Dirt Moving Any ideas on how to be reachable when operating your tractor?

[eepete]

Need more info on what sort of pager you have.

If the pager is like a fire pager, it sits there doing nothing and then beeps and announces. There is an earphone jack. You could rig up an amplifier to a speaker or "bull horn" speaker, then you would hear when you get paged.

If pager is just a LCD display with a call back number display and no external means to get at an audio source, then talk with your boss about getting something you can work with.

Since you have cell phone dead spots a radio link from cab to house sounds good too, and might be a win if something went wrong at either location. There are reasonably powered (5 watt range) radios where you just apply for a license and you're good to go. Maybe a base station at the house with a good antenna (for coverage), and a portable for you. Rig up a mount for the portable in each of your tractors.

Any organization that falls apart if one person is not reachable, and especially a hospital, has problems. Any organization that has indispensable people is not well organized. So once again a people problem is being solved with technology.

kennyd probably has the best idea on how to turn your problem into a solution in the form of new equipment :thumbsup:.

Pete

 

[jenkinsph]

If the pager has a vibrate mode, strap it closer to your body in an area where it WILL be felt. This is not an insurmountable problem if you think about it a little. Chest, upper arm, somewhere. This can be done easily & cheaply.

I agree this is the most practical solution for this paging problem. Considering where you live I'm sure you need to grin and bear it atleast for now, but it sounds to me like you need a better relief coworker.

I worked as the only broadcast engineer for several radio stations and tv translators for about 7 years with out any relief. It isn't healthy to say the least, I understand why the prior engineer retired early and gave me all of his old accounts. Today I hardly ever turn on a radio as I am still sick of them 15 years later.

 

[deepNdirt]

Blue tooth ear pc is how I get calls, although this is with cell phone, Not too many folks use pagers now-a-days, I do remember many years ago a guy that used to drive a bobcat would where his pager on the bill of his cap, I thought it was od but when talking to him about it he explained just what you are talking about, he come up with this idea,his pager had a red led light that would come on to alert him..... although I guess it wouldn't work for folks who don't where caps, or for those who has very large pagers

 

[lungdoc]

There are cell boosters that increase the antenna from 0.9 watts to 3 watts if I recall - looks like a cell car cradle and wraps around the phone, makes a huge difference on our area which is very borderline for cell reception. My mother-in-law uses one. If pager using same frequency should also work, or you could use with a Blackberry which is cell and many hospitals like as secure messaging whne used as a pager. If I remember right it was this company`s stuff but forget which model Cell Phone Antennas and Cell Phone Boosters at Wilson Electronics

 

[taborekle]

quietly find you're self a new job, and then not so quietly tell you're boss where to stick it.:thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

Lots of good suggestions and I appreciate it.

Pager is standard Motorola LCD Airtouch... no aux inputs.

Down in the canyon is a real cell dead zone... don't think a booster would help.

No relief or coverage available... they have to bring someone in from a sister facility in the next county and schedule it months in advance and insist that I take my 15 days of PTO at one time because of this. It's mostly due to down sizing and out sourcing... we have more service contracts that cover specific equipment and no one here really has a clue... kind of the last person standing... I was part of the facility construction team and each build out... know this place inside and out.

The facility was scheduled to be sold to another a few years ago... they eliminated a lot of postions to make the numbers look good and now patient load is down for a number of reasons... fewer people have insurance or can afford to take the time off from work to have elective surgery.

I punched a time clock when I first started... I liked it!... After a few weeks, they put me on salary because I was getting called in so much that it was costing them money... no on-call pay or over-time. Only the Registered Nurses get call and overtime pay... CA has a State Law specifically applicable to RN's that mandate it.

Often wondered what would happen if I had a few too many beers one evening and then got called in?

Pay... some of my police officer friends make double what I do... pay is on par with the the RN's... minus the overtime stuff.

I really like the idea of the closed cab tractor!

They only called Mom, who happened to be home, because she is listed as an alternate emergency contact for me at work and it just happened that I was working at her place.

