Denzil, experience makes for the best experienced engineer! Whether it be in the Hangar or on the line. I personally have 15 years in the hangar and 5 on the line, at the moment I am on the line and enjoy it very much. IMHO working in the hangar is a good, and essential, grounding for working on the line you gain a tremendous amount of knowledge as to where a lot of things are and how they actually work etc. My first experiences as a certifying engineer were in the hangar and I believe this is a good place to start, for many reasons. The time pressures are less and you have more time to look at what you have in front of you and to research if neccessary. Also 99 times out of 100 there will be somebody who has experienced the problem before and can guide you.
On the line you generally have a very limited time 1 to 1.5hrs maybe to see what you have, defect wise, apart from doing the routine maintenance reqd by the transit/daily/etops check.
During this time you are subjected to a certain amount of pressure, time, can it go, can it be fixed etc. I believe that without the experience I have gained in the hangar sometimes it would be impossible to judge or gauge this. Pressure - it's there whether you feel it or not, commercial or otherwise, I personally enjoy the pressure and probably function better with it. (sad you may say). However, depending on the management and how the co operates, you have to be strong and have the courage of your convictions when faced with certain problems, I have no problems in having a delay if in my opinion it is unsafe for the a/c to fly, fortunately my superiors/quality are very good, but you have to be right you have to think on your feet and make the decisions.
I enjoyed most of my time in the hangar environment, but at the moment I enjoy the Line better, that will probably change in a few years when the -10 wind chill and snow and rain and wind have taken their toll.
One of our remits in our outstations is ADD clear ups, unlike Rusty Nail says we do not defer everything if we have the time and the spares we will do it, yes I am a bit of a slve driver, after all we are paid to work. So the upshot is if you like the hangar stick woith it if you like the line stick with that, at the end of the day the Line engineer with around 15 years experience in the hangar is probably best, oh sounds like me.
Reading between the lines there seems to be inherent problems at your co, mainly I guess down to management attitudes/approach, don't allow them to treat you like lepers, until they wake up to the fact that why peoiple are leaving it will never change.
Rusty Nail, if an a/c sits on the ramp for 12hrs and all the line do is DD stuff I would suggest that people need to get together and sort things out, perhaps you could get some browney points by coming up with a suggestion/plan to sort it say 50/50 line/hangar people to work the a/c. I can't believe management allow an a/c to sit for 12hrs and it not be worked.