Me Me Me Me
I agree entirelythat some people (mainly ATCOs) have not got a clue how much the majority of support staff do for the company and for the actual ATCOs. Doesn't mean that a proper 'time and motion' (in old money) study would not go amiss to make the company leaner though.
And if you are going to have a pop back at those detractors, at least do it with a proper argument...
...improving productivity and saving money so that the company can afford to pay so many AAVAs, among other things...
The AAVAs come about because the OPs room needs a certain number of ATCOs sitting at certain positions at certain times of the day. AAVAs are used to make up the shortfall - AAVAs would be brought in regardless of whether office workers improved productivity or not!!
In fact AAVAs are actually preferred by the company to a certain degree because it is cheaper for management to use them than to employ the correct amount of ATCOs - AAVA's are more flexible as you can pick and choose which validation you want to call in, and they are non pensionable. AAVAs actually save the company money!