Mary P. It is a very valid question as anyone who has worked for not just a low-cost carrier knows, but any short-haul or charter airline.
The low-cost carriers are in danger of having a rapid turnover of pilots leading to a shortage of training personnel and lower overall experience level.
Life as a short-haul pilot be it scheduled, charter or low-cost is a complex set of compromises if a pilot desires a long-term career together with a 'traditional' family, not to mention 'quality of life' issues. The compromises have to be met with a fairly optimistic outlook on life which is where the company can help if it has good employee relationships.
I have flown for short-haul scheduled, charter and low-cost operations, the last of which made me decide to seek long-haul flying or look for a career outside of aviation as I could not imagine working another 22 years with the work patterns I was working and the impact that had on a 'normal' life. By 'normal' I mean married with 2.1 kids, living in the south of England and wanting to have a meaningful and useful input into the rearing of said children and being one half of a marriage.
This country does not have any pilots that have worked solely for low-cost pilots for a full career yet and so nobody knows what sort of impact working for one will have on the average individual, but I have known people who have moved to low-cost operations for various reasons, beit chasing an early command, avoiding congestion by working a regional airports etc., some with happy stories, some with not.
Only time will tell, I can only suggest that the many tightening of belts squeezing more and more out of the pilot workforce is enough make many people consider new careers, and people who brand pilots who speak of tiredness and fatigue as whingers should try getting up at 0400 day after day to make the 0525 report at Heathrow and then for their working week to fiinish on late duties even though your body is still waking up at 0400, or in the case of the charter pilot who never sees the light of day for many months during the year.
Unfortunately, at pilot recruitment and training conferences, nobody speaks of the realities that pilots have to deal with in their personal lives if they choose to become pilots. Do people at training roadshows get told that some of the employers to which they aspire to work for make the candidate pay for he recruitment process, type rating, accomodation and transport to the rating wherever it may be in the world, and then after all that expense the job is not guaranteed?
On a lighter note, long-haul is also tiring but feels like a different tiredness. I myself have a general 'shallow' tiredness which is preferable to me than the deep troughs of tiredness with short-haul operations. Each to his own.
It will be very interesting to see BALPA stats in a few years' time.