amberale, you ever been in a Turkish prison?
My comment here will span between this thread, the other mega-merged one, and probably any other thread about ANSPs.
From my experience, ANSPs that have been privatised, partially privatised or are being run like a business are all very apt at operating in a vacuum and making the same mistakes. Nav Can, NATS, ASA (feel free to add) have all comparably sh*t the bed with their cost and corner cutting with training and are paying the price, wage negotiations for the pointy end while the blunties behind the desks shuffling paper always get a nice little bonus/percentage out of it. When a bad idea comes along regarding the operation, the subject matter experts are ignored ("Bah, what do them controllers know?), and only a manager with very strong convictions/intestinal fortitude/morals will speak the truth (and probably be shown the door)
I'm sure we're all hearing these ones as well:
* "Oh, contract negotiation time is here, and given the global economy, we're going to have to tighten our belts, blah, blah, blah". What about when times were great?
* "We need to offer competitive remuneration to ensure we maintain the best managers". Uh, just who exactly need to be retained at the moment to wear the headsets?
* "We have to operate with fiscal responsibility to our customers". A controller by the very nature of what he/she does is the custodian of that one. Why run 3 miles on final when 4 or 5 will do eh? Because we are professionals, and take great pride in exercising our licences as efficiently and SAFELY as possible.
* "We want to be the world leader ANSP blah, blah, blah." Well, they say mistakes are the only things you can truly call your own.