You may know emergency dispatchers as the people at the end of an emergency call that helps people through some of the worst moments in life. But behind calm voices are stressed out individuals, with Chron mentioning that they typically have 8- or 12-hour shifts, with some shifts lasting as long as 24 hours. Emergency dispatchers are also usually required to work on weekends and holidays. That means, being a dispatcher is mentally and emotionally taxing, requiring sustained attentiveness, waiting for calls to come through and acting as an intermediary between a caller and rescue workers.