To NOTARED
This response is along the lines of the Facilities Manager at Swanwick asking why night shift staff need to sleep on night shifts as his cleaning staff certainly didn't need to! I'm assuming (although we are tought in air traffic not to assume) this individual and NOTARED have never had to be responsible for peoples lives at 0400 without adequate sleep working the Eastbound rush. Making snide comments about night shift workers wanting comfortable rest facilities to enable them to carry out their job as safely as they can is pathetic. I would invite any "DAY" worker to sit in an ops room or tower for 1 night shift and see how they feel at home time. Driving home is a challenge most of the time let alone having been working busy traffic (nb: most airlines first rotations are still worked by the night shift) first before that. I'm not an ATCO but have sat next to them on nights for last 9 years and have struggled to stay awake myself on many occasion so I can only sympathise with anyone wanting to get their head down on a break on something other than a manky fold down chair