The Happiest ATC unit.............
Ohcirrej
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The Happiest ATC unit.............
MACC aren't happy. TC in London are being stuffed around with a relocation date. Swanwick are never happy (
) The Ozmates in Brisbane and Melbourne have just been put through the NAS rollback. Vancouver Centre have moved to a lovely piece of real estate. People getting moved about and stuffed around.
Who are the happiest worker bees out there? There's got to be someone.
) The Ozmates in Brisbane and Melbourne have just been put through the NAS rollback. Vancouver Centre have moved to a lovely piece of real estate. People getting moved about and stuffed around.Who are the happiest worker bees out there? There's got to be someone.
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Puerto Rico Rocks
San Juan CERAP gets a vote:
1) We live and work in the Caribbean
2) Traffic is challenging but nowhere near overwhelming
3) We make enough to have all the necessities (jet ski, motorcycle, nice car) as well as a few luxuries
4) The people who work here enjoy what they're doing and are not clamoring to leave
5) Management is . . . outnumbered
6) Have you seen Puerto Rican women
1) We live and work in the Caribbean
2) Traffic is challenging but nowhere near overwhelming
3) We make enough to have all the necessities (jet ski, motorcycle, nice car) as well as a few luxuries
4) The people who work here enjoy what they're doing and are not clamoring to leave
5) Management is . . . outnumbered
6) Have you seen Puerto Rican women
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<<Have you seen Puerto Rican women>>
Not the ones that sit on two chairs, surely?
As to the happiest ATC Unit... happiness is in the eye of the beholder, or something. I spent 21+ years at Heathrow when the ATC unit was combined TWR/APC and many of those I worked with were extremely happy and we had a real ball. But there were also those who never stopped whingeing about something.... said they hated the place... etc., etc. I thought it was magic, only spoiled for me when the unit was split and half moved to West Drayton Open Prison!
C'est la vie..
Not the ones that sit on two chairs, surely?
As to the happiest ATC Unit... happiness is in the eye of the beholder, or something. I spent 21+ years at Heathrow when the ATC unit was combined TWR/APC and many of those I worked with were extremely happy and we had a real ball. But there were also those who never stopped whingeing about something.... said they hated the place... etc., etc. I thought it was magic, only spoiled for me when the unit was split and half moved to West Drayton Open Prison!
C'est la vie..
Last edited by HEATHROW DIRECTOR; 27th Dec 2004 at 14:42.
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From all the ones I visited, I would say LFMM ( Aix en provence ) First . ( compare the days worked, the hours, the sunshine, the strengh of the Unions, the number of controllers versus number of aircraft, and the landscape .. And the new ACC , in a park right in the middle of the city, with the windows viewing the lavande hills....
Women, food and local wine are extra....
Only drawbacks : cost of living and too many British tourists.....
Women, food and local wine are extra....
Only drawbacks : cost of living and too many British tourists.....
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I am happiest at Swanwick. The CTC (call centre) just down the road is to me the most dismal place on earth. Its full of career path 'suits' that have yet to realise that they don't have a chance. People sit in rows and you can taste the politics. Ok, I admit it, I would much rather go to Prestwick and move than be transferred to the CTC.
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ZFW is a great place... Good folks, management is way outnumbered and we don't pay them much attention anyway <G>... It's been varying between 13c and 22c for the last month. Looks like we are going to get back to about 17 to 18c for the rest of the week. Not bad in the middle of winter <G>...
regards
Scott
regards
Scott
KSAN.
Have you seen the view from their office? Plus its San Diego.
13C, crap that's cold. Have to wear shoes instead of flip flops with my shorts.
The ZFW guys who work 120.77 are always pissy.
Have you seen the view from their office? Plus its San Diego.
13C, crap that's cold. Have to wear shoes instead of flip flops with my shorts.
The ZFW guys who work 120.77 are always pissy.