Business has really been cutting staffing to the bone and for better or worse... hoping technology will fill the void.

Hospital Reimbursements are way down... there are some elective procedures that simply are no longer done... can't use $1200 of required sterile, one time use packs/supplies and get a total reimbursement of $1400 which is supposed to cover the nurses and facility...

Good suggestion about contacting the pager company...

Cell phones have their limitations around here... Several years ago, the Hospital was a co-sponsor of a charity fund-raiser... most of us "Volunteered" to work. It was when they tried going to cells... their was a problem at work and none of us could be reached because the camp ground where we were providing medical stand-by for a charity marathon had no coverage...

 

[wvpolekat]

1) If they expect you to be available 24x7x365, you should be getting paid for that time. It's absurd that your entire life you are expected to be where you can/will call them back in 5 min.

2) If they expect you to be available 24x7x365, they need to provide you with equipment that works. Are you not supposed to mow your yard? Take a shower? THEY should be footing the bill for it. If coverage is a problem, they need to resolve it, not you.

3) They need to hire more staff, end of discussion.

I do the on call thing, but not with expectations that I will be available 365 days a year.

 

[ultrarunner]

1) If they expect you to be available 24x7x365, you should be getting paid for that time. It's absurd that your entire life you are expected to be where you can/will call them back in 5 min.

2) If they expect you to be available 24x7x365, they need to provide you with equipment that works. Are you not supposed to mow your yard? Take a shower? THEY should be footing the bill for it. If coverage is a problem, they need to resolve it, not you.

3) They need to hire more staff, end of discussion.

I do the on call thing, but not with expectations that I will be available 365 days a year.

It's probably because I've let it happen over the years...

On the plus side... they really don't care where I am as long as I get my work done and respond... it's like night and day compared to the time I worked in a Union Machine Shop... everyone knew exactly when work started and stopped and the job cards required us to account for the entire work day in 6 minute increments... Five minutes after closing the shop was locked and the parking lot emptied.

I have no experience with unemployment... my understanding is it is not available if you voluntarily leave?

It was close yesterday... I was sure the next thing would be having to choose between my work and helping the folks with my tractor...

It's as inconvenient as you know what... I've been paged while poring concrete for my patio and even attending a family funeral...

Last I checked with my State's Employment board and if someone is a Professional... Lawyer, Doctor, Engineer, Architect, etc and earns over $44,000 per year on salary... that person is considered exempt... except for Registered Nurses.

 

[wvpolekat]

To be more constructive....

Could you leave your pager with someone and carry something like an FRS radio?

 

[yeehaw]

i see only two options-- either mount the pager (with a cradle) on the dash in some form or fashion where you would see it 99.9999% of the time---sometimes you do look to the sides and backwards...-- remember- he/you are wearing ear protection so any other normal communication devices will be useless as he wont be able to hear them as well---"breaker breaker all day long"....
if your current pager doesnt "light up" enough to where you will notice it-- get something different----or like someone else has said-- maybe get someone to wire up a contraption that when the pager goes off, something else occurs... a light, a siren (that you could hear...), a mild shock, a hornet's nest.... you get the idea... be creative... setting it on vibrate will never work---baseball coach 15 years ago used to have his set up where when his cell phone rang, his truck's horn starting honking -yes it was hooked up to the truck, but that is the idea- everybody knew when he was getting a call---that was 15 years ago so the technology is out there
i put mine in a cup holder next to me (45 degree angle away so peripheral vision can pick it up) and surprisingly catch quite a few calls-- but i also miss a few...then again I'm not on call for work- if I was in you situation i would duct tape it to the dash if i had to before i put it in my pocket again--- sight is better than feel/hearing over the bumps/noise of a tractor any day of the week..
and not to be rude ---you have to work with the hand you are dealt---if they say be available-- you have to be available-- that doesnt mean go somewhere you might/might not have service-- it means be available- work on sat/sun...dont complain about pay, etc...your "next" job might be just as bad or even worse...no more soap box rhetoric-- we are all big boys here
good luck in finding something that will work for you