Sure the money is good, but I made $120k this year with 350 hours of OT. Cost of living here is cheaper than Cali but it's not what it used to be 5 years ago. All my coworkers houses have increased in value by 2 or 3 times. What used to be $200k here is now $500k. And most houses don't even look like they should cost half a million here.
I know I'm fortunate enough that I do very little work for the amount of money I make, but I made almost $30k more this year in OT. I would prefer the quality of life that comes with 2 days off, not at a level 7 to chase dollars. The burn out is real and I physically and mentally cannot work this much OT for the next 20 years. If I wanted to make money, which I will pursue in a couple years, I rather do it at a level 11 or 12. I want to leave but can't.
I don't like working slow sectors. Good for people who don't want to work, but it's mind numbing to sit at a dead sector all day every day, then get your ass kicked on our busy sector that we already never get to work with all the training going on & everyone fighting to work it while they can. I'm not the only one who feels this way either but there's really not much to do about it besides ERR out of here.
We normally have 5 radar positions open, we combine 2 of them when slow, & 2 positions in the tower. Possibly 1 handoff as well (2 handoffs are rare) & tracon data (that we don't have staffing to open) makes for 8-10 total positions max. Spokane can be an ass kicker & Coeur d'Alene is way too busy to not be a towered airport.