Hypocrisy of "respect" in ambulance
Posting from a throwaway account for obvious reasons.
I am currently doing induction with an ambulance service and have been thoroughly dissapointed.
We have been repeatedly lectured to about the importance of respect in the workplace, yet we have been treated as disobedient children. I have not been treated so poorly since I was actually a child in primary school. Leading by example seems to be a foreign concept.
The first day of induction, we were instructed to never leave the building before the time that we officially finish "it is fraud" they said, "your employment status will be reviewed" they said.
Sounds reasonable. Except moments later they are telling us that we are "required" to complete work tasks at home. I'm not talking about general studying, that would be acceptable. The tasks we are told to do at home are unambiguously work tasks, e.g. completing online learning modules and setting up work logins & services. They call this "homework" as if we are students - although we are learning, we are employees.
I hoped that the previous occurences would be a one off, but today they decided to lecture us about respect. This lecture went past the time we were meant to finish. An employee stood up to leave after the point we were no longer being paid, and as a result he was yelled at with anger, in front of everyone, and made to stay longer than everyone else. I suppose I haven't been told we won't be paid overtime for being forced to stay, but it is abundantly obvious.
I am really struggling with dealing with all this. I have heard plenty about cultural problems in ambulance services, but I stupidly thought the problems would be out of sight of leadership & there'd be some effect to correct them. Instead the problems are coming directly from leadership.
I guess I'm just hoping that someone here might have some advice or perspective. I am really scared about what my future career holds if this is what is occuring right from the start. And if the person who got yelled at today is reading this, I am so sorry for how they treated you, that was disgraceful.
tl;dr: why is wage theft so normalised in ambulance work? how can education & executive staff lecture about respect and then force staff to stay back unpaid to be yelled at? Are we all really just meant to accept this as normal?