PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Airservices Australia Psychometric Testing
Old 31st Aug 2018, 13:42
  #3858 (permalink)  
le Pingouin
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: YMML
Posts: 1,838
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One of the young guys I work with who went through the college about 2 years ago says there's a little bit of general stuff on human factors but that's about it. My view is that the actual controlling itself isn't particularly stressful - it's "fight or flight" type stress rather than chronic, so when you walk out the door it doesn't come with you. The only time it follows you is when something goes badly wrong, but hopefully those days are few and far between. The most stressful day I've had at work was being involved in a situation where a VFR flight was stuck on top of cloud and they had to descend through cloud several times due to it getting dark. It lasted over an hour all told and I seriously thought there was a good chance they'd die. Adrenaline and professionalism holds it all together while you're working but I was a wreck once I unplugged - shaking and emotional.

Managing shift work is a challenge. As parishiltons says, you need an understanding and supportive home environment - you aren't following the Mon-Fri 9-5 routine of the rest of your family so there has to be give and take to accommodate it. Doesn't help when the neighbour starts mowing when you're trying to sleep before a night shift though. Getting up at 7am when you have an 11pm finish doesn't necessarily work very well in the long term.
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