NATCA Going Down in Flames

Even drowsiness to the extent of incapacitation?

I'm drowsy to incapacitation every night. That doesn't make me sick
every night.

Jose
--
There are more ways to skin a cat than there are cats.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

ARTCCs have been upgraded as well. (Acronym?)

Air Route Traffic Control Centers

Jose
--
There are more ways to skin a cat than there are cats.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

I'll admit I don't know what the "standard" shifts are. Nor, the
turnaround between shifts. But I would assume they aren't working
doctors hours, or anything similar. Please enlighten me as to typical
work shifts.

We bid days off every six months by seniority. My facility has no
turnover because it's a great place to work and live, therefore nobody
leaves and we need no people. We are going to start getting into some
retirements in the next few years. For that reason we are getting three
new people. First one this month then the other two in the spring. The
days off haven't changed for anybody in the last 5 or 6 years. We have
permanent days off, none of that rotating crap that are the legion of
poorly run facilities. In my case I have Saturdays and Sundays off.
Start work Monday at 3 pm, Tuesday at 1 pm, Wednesday at 7 am, Thursday
at 6 am and the mid shift Thursday night at 10 pm. Lately I have been
swapping my Thursday 6am for the Wednesday night mid with one of the
guys on those days off that don't ever want a mid, thereby working two
mids a week. I'll do that until mid October as I prefer to be home
days. Back when I worked at GFK we had the rotating days off until we
changed it to permanent days off.




If they are drowsy on shift, maybe they shouldn't be on shift.

Unavoidable. I am never 100% for the entirety of any midshift. Not
possible. The FAA knows this is a necessary part of working a 24 faciltiy.

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 03:01:39 GMT, Jose
wrote:

They sure didn't include people like me in that study. I do not wake
quickly whether from a good night's sleep or a nap.

Would you choose to take a nap? There is some self selection involved too.

I can choose when not to sleep, but my body decides whether it is
going to sleep of not.

I'd have to be really tired to be able to take a nap on break. If I
was that tired they might as well send me home any way.



Jose
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

I'd have to be really tired to be able to take a nap on break.

This might not be true of others. Why not let them decide?

Jose
--
There are more ways to skin a cat than there are cats.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Steven P. McNicoll wrote:
"bdl" wrote in message
ups.com...

FAA management is the authority.


Of course. The question is why are they making an issue of it?

They aren't.

"bdl" wrote in message
ups.com...

They aren't.


You're misinformed.

In article .com,
"bdl" wrote:

Do you work better in a tie?

I work more professionally.

So naturally your experience must extrapolate to everyone else in
all other jobs...

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Jose wrote:

ARTCCs have been upgraded as well. (Acronym?)

Air Route Traffic Control Centers

Heh. I meant for the upgrades, not for ARTCC itself. I think I have
that one down but there are numerous pieces/blocks of ARTCC
modernization, and being government you need a lot of acronyms to handle
that.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote

I believe most facilities still work on a seven week rotation. Two
evening
shifts, followed by two day shifts, followed by two days off, then repeat.
That's six days so your two days off advance by one day each week. It's
juggled a bit when the two days off are on a weekend so that there's two
natural weekends off in a row. That's the schedule for a facility that
closes at night. At 24 hour facilities you'll get a day-mid. Come in at
about six AM and then back that same day about 10 PM.

I'm surprised that there are work schedules like that, still around. It
seems like that would put a person in perpetual jet lag. That would put
people in a state where fatigue would be unpreventable, I would think.

No wonder that some think naps are needed. I would need them, I think.
--
Jim in NC