Life as a NATS controller - good or bad?
 

Ladies & Gents,

i'm looking for the general consensus on what the life of a controller is like? I've only ever spoke to a couple of controllers who thought it was the king of jobs, so i'd like to get some more opinions.

I'm considering going down the NATS ATCO career path, have passed all the assessment stages and i think this will help me with my final decision.

Thanks everyone and I look forward to your comments / advice!

I am just down the road at ScOACC and would not want to be doing anything else.
Like any jobs, there are some frustrations, but overall I am extremely happy working for NATS where I am.

"whats it like to be a NATS controller" you ask......

Well, you get a nice fat pay packet, very little (if any) hassle from management, decent work environment and you also get to work with a great bunch of folks.
No doubt there will be those who have negative experiences with the company but from what I have seen and heard in my time I would say that these folks, more often than not, tend to bring misery upon themselves. The usual crowd will doubtlessly brand me a "company man" or "management wanabee" but all I can say is that my time with the company has been good. That is a statement that I could not apply to some of the companies I have worked for in the past.....

To raise another question, WHY is it that only ATCO's over about 45 seem to be the ones bitching all the bloody time???? Never been able to figure that out :ugh:.


Spamcan

I never, ever bitched. I thought it was always the youngsters who whinged!! Great salary (50% increase since I retired 5 years ago), very low working hours (unless you're greedy enough to want overtime), best working conditions I ever had and a fat pension. If you get into NATS there's a strong danger you'll think you've died and gone to Heaven!!

Just checked my July '03 salary, no 50% increase over the last five years here!

Overall NATS is a good company to work for, that is true, but there are interesting times ahead and the NATS HD remembers isn't really the same NATS that exists now.

So, enjoy your fat pension HD but others joining in the future, or who are currently working for the company, may well end up not enjoying the same benefits nor working conditions that you recall so fondly.

Generally pretty good, even for a greedy, whinging, overtime working young controller as myself. :p

Very very good. It's the last job you'll ever have!

Great salary, shiftwork, occasional bouts of adrenaline fuelled sessions on radar (or tower if you end up there) and fantastic colleagues amounts to a great working life - particularly when compared to the usual run-of-the-mill office work your mates will be doing.

Give it a go!

ditto all the above

Jasus wish i could say the same about the IAA (salary, conditions, good to work for etc).
Now that we are officially 'partners' in some new airspace experiment maybe we can get the same T+C's as ye boys.....especially since we are now manchester and london TMA arrival and sequence controllers only by a different name :} :)

..........Flame proof coat is on !!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm saying nothing

HD. "Very low working hours" -

Alarm going off at 0415 and home to bed at 0030 on a regular basis, your outta touch I'm afraid !

expediteoff wrote:
Not all on the same day though.;)

ock1f

Perhaps you'll get 'em when you really do start streaming the LTMA arrivals - No evidence seen yet:p:p:p

What are the NATS gross working hours per week?

At an area unit you work 18 days out of 30, 2 mornings, 2 afternoons, 2 nights (or spins). Average of 8 hours per shift.

8*18 = 144 hours per month

equates to 36 hours per week if you relate it to a mon-fri basis i.e. 4 working weeks per 30 day month.

Chances are you will shave a few hours off that figure due to early goes perhaps an hour per cycle and if you work spins, they bring the average of 8 hours per shift down somewhat as well.

As ExpediteOff stated in his/her post Heathrow Director was not quite correct in his assertion that we work very low hours... due to the shift work it may seem that way when you purely look at days off work, but hours wise we don't do much less than a 'normal' job, we just pack them in to less days!

Thanks. Could u tell me the annual leave allowance too.

28 days annual leave to start with plus 8 days in lieu of bank holidays which by the nature of shift work you are not guaranteed off. then i think you get another 2 after 8 years and a further 3 after 10? but im not certain on that part.

another good thing about working for nats is that you dont get little man syndrome.........unlike southend approach. I like to think i wouldn't put the phone down mid conversation because i wasn't getting my own way. Maybe he was a nats failure, maybe not, but he certainly had the arse this morning.

I'm a NATS ATSA, [just done 40 years in the job....and loved every minute:ok:] A colleague once said..."It's the best part time job in the world"...
as has been said 6 on 4 off [plus overtime if you want it]. I've watched my son grow up [no 9-5, he's in bed by 6 syndrome]. I can play golf on an empty course, I can go fishing...in quiet periods, I work on Wet Bank Hols, and am off when the weather improves:ok:
As to leave, I get 3 months per year:D.....To explain, I start my leave on my last work day. I have [up to] 4 days off, followed by 6 days leave, followed by 4 days off. Ergo 14 days off, 6 days leave taken, and I get 31+10 days leave/PH per year...Ah well, I retire in 15 months :{
Oh yes, the "Company" ain't too bad to work for.
watp,iktch

Wot you mean the beautifully arranged chaos we throw at you every morning isn't being noticed? Must try harder so. You should see the way the traffic is arranged before it gets to you tho...its all nicely daisy chained!!!!!:)

i'll leave this thread alone now..not the place to be discussing how we start helping ye out when the planes are 300nm from touchdown:ok:

Ock1f