatcher.

Several years after our debate, I asked my sister if she remembered this conversation. She had been working as a dispatcher during those years, and I wanted to see if her position had changed. She didn’t recall the conversation. For many personal reasons, most of which was pride, it obviously stuck with me longer than it did with her. So we talked again about whether she thought dispatching was a job or a profession.

We still disagreed on a few points, but she did agree that dispatching requires a unique individual with specialized skills, abilities and training. She agreed that there should be a governing body that sets rules and standards. She agreed that all of us in the “job” should act and be “professionals.”

A side note about my sister: Dispatching was not a temporary job. She retired from dispatching and never returned to teaching. I rest my case.

About the Author
Joanne E. Angell is a member of APCO International and its Kansas Chapter. She recently retired from the Hutchinson-Reno County (Kan.) Emergency Communications as assistant director after 31 years of service. Contact her via e-mail at joanne_a0@yahoo.com.

*Note: Definitions from BusinessDictionary.com