We get quite a few anonymous messages sent to us via our Facebook page, Emergency Services Humour.
Many of the messages which we receive contain stories and blogs written by oppos (colleagues) serving on the front line of emergency services the world over.
Some of these stories and blogs are funny, and some of them aren’t. The stories which we do not share, go into our fortnightly eMagazine, aptly named ‘S__ts & Giggles’ (for the aforementioned reasons).
On an average week, we reach around 2.3 million people via our various digital platforms. I guess it means that we/you have a voice – a voice that was not possible only a few years ago.
This is why we want to share not only the funnier & light-hearted side of serving in the emergency services, but the ‘darker’ side also.
The following blog was sent into us via our contact us page, and its author asked us to share it with our audience. Even if one person, maybe a member of senior management, reads this account and decides to do MORE for the wellbeing of their troops, then the point in our sharing it would be more than worth it:
“A decade ago, walking into Hendon for the first time, the smell of boot polish in the air and the sight of Officers in white gloves with their families at their passing out parade – I never dreamed I’d do a day less than a full service….
Today, after 10 years I handed back my Warrant card, Cuffs, CS Spray, Asp & that God awful tablet.
Why? Life’s too short.
Life’s too short to work tirelessly for a thankless organisation who pander to and wipe the arses of an ungrateful, brattish, unappreciative, critical, self entitled society. A society that the MET themselves created by treating them as “customers” because we are being run like a business (the customer is always right…)
Life’s too short to try & win the support of a worryingly & increasingly Anti Police mainstream media with out of context, unbalanced stories to appeal to the bleating sheeple of the above society.
Life’s too short to be constantly criticised on FaceBook, home of “would’ve, should’ve, could’ve” brigades, post match critical analysis experts & keyboard warriors. Breeding ground of “crime awareness” groups where every post starts with “not a crime but,” home to cowardly keyboard Ninjas running the world from the safety of their armchairs & ignorant Middle Class self important buffoons steering most conversations quickly round to immigration. Such groups are surely well intentioned but there remains a sinister undertone of vigilantism & an inability/unwillingness to differentiate between the CPS and the Police.
Life’s too short to be told “you will not spend New Years’ Eve with your family,” “You will stay late without question,” “you will work this day,” “you will investigate this pathetic excuse for a crime” because the public refuse to help themselves, come off of Facebook, agree to disagree or simply grow up.
We will continue to facilitate the crime ridden Notting Hill carnival through fear of being called names if we highlight the danger of the event & call for its cancellation. We will continue to record drug dealing concerns from the shop owner who sells cannabis grinders, we will do social services’ jobs for them. We will continue to try in vein to undo the “police will take you away” mentality parents are brainwashing their children with (then wonder why there’s a natural barrier between us.)
Life’s too short to be scowled at for getting a sandwich, spoken down to by someone with different ornaments on their epaulettes than you – to eat when your told, go home when your told, be told shift times are changing and be expected to ignore regulations & all entitlements. It’s unacceptable and childish to have to beg, steal and borrow resources to help one do their job.
A note to Officers young in service – Stop MAKING the job work!!! Take your 11 hrs between shifts, invoke your right to a refreshment break, use leave, go sick if you need to go sick, finish on time if your not going to be paid. The job should work because it’s a workable system, NOT because of its reliability on the good will of its staff. This is wrong on every level.
Life is too short mainly because you will NEVER see the words “best cop ever,” “did the most overtime” “didn’t see their family,” “was the biggest yes person in the organisation,” “arrested the most people” etched onto a grave stone or a memorial.
You can’t watch the job take it’s first steps, the job will not choose your retirement home for you. Work hard people but please work to live, don’t live to work. If you have that the wrong way round, you have a problem.
The Police is a sinking ship ladies and gentlemen and I for one am grabbing a life jacket and swimming back to my family, and things that I love.
To the great British public – “Another one bites the dust” well done. Reap what you sow.
To my colleges still serving – I salute you.
– Anonymous
If you have any blogs or stories which you would like to share with us, then contact us via our Facebook page
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Powerful words indeed. Will you just let the author know that many people value his/her contribution, alongside those still serving. We just never said it enough. Enjoy the next chapter friend, it has been well earned x
Thanks for this message – we will pass it on to the person who wrote the blog
This blog is powerful and I agree with everything. I would love to be able to speak to this person. My name is Alexander Seery, I am the best Selling Author of Police Officer to Entrepreneur and the founder of Shifts to Success, a specialised business training company that supports ex & serving police officers in building successful businesses with some of the UKs top business minds. Would you be so kind to please pass on my details to the writer of this blog post. I would love to connect. alex@shiftstosuccess.com
Thank you,
Fair play to the author.
My own sentiments…the job is very organic and will change according to the demands put on it…it will NEVER be the same from one year to the next or in fact one day to the next….
