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do I want to say "cleared to land, cleared for take off" whilst reading The Sun for the rest of my life at a band 1 unit or get different traffic scenarios every shift doing 8 or 9 different Area sectors getting Band 5 money reading The Guardian.
Goodness gracious, DtyCln, what a sheltered life you must lead down on the South Coast. I'd venture to suggest that the tower controllers at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester do slightly more than just clearing aircraft to land and take-off - none of which are NATS Band 1 units, by the way. Even the guys at Birmingham, Edinburgh and Luton when in their towers rarely get time to read anything nowadays (you don't read The Sun by the way: you just look at the pictures...).
As for Area being a challenge, yeah, right, in at one end, out at t'other, agreed levels for descent and climb if you're not on a high-level sector, conflict prediction, electronic transfers: no wonder you've got time to read The Guardian! You should try a little taste London TMA Northwest or Southeast - that'd make your eyes water!!
Ultimately, it depends on what you prefer doing - sitting in a large hall, staring into computer screens all day whilst desperately trying to remember what an aeroplane looks like, or actually getting the chance to see a plane out of the window and smell the kerosene.
Horses for courses: the flat or the jumps.
