It's a job that takes patience, empathy, a cool head and good communication skills, and this mother-daughter duo take it all in their stride.
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Michelle and India Hill work at Ballarat's Triple Zero Victoria State Emergency Communication Centre (SECC) answering calls and sending police, firefighters and paramedics to all types of situations.
The two share a special relationship and it is one they will be celebrating on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 12.
Michelle started in her job almost seven years ago and said she loves it so much she urged India to apply for work as well.
"I'm multiskilled. I do police (call taking) as my primary emergency and then I also do 'NETCOMM', which is non-urgent ambulance - when they need me," she said.
"I love it. I can't fault the place, hence why I talked India into coming across."
Michelle no longer lives in Ballarat but works between the Williams Landing and Ballarat SECCs where needed. It means they get to work with each other if their shifts sync up.
"It's nice to work together," India, who is a fire dispatcher, said.
"I love seeing my girl at work," Michelle said. "She (India) brings me snacks - she spoils me more."
India started working at the centre about eight months ago.
"You start off with call taking - everyone starts off with that - and then you can choose to go into dispatching," she said.
"Once the calls come through you're talking to the firefighters, police and paramedics on scene reading out those jobs, everything that the call taker has put through."
Supporting each other with 'a good vent'
India and Michelle said they cherished the ability to have each other as a support mechanism after tough calls or shifts.
"Because of privacy reasons we can't talk to anyone about work and no one wants to hear about your job when it's a stressful job, so it's nice to know that we can speak (to each other) about things and relate," Michelle said.
"If India tells me about a call I can always say, 'how are you feeling about that? Do you want to talk about it? Want to go over it?'. Sometimes she does, other times she says 'no, I feel good, I have spoken to everyone at work'. It's nice to do that.
"I probably vent more than you do," she joked to her daughter.
India worked for a couple of days during the response to the Bayindeen bushfire in February and said it was a great team effort.
She said on major fire danger days the centre is very busy, and sometimes call takers and dispatchers can go home very tired at the end of a busy shift - but it is worth it.
"They're very different jobs ... with ambulance you get a bit of a more positive result at the end of their calls, and with fire we're more rescue-type events," India said.
"There's always accomplishments at the end knowing that you're always still helping someone out."
While they won't be working together this Mother's Day, they are planning to relax and enjoy some lunch with the rest of the family.
