overworked: Nothing on MSP as of yet, but that doesn't mean it won't go down that way. I'm really hoping that's not in the plan... I mean, I hate the winters in Cincinnati, and don't even want to think about things in the great white north. There really haven't been talks on cutting anyone in our department(again, not that I've heard) beyond the buyouts, but nothing will surprise me anymore with how things are going. I get the feeling that if (when) something happens, it will be very abrupt. Then again, maybe everything will be all sunshine and rainbows (end sarcasm).

Captainv: The utilization sucks, flat out. I can't remember how many days (at any point in the day starting my shift) that we needed a reserve to cover something, but I had "no one" to call out. Mind you, there were no less than ten long call window reserves that were on my sheet, but they were useless to me to cover anything. That's when I have to start dailing the phone to tag the inbound reserve, who thought he was on the last day of his four (or five, or six) day trip, and now has to go back out again. That "higher percentage" of reserves is a VERY inflated number.