S8D
let me clarify then....And Im sorry but I can only comment on Swanwick;
I dont' doubt for a minute that everyone at the unit has an important job to do and Im not knocking any support staff here. For a start, there are a lot of desks in Swanwick I have never been to - so Im not going to suggest that the occupants of those little corners of the world (so nicely decorated with posters, pictures and other paraphanalia completely unrelated to the job in hand) are not providing some important function.
So, now that the disclaimer is out of the way - Im sure we all remember the lovely welome to Swanwick pack which contained the nice letter which effectively said
"the place is going live, but please don't spoil our lovely working environment with your nasty operational staff attitudes"
Instant them and us attitude.
There are those in the building who still harbour these feelings. Take, for example, the personnel office - there is at least one member of staff in there who reacts to everything like it is a major problem or that ATCOs/ATSAs are just trying to cause bother. There is another member of staff who has been most helpful and understanding whenever I have been in with a query - I wonder if that person is new to working with operational staff?
There are plenty other examples, but my post is getting long enough as it is.
Just one more point - does anyone else think that 2 librarians is a bit much in that size of place? and what do they do all day? I've only ever seen them eating sandwiches at their desk and looking hard done by when I ask for a new MATS part 2 CD.