I am an army of one
 

I have just been on to the Flight Deck Forums site and read " I am an army of one" by AAL Silverbird.
In reading it I felt that it was also applicable to the ATC world (unfortunately!) and would recommend anyone to read it as it certainly is applicable to Swanwick.

absolutely spot on!

(the post is in "reporting points")

applicable to most, if not all, NATS units I'm sure...

Here , for the navigationally challenged.

Anyone in NATS please read this - and think about the pay deal.

Hi Halif. I've read the thread and have thought about the NATS pay offer. For the mentally challenged amongst us, what's your point?

Z

I think the point Direct HALIFAX may be trying to make is that if you're a bit fed up with management and go out of your way to waste money and cut standards you can't expecta big pay rise...

I wonder whether I should admire this guy (or gal's) courage at finally deciding to take the stance which they have.

Call me a coward, or whatever term you feel appropriate, but I still go to work and do my job as professionally as I can and to the best of my ability, that includes making sure all the square pegs fit into round holes. If I took the stance of this postee and something went wrong as a result, I'd feel I'd contributed more than my fair share to the incident occuring.
I do not work for NATS, but a regional airfield employer, and at this time we are being treated with the same contempt which NATS employees are.

Frankly, I'd find it very difficult to do the job strictly by the book, I've never worked that way and probably never will, if I see something amiss or go wrong, I'm far more likely to get it rectified than ignore it. This doesn't make me any better than the rest, or entitle me to hero status, it's just the way I work.

I've just read the thread - have to admit to having seen similar attitudes in our national carrier - I think it's called work to rule.
As far as ATC goes I'd guess it rates along with the occasional bout of "protest controlling" that happens from time to time - you know - no visual approaches, no vectors for short ILS, everyone joins final at 15 miles and flies the approach at 150knots, no maintaining own sep in VMC etc. After a while you realise that the bean counters can't tell the difference, and all you're doing is making your day at work bl**dy difficult.
For all that I can sympathise with the writer when you're efforts to excell are met with a spit in the eye.
:cool: