I stayed considerably longer than 5 years and when I wanted the option of returning,
So the company that paid for all your training, gave you a wage whilst you were doing so, and paid you very well with good benefits did not agree to your request that you could leave, but (possibly) return if you felt like it (i.e. if things did not work out as you expected or wanted)?
How disloyal eh?!!
I agree with you to an extent - a controller who has previously been valid with NATS has to be a better proposition than an ab inito... but pray tell, what conditions did you attach to your possible return?
Return on the pay spine you left on, or even a higher one commensurate with accrual during your years away?
Very few companies will provide all of the above in the first paragraph, then quite happily let you swan off when you want to work somewhere else and allow you to return at your convenience!!
Some people obviously think that they are more important than the company as a whole and feel that they are owed a living... the same people need to wake up and smell the coffee instead of expecting to be cossetted!
NATS, on the whole (at this point in time), provides a very good package, especially for ATCOS... it's a shame that people who have never worked anywhere else before joining NATS don't have the experience to realise this.