My Partner

As the Paramedic on my ambulance, I work with an EMT-Basic partner. The interesting this is, my partner is somebody I went to high school with, and he's dating the daughter of my supervisor who happens to be my best friend (the supervisor, not the daughter). He's a cool enough guy, we get along because we're both that early 20's demographic who are into computers and technology. We know all the same people, we have a lot of the same complaints, and we share a lot of similar interests.

The reason we get along so well as friends is also the reason we fail to get along as partners. He doesn't respect me as his Senior. He respects me as a Paramedic, but not as the Senior tech in charge of the crew. We never argue or have problems on scene, in front of patients or the firemen, but it's when we're in the ambulance or at the station that it starts. Some might say that we're just two guys poking fun at each other, but there has to be a basic level of respect and I don't see that.

I talked to my supervisor about it and she sees that same thing. She knows my partner respects me as a Medic, but that he thinks of me more as a buddy than a boss. It hasn't caused any major problems yet and I can't see that it will. He'll never contradict me on scene or undermine my authority as the Medic--and if he does it'll be that last thing he does as my partner.

I've talked to my partner about it and his common response is "you have sand in your vagina?" My supervisor understands that nature of the problem and is working on getting partners switched around. Not just for my benefit, there's other crew problems on my shift, I just hate to be someone that's causing waves.