It’s more common in high population areas, but it does happen.
The obsession with running government services like a business results in some notions about efficiency where someone getting paid to work and not being busy all the time is worse than people regularly waiting for critical time sensitive assistance.
It also has the zesty side effect of making the dispatch operators overworked and rushed. This usually just manifests as mistakes, but sometimes results in anger and critical mistakes. The famous example of the operator who yelled at a kid for calling because his mom had a seizure in the bath and she didn’t believe him comes to mind.
It’s more common in high population areas, but it does happen.
The obsession with running government services like a business results in some notions about efficiency where someone getting paid to work and not being busy all the time is worse than people regularly waiting for critical time sensitive assistance.
It also has the zesty side effect of making the dispatch operators overworked and rushed. This usually just manifests as mistakes, but sometimes results in anger and critical mistakes. The famous example of the operator who yelled at a kid for calling because his mom had a seizure in the bath and she didn’t believe him comes to mind.
People’s opinion on insurance: “boy am I glad that’s there if I ever need it”
Their opinion on having extra dispatchers to pick up bursts of activity: “why the fuck are we paying them to sit around”
Both of those things are stuff you pay for but may never need, but only one of them is a human and that’s the one we get upset about.