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Hey AQ,
You got that radar turning & burning yet? Used to scale out the radar from DXB just to remind myself what fun I was missing!!! DXB deserves a vote, only ****ty temperatures for 2 months a year, the rest of the time........just perfect. Oh ....yeh......work was crap but the lifestyle was greeaaaat!!!!
Rgds
A homesick controller
You got that radar turning & burning yet? Used to scale out the radar from DXB just to remind myself what fun I was missing!!! DXB deserves a vote, only ****ty temperatures for 2 months a year, the rest of the time........just perfect. Oh ....yeh......work was crap but the lifestyle was greeaaaat!!!!
Rgds
A homesick controller
I can't comment on DXB nowadays, but it was the happiest ATC unit that I ever worked at when I was there in the eighties.
It's difficult to explain why it was such a happy unit. It was busy (especially when the Dubai Air Wing was still based there) and manned by only seventeen ATCOs working a 5 Watch roster. That meant nine hour shifts without a break but everyone looked on it as normal.
The ATC management was superb - the SATCO, Jim Sawyer (who looked and sounded more like an East End boxer) interfered as little as possible with the operation and was regarded almost as a father figure; his deputy, Larry Matthews was a real one of the lads. Both of them chipped in at the coal face when necessary and were excellent members of the team. Between them they also successfully managed the introduction of SSR, SMR and oversaw the complete refurbishment of the ops rooms (this included replacing the baby-alarm intercom between ADC and APR!).
Other factors which added to the feelgood factor - there was no LCE system, no SRG, no OJTI courses or OJTI checking (everybody just got on with it!). In short we were all treated like big boys (no girls out there in those days) and allowed to get on with the job with no officialdom bearing down on us.
The downside was that new ATCOs were only given a couple of months to prove themselves worthy or they were out. On second thoughts maybe that wasn't a bad system - in the four years that I was there, I can honestly say that I cannot remember any ATC incident (unlike some other units that seem to have them every other week).
The social life out there was excellent - BBQs, deep sea fishing, wadi- bashing etc. and IAL (now SERCo) was a good company to work for with good benefits (but not now I believe).
To sum up it was a great experience at an excellent unit.
PS The second happiest unit that I have worked at was Abu Dhabi
letMfly
It's difficult to explain why it was such a happy unit. It was busy (especially when the Dubai Air Wing was still based there) and manned by only seventeen ATCOs working a 5 Watch roster. That meant nine hour shifts without a break but everyone looked on it as normal.
The ATC management was superb - the SATCO, Jim Sawyer (who looked and sounded more like an East End boxer) interfered as little as possible with the operation and was regarded almost as a father figure; his deputy, Larry Matthews was a real one of the lads. Both of them chipped in at the coal face when necessary and were excellent members of the team. Between them they also successfully managed the introduction of SSR, SMR and oversaw the complete refurbishment of the ops rooms (this included replacing the baby-alarm intercom between ADC and APR!).
Other factors which added to the feelgood factor - there was no LCE system, no SRG, no OJTI courses or OJTI checking (everybody just got on with it!). In short we were all treated like big boys (no girls out there in those days) and allowed to get on with the job with no officialdom bearing down on us.
The downside was that new ATCOs were only given a couple of months to prove themselves worthy or they were out. On second thoughts maybe that wasn't a bad system - in the four years that I was there, I can honestly say that I cannot remember any ATC incident (unlike some other units that seem to have them every other week).
The social life out there was excellent - BBQs, deep sea fishing, wadi- bashing etc. and IAL (now SERCo) was a good company to work for with good benefits (but not now I believe).
To sum up it was a great experience at an excellent unit.
PS The second happiest unit that I have worked at was Abu Dhabi
letMfly
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Have heard LBA could be one of the most miserable units to work at. This is due to bad management. The teamwork (which is supposed to be paramount in ATC) is not there anymore. This is due to a "them and us" attitude. The unit is run as a military unit because of the management being ex service personnel who cannot adapt to civilian life. From what I can gather, if the ex mil management could be removed and run by civies then the unit would be far better.
Only what I have heard
Rgds
Only what I have heard
Rgds