“No matter what facility you are at its still one of the best (jobs) to have in the world.”
^ This sickening line of thinking causes more problems with complacency, egos, labor relations, performance of support teams, etc.... then you could ever imagine or know and is a slap in the face to at least 1/3 of the 2152 who so far in their career have been getting nothing but dicked with and told they should just to happy to have “the greatest job in the world”.
I will 2nd this notion. I also hear a lot of sups say things alluding to "how lucky we are to be here" to justify absurdities within the ATO, aggregious CBA vioaltions, and/or just piss poor management and toxic facilities. These broad platitudes are not healthy to advancing personal development, morale, happiness, pride, satisfaction or meaning in your job. IE "no matter how bad it is, everything is still great, you could be digging ditches!" . No one has any standing to judge the relative "luck" or circumstances in which one controller finds themselves in a given position, and this is indeed sickening level of settling/complacency/narrow minded unhealthy group think that can never lead to greatness! How many years did they spend in the military, a contract tower, a CTI school, etc etc circumstances to wind up at that very spot. Just because some people are content to settle for less and accept the mediocrity that often comes with a federal job that has a unique ability to soul suck the ambition of some and transform them into caricatured monsters who lose a grip on reality; doesn't make it "one of the best jobs in the world". That depends on perspective and is highly subjective. Some facilities can be accurately compared to hell on earth for some people, because they are.
To the greater topic in this thread..... You can very easily get "stuck" at a facility for way way longer than 5 years. There is no guaruntee of ever leaving. Under the current ERR MOU NCEPT panel rules (which are still better than how it was), the facilities that aren't eligible to lose anyone -- but have a large number of people who want to leave -- understandably lead to people getting out any way they can. Many facilities have multiple controllers bidding sup jobs to wherever they can get to. These usually get them approved for a "deviation", that is to say released even though the numbers do not support it for ERR purposes. This only exacerbates how long it takes to get out via proper ERR, and adds to frustration. This creates a cycle where just leaving becomes competitive and people one up each other and put in for higher and higher priority facilities just to get out. Of course N90 is historically the ultimate trump card for anyone masochistic enough to willfully join that racket. The silver lining being that if you "play ball" and be a good soldier you can make 300-400k a year through special benefits they get not afforded to any of the other 320ish facilities. Then you have your hardship scammers. Talk to any NATCA regional hardship rep and they will tell you a million different creative ways people try to hardship. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Either way its another end run on the ERR MOU process which might leave you higher and dryer than some RadioHead lyrics. (Obviously there are also legit hardships where someone has a parent w Stage 4 cancer etc.). There is Article 60 in the CBA, which allows you priority to transfer to an equal or lesser level facility if you have been ceritfied for at least 8 years at your current facility and invoke it. This works, but not necessarily to get to your "dream facility". The bottom line is there are some facilities that may very well be impossible for you to get to in the course of a career. PHL, CLT, TPA, etc. Unless you can get to the top of their ranking list through their rep and/or ATM there are just simply too many people who want to go there.
All that to say... it could take many years or decades in the right circumstances. Or forever. That said... its not exactly a prison sentence. No one has a gun to your head forcing you to come work those 4 planes a day at your level 4 tower! Altho some people have Stockholm Syndrome it seems and are de facto lifers. Hey there is always the annual scams like CFS, NIW, et al to look fwd to!!!
