Originally Posted by
LookingForAJob
I worked for NATS for a period during that time too - I think you need to have a think about what short-staffed means. If there was a shortage, I would not have expected all those EGs, LCs and gash days - but there were plenty about - and normal working was 2 on, 2 off in many cases.
I was with NATS during that period.
In the late '80s, the ATCO complement at Farnborough was increased from about 14 to about 21 so as to provide sufficient ATCOs to cover 7-day working with the opening of the airfield to civil traffic. However several of these were ex college instructors or ex HQ staff who had finished their 'tours' and made it plain they didn't want to be at Farnborough, with the result that failures to validate and 'compassionate' postings out meant that by the time civil traffic started operating, we were back down to our original number and HQ staff like Gordon Dogget came down to 'convince' us we should 'stretch' ourselves to work weekends.
It transpired he really wanted more experienced controllers to apply for postings to LATCC to cover a shortfall and post less experienced types to Farnborough which meant a heavy training workload and the crunch came after one airshow when Roger Budgen came down on a monday, delivered some envelopes to our boss, then left again before they were handed to the controllers they were addressed to.
The envelopes contained details of compulsory postings for several of the experienced controllers, the first ones taking effect within a couple of weeks!