Several Urgences-santé managers underwent training with Lego blocks last January, sparking discontent and derision from paramedics who are exhausted by difficult working conditions.
“We don’t have enough trucks, come on the road! Well no, they play Lego!” laments an Urgences-santé paramedic on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from his employer.
“They look crazy. […] It’s a bit like the icing on the sundae, admits Claude Lamarche, president of the Urgences-santé prehospital union, which serves Montreal and Laval. Instead of making Legos, come and lift stretchers and patients with the rest of us!”
- Listen to the interview with Claude Lamarche, president of the executive committee responsible for political union affairs and external information of the Prehospital union at the microphone of Alexandre Dubé via QUB radio :
Strong reactions
For several years now, Urgences-santé paramedics have been deploring grueling working conditions (overtime, rushed meals, stress, etc.) Last Saturday, The newspaper revealed that response times even exceed the critical threshold of 15 minutes in several locations in Montreal.
On January 28, Urgences-santé offered training entitled Lego serious play to employees, many of whom are managers. In the photos, we see employees posing proudly with their Lego construction or thinking in front of a pile of blocks placed on a table.
“PHOTO provided by an anonymous source”
Quickly, photos posted on the corporation’s intranet sparked strong reactions from paramedics.
“They came to make Lego […] while the rest of us on the road, we are overflowing, we lack people, summarizes Mr. Lamarche. It’s certain that the bosses were very badly perceived in all of this. The criticism was very negative.
“Everyone is still talking about it, it caused a lot of emotion,” he adds.
Photos were even altered and shared to make jokes, found The newspaper. Faced with this turn of “derision”, the management of Urgences-santé removed the photos from the intranet.
An “ice breaker” tool
“We could have not said it, not sent photos, but we have nothing to hide,” underlines Stéphane Smith, spokesperson for Urgences-santé.
As for the Legos, Mr. Smith responds that they were used as an “icebreaker” tool for about 15 minutes at the start of the three-hour training.
“It’s a well-known training course used by NASA and the Red Cross,” he specifies about Lego, adding that an Urgences-santé employee is certified to give this workshop.
Overall, the training focused on the “regulation plan”, or how to improve daily performance.
“We can make an image say whatever we want. In the end, that wasn’t what the workshop was all about,” says Mr. Smith.
Moreover, the spokesperson emphasizes that paramedics will also be called upon to follow training with Lego soon. Finally, Mr. Smith deplores the impacts on the photographed employees.
“Finding yourself in a photo to make others laugh is completely free. That’s what’s sad about the story,” he concludes.
– With the collaboration of Louis-Philippe Messier