Better read this first.
The job often sucks. Even for those of us who love it. We are not appreciated by anyone outside of our profession. We hold more lives in our hands in one average shift than a medical doctor does in his whole career. Pilots don't understand us or even listen sometimes ... but they rely on us to save their asses when they need us and will probably never say thank you. Everything we say is recorded. We have to be prepared to defend every word we say in a court of law should the unthinkable happen. We are responsible for knowing more rules than humanly possible. Those rules are subject to daily change. We can't imagine doing any other job. We carry around in our heads the equivalent amount of data as the average metropolitan phone book. We don't have time to look anything up. We aren't allowed to make mistakes.
We don't have a God complex. We are Gods. We receive more training than physicians. We can't make our "clients" wait in a waiting room until we're ready for them. We are always in control. We control everything in our environment. This affects our personal life in ways that a non-controller cannot fathom. Our spouses will never understand us or what we do. We can't bring the job home. But it is always with us. We all have crash dreams. We will control traffic in our sleep. We never have to worry about a foot-high inbox when we come into work. We can't put an airplane back in the inbox to deal with later. We take extreme pride in the quality of our work, no matter how negatively the FAA, the media, and some politicians portray us. No, you can not imagine the stress. We aren't able to tolerate a read-back error at a drive thru restaurant. Indecision is unacceptable in any scenario. We didn't invent the "Mooney spike" but we see the effects of it every day. We don't get bathroom breaks whenever we need them. We learn to hold it until we get a break. There is always something that needs to be done right now. We have a lack of tolerance for miscommunication. We get grumpy when we don't have enough airplanes to keep us busy. We get grumpy when we have too many. We are the only ones who know where we draw this invisible line between the two. We love gallows humor. When we retire, we will seek out, socialize with, and keep close friendships with other controllers. They are still the only people who come close to understanding us or are willing to put up with us. We get to retire "early". But most of us won't live more than ten years after retirement. We expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say. Everything in life is either black or white ... there is no gray. We can drink a hotel bar dry in about two hours. We use anticipated separation when we drive. We can't understand people who don't know how to calculate speed differences to hit gaps on the highway. There is something "off" about ALL of us. We all want children to have "normal" lives and "normal" jobs. But we are so proud when they choose to become controllers themselves. We are not allowed to treat our depression or anxiety with FDA-approved medicine. Or even admit out loud that we suffer from either. We will lose our jobs if we do. But we can drink our weight in Jim Beam ... as long as we are at least 8 hours from our next shift. Most of us look 10 yrs older than our age and act 10 yrs younger. We know all the different variations of the word "stress." We are drawn to extremely dangerous past times. We will eventually be on blood pressure medication. We don't know what normal sleep patterns are. We're not allowed to use sleep aids. We work in the middle of the night and on Christmas and weekends and your birthday. We will never have "normal" days off. We will never have a regular social life. We can't participate in our kids' school activities. We know that our worth isn't reflected by our position in the FAA or our rank in the military. Our friends won't understand that we can't just leave work or get off work or stop thinking about work. We are not "Disney-friendly." People think that we are the guys on the ramp with the flashlights and that we get to fly for free. We make more money than you do. But you have the house and the cars and the vacation home and the time with your family. We have the clothes, the watch, the sunglasses and the attitude. We are fluent in three languages: English, Acronyms and Cursing. We speak all three simultaneously and loudly. We don't say "goodbye" when we hang up the phone, we give our operating initials. Controller candy comes in two flavors: TUMS and Ibuprofen. When a cold or flu strikes we just suck it up 'cause we can't take otc cold medication without being medically disqualified. We are brutally, ridiculously, ruthlessly hard on each other. We have thick skin. We will be the last person a pilot talks to on this earth. We will hear the terror in his voice. We will calmly use every tool we have to bring him down safely. We will hear his screams when we can't. We will never forget it. We will relive it again and again. We will go right back to work the next day and do it again. We aren't allowed to cry. When one of us fails we will laugh at him. When one of us succeeds we won't acknowledge it. We don't have time to pat ourselves or each other on the back. We have vectoring to do.
Best summation of controlling I've read in a long time.