The current mood at AirServices Australia

[tartare]

Interested to know what things are like at ASA at the moment?
Have followed various threads and its hard to judge - a few very vocal and discontented controllers, much concern post the Adelaide airprox, Truss due to report in May...
But that's often not the whole story.
Is Staib turning out to be a good boss?
Is the place any happier now?

[VH-Cheer Up]

Is this an engagement survey?

[tartare]

Not at all - and no, I'm not a journo, nor do I work there.
Just curious, that's all.

[Sunfish]

On Monday I spent some time in my bug smasher on 135.7 (Melb Radar) listening to ATC doing their best to accommodate the fire fighting aircraft working in the Craigieburn / Kilmore / Wallan / Sunbury area which I believe is all just under / conflicts with the Melbourne Airport approaches. People were losing their houses. The fires are still burning.

All I can say is well done to ATC! The controller was balancing what seemed like dozens of conflicting and very urgent requests for airspace in what can only be described as a masterly, helpful and calm manner. If that performance is an example of what AsA can do these days then I would like to think that progress is occuring. Please pass it on.

[Nautilus Blue]

This is entirely personal, subjective, biased and only applies to 'my' bit of ASA, but basically a lot better.

Ms Staib had some pretty small (and detested) shoes to fill, and got a lot of brownie points just for not being TFN. Mr Hood (new EGM ATC) was a known and respected quantity previously.

The new regime seems to have abandoned the policy of attacking staff and blaming them for any issues(apart from one early interview), which I think has helped a lot. Previously the most rage inducing thing wasn't the problems, but the constant stream of "I'm a genius, the are no problems, and if there are its not my fault, it will all be fixed by Christmas, by the way did you know I'm a genius" in the media. It was almost as if senior management didn't think we saw their interviews and presentations to industry. In some ways they have improved morale but just stopping talking.

The last CA (pre Staib but post TFN) was an anticlimax where I was expecting a bloodbath.

It seems to have gone quiet on the SDE and Endorsement Reform front, both of which are unpopular. ASA never announces policies being dumped, preferring to let then quietly wither, so there is hope on that front.

There are still staffing problems, but the college, sorry Academy (also recently subjected to regime change) is pumping out trainees as fast as possible, so there is light at the end of that tunnel (how far away it is is open to debate).

In summary I think some things are better, and the things that aren't are easier to deal with when your not being blamed for them. (When your CEO goes on national TV and talks about an organised secret cabal in the workforce dedicated to undermining his brilliance you start to wonder about a lot of things.)

Edited to add : as someone on the very bottom of the organisational chart, the Truss report really doesn't look like it will mean anything to me.

[tartare]

Interesting... and good to hear.
Thank you.

[fujii]

Small point but Airservices Australia rebranded itself to only Airservices a couple of years ago. The web site, however, remains as airservicesaustralia.com

[Nautilus Blue]

Small point but Airservices Australia rebranded itself to only Airservices a couple of years ago. The web site, however, remains as airservicesaustralia.com


Ah yes, the 'soft' rebranding. The next most cost effective plan to not wasting money on rebranding. (A lot of the bitterness has gone but the cynicism remains :E)