HOWEVER…
This change has gone from ridiculous to Well, just wrong…being a police officer was all about helping the public, catching bad guys and puting them in jail…thinking on your feet to the benefit of the public…it was NEVER meant to be a business…NEVER!!!
it was always more than that…it was a vocation not some line of text for a CV further down the line or a job you join simply to climb the ladder of promotion..
The job will change again and again and although the good/bad old days are gone lets hope that the days of good, sensible policing return…i for one, am glad to have retired…to my colleagues still in service, I send my best for the future…
We took the oath and when certain individuals abandon their posts, they doing nothing other than giving the the Force a bad reputation with their bad mouthing to anyone who will listen. Political correctness gone mad in the Force? Yes. But that should never take away from the job we all signed up for.
Ten years in the British Arm taught undiluted commitment to the cause sadly this is often lacking in the force today.
Question is, “are you a suitable candidate for the Police”?
Individuals who are looking to join the Police know that they are joining a unique professional organisation and as should be prepared to stay the course.
When officers moan and groan about the job and how badly treated they are bad how unfair it all is.
Do yourself a favour and use all that negativity and invest it into the job itself.
Peer group pressure is still very real and effects us even as we get older and can influence what we say and how we can react.
If you work in an environment like this without realising you start behaving and sharing the same views.
We serve to protect th public and challenge the criminals out there.
If we don’t do this? Who will!!!!
Stand tall, Stand proud, yes it can be difficult.
You are all unsung hero’s/heroines.
Be the best, the very best you can be as an individual.
Is this person ‘stirring the pot’ as a troll or are they for real? Maybe 20+ years ago the comments would have some merit but now they are just plain misinformed tosh. I retired only 18mths ago with 30 years service and felt like I was on my hands and knees and it gets worse week by week. It is not complaining – it is fact, and getting out is a sad but brave step for someone who expected to do the full 30 but recognises the need to put themselves and family first. We have made the job work for far too long and this writers comments are the very problem being highlighted.
No-one presently in the job or recently out could possibly think this without secretly chuckling in the background – so my guess is they are a troll or mentally ill!
Just know some of us appreciate you officers. For supporting parents of unruly kids, cheering up a scared new driver who just pranged the car, those who run towards the danger. Thank you.
Well said – its fine to stand up and be proud – but at some point you will just be taken for granted and once you leave they don’t care.
Salute! We who don’t work out there only get the fake story in tv and film dramas, sad to say.
I too made the same decision as you after just 10 years service and for the same reasons. Good luck my friend and thank you, I hope all your dreams come true x
A sad but truthful blog…I’m glad to be retired out of the job (albeit on medical pension, injured on duty). I too can recall being ‘kicked out’ of an annual staff appraisal for telling the supt, ” I come to work to live, not live to come to work”….
I shudder to think what the job will become now..
Mop here, I hope you all (all serving in any of the emergency services in every country) that a lot of us do support you in every way we can, even if it’s just leaving a comment here saying “you are supported by a lot of the public, even if it seems like the keyboard warriors are stating otherwise”. It’s sad to see anyone who joined for the right reasons (because they want to help) leave because the job seems more like a business now and they are just a number rather than the important people they are. Anyone who does these jobs – a huge Thank you and I for one among many have total respect for you.
I was forced to leave the MET after being retired on medical grounds due to an injury on duty. I have to agree with all the author has said. I think he nails it the head after 11 years slowly watching the job go down hill, I can honestly say I don’t miss it one bit, I thought would but I sleep better I see my family more, I take my little girl to school everyday and I have started a small business/hobby I have PTSD caused by the incident that I was retired for. I can honestly say if I had stayed a bobby I would be here today this I am sure of. Mental health is not talked about or acknowledged by the police. They play lip service to it, but pressure the pressure put on officers to perform is emense and officers will always try to manage often to the detriment of their family, and mental health.
The public on the one hand sympathise and empathise with the officers who do a remarkable job to the best they can, on the other it is very unfair to consider that the same officer are blamed for the position the force is in. The politicians are the ones that control the financing, the government has stripped every public service to the bone. Performance rules, resources are needed in any organisation to deliver the level of service the public expects. It is unfair to remove the levels of resources that impact negatively on the roles expected. But like the other “forces” who could not defend our nations as there is no profit in defending our freedoms. It all boils down to the goals that the politicians wish to to achieve. Targets, can only be achieved if they are achievable as well as resourced. It seems all organisations (except Government) that are not turning profits are to be starved of funds, resources and respect. Its as if fighting crime and criminal activity is a unimportant, together with health specialists (incl GPS) and caregivers are
to operate “on the cheap” while expectations of government targets are a unrealistic because at the same time funding is restrained. Although the police are not supposed to have or take part in politics it’s time that they did. I have only ever heard one Chief Constable say that there is inadequate funds, inadequate resources and a government that’s ears and eyes are firmly shut.