The Low-Maintenance Employee

For those of you active in the job market, I have some surprising news about your new employers: They’re not too worried about your skills, experience, appearance, or ability to get along with others. They don’t care if you go to church or volunteer at the local rescue squad. Their main concern—pretty much the only one they’ve had since interviewing you—is, “What can you do for me?”

That might sound selfish and short-sighted, but it hints at the implicit contract between fair bosses and their subordinates: You take care of me, and I’ll take care of you. Your part—to make life as easy as possible for the people who pay you—means embracing the quiet confidence and relative anonymity of low-maintenance employees.

When Grades Aren’t as Simple as ABC

Getting hired in EMS is a legitimate reason to celebrate. For many it’s an opportunity to turn a passion into a career. That’s about as good as it gets when you’re working for someone else. That “dream job” can be a big adjustment, though—especially for new EMTs with little paid experience. Suddenly EMS isn’t primarily a social or recreational activity; it’s a responsibility involving long hours and obligatory attendance.

Even more of a challenge for those fresh out of school is the difference between academia’s unambiguous report cards and the subtler performance measures of the business community. Gone are the days of getting credit merely for showing up. As for those test-taking skills that earned you As and Bs instead of Cs and Ds, they’ll still come in handy when you recertify but won’t count for much else. 

Welcome to Working for a Living, where standing out doesn’t necessarily make you outstanding. Your stock as a corporate asset will rise if you are inconspicuously competent and fall if you inconvenience others. To succeed you don’t even have to be a great clinician, although that helps. Being accommodating—not a natural act for some—is important whether your company’s organization chart is highly structured or hardly defined.

Low-Maintenance and Low-Profile

We’re talking about being accommodating, not servile. Your goal is to establish mutually beneficial relationships with your bosses: job security in exchange for your cooperation. During downtime, when it’s easiest for an employer to evaluate you in person, start building a rapport by following these steps:

• Say what you’ll do, then do what you said. This is good advice for any endeavor. Routinely committing to a course of action and seeing it through automatically makes you more reliable than most human beings.
• Become “assistant risk manager.” Mostly that means telling your employer about problems before they get bigger. The stakes are higher in business than the academic world, where students only have to look out for themselves.
• Don’t screw up, but if you do, tell your boss. When you make a mistake, don’t wait for your supervisor to find out from someone else. Admitting an error adds to your credibility and shows you are capable of self-critique—probably more important than whatever you messed up.
• Come to management with solutions, not just problems. We’re talking about issues less challenging than, say, nuclear proliferation. Take drug bags, for example. Meds expire, vials break, and stuff gets lost in compartments you didn’t even know existed. Instead of complaining, suggest a better layout.
• Be early, stay late. Do that, and you’ll impress not only your employers but your peers. If you rounded up all my ex-partners and asked them what they liked best about me (besides my Germanic charm), I bet they’d say it was arriving 10–15 minutes early for almost every shift.
• Be reasonable. When you and your supervisor disagree, think long-term and show willingness to compromise. You’ll get no points just for winning an argument.
• Become the one your boss depends on. If you’re new to EMS, most of your colleagues will know more than you about the job, but you’re going to be more flexible and less cynical than them—in the beginning, at least. During that first year of eagerness, when channeling your inner Johnny Gage is as natural as buckling your buff belt, be that guy or gal who volunteers for extra shifts, tedious errands, and whatever else no one wants to do. I promise you, your employer will value you ahead of more experienced but less cooperative coworkers.

Good clinicians are appreciated; trustworthy, low-maintenance employees are treasured. Come to work with a purpose, be available and dependable, let your actions speak louder than words, and your boss may even ask, “What can I do for you?”

Mike Rubin is a paramedic in Nashville and a member of EMS World’s editorial advisory board. Contact him at mgr22@prodigy.net.