Property News · January 21, 2012

A working life: the emergency call operator


If you have to dial 999 the first voice you hear could belong to Glen Griffiths. As Anna Tims discovered, he has to cope in even the most desperate situationsIrrationally I had expected gasps, cries – an audible pulse of panic. Instead, the windowless room they call the Pit is remarkably muted. The staff, in their green paramedic-style uniforms, are talking quietly, almost monotonously, into their headphones; more like telephonists in a bank’s call centre than folk on the front line. The only sound is from a vacuum cleaner doing its work among the call-takers. There is something eerie about the stillness, because each one of the figures tapping their computer keyboard could, as I watch, be the only barrier between life and death.”There’s no protocol if someone dies on the phone,” says Glen Griffiths. “You have to give what advice you can and afterwards you agonise over whether you could have done something differently and saved the life.” Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
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