Is it worth it?

[ATCJoe85]

I recently took a staff job to combat these concerns. With a young family I was missing out on too much. Not a good time position, but I dry my tears sharply at 3PM each day. No weekends, no holidays, no overtime and still keep the job security as well as keep my head in ATC. Is it permanent? Probably not, but for right now its pretty great.

I get some flack from controllers for taking this job when I could keep controlling, but on the same token I have plenty of controllers coming to me curious about the job or saying how they wish they had bid it. Its a tough time for ATCers.

My perception of the staff specialist position is that I'd have to be less lazy than I am as a controller. More thinking involved, more self motivation required.
Sounds exhausting to me.
I'll gladly show up for my mandatory six days if it means I can keep being a mindless zombie.

 

[AS88]

My perception of the staff specialist position is that I'd have to be less lazy than I am as a controller. More thinking involved, more self motivation required.
Sounds exhausting to me.
I'll gladly show up for my mandatory six days if it means I can keep being a mindless zombie.

Some days you'd be correct, most days you're way off.

I can slurp the taco bell beef off my paper wrapper with the office door shut so nobody sees me, though.

 

[Logical_Mongoose]

My perception of the staff specialist position is that I'd have to be less lazy than I am as a controller. More thinking involved, more self motivation required.
Sounds exhausting to me.
I'll gladly show up for my mandatory six days if it means I can keep being a mindless zombie.

Varies from day-to-day and facility-to-facility. I went from SSS at a level 5 to SSS at a level 12 and I am definitely working substantially more for my pay now, but there are still "spa days" here and there and a good chunk of the work allows me to use my brain a bit which is also nice to have from time to time.

 

[ATCJoe85]

Some days you'd be correct, most days you're way off.

I can slurp the taco bell beef off my paper wrapper with the office door shut so nobody sees me, though.

I hate you so much.
?

 

[accskp]

View attachment 7995

You think that was yelling? hahahaha!

 

[Tendy Dominator]

This job isn’t worth it, when you are half way to a pension it is pretty hard to leave. If our pay kept up with inflation it would be a little more bearable. Also, if people who aren’t good enough to be controllers aren’t allowed to move up into management that would help. I don’t love having moron OM’s actively working against us while riding on our backs to a successful operation.

 

[FlightOfTheShortGuy]

This job isn’t worth it, when you are half way to a pension it is pretty hard to leave. If our pay kept up with inflation it would be a little more bearable. Also, if people who aren’t good enough to be controllers aren’t allowed to move up into management that would help. I don’t love having moron OM’s actively working against us while riding on our backs to a successful operation.

I’m pretty new to the FAA and I’m actively trying to get a Staff Support job at my fac when it opens up. I don’t give a damn about good time. My quality time away from work is more important to me than .7% of a pension each year. Call me a traffic dodger all you want but if I can land a nice work life balance before age 30 I’ll be so damn happy.

 

[KAB]

I’m pretty new to the FAA and I’m actively trying to get a Staff Support job at my fac when it opens up. I don’t give a damn about good time. My quality time away from work is more important to me than .7% of a pension each year. Call me a traffic dodger all you want but if I can land a nice work life balance before age 30 I’ll be so damn happy.

I'm right there with you. My facility just got told by the auditor that they need a Support Specialist, so hopefully the region will let them open the position. I want it so bad. Small towns do nothing to facilitate two spouses working the rattler. We have a toddler and daycare isn't open 24/7.

 

[SwissDog]

no

 

[MrNoodle]

I was feeling the same way as a lot of people in this thread, knowing that I would have to put up with another 15 years of this before I could retire I had the discussion with my significant other and decided to try DOD and see if the change of pace would be worthwhile. I ended up not taking a pay cut, got rid of the rattler, no more overtime every weekend, live in a lower cost of living area and have every fed holiday off along with a lot of other perks. The downside is that while im still in the 6 figures im topped out so I am limited in upward mobility. We make enough to get by and go on vacation with the same retirement as the FAA. If anyone is looking to jump ship, the DOD is getting another 10% raise and that puts it about at a level 8 pay for GS 11 radar controllers and your pay transfers over if you in band.

 

[GulfCharlie]

I was feeling the same way as a lot of people in this thread, knowing that I would have to put up with another 15 years of this before I could retire I had the discussion with my significant other and decided to try DOD and see if the change of pace would be worthwhile. I ended up not taking a pay cut, got rid of the rattler, no more overtime every weekend, live in a lower cost of living area and have every fed holiday off along with a lot of other perks. The downside is that while im still in the 6 figures im topped out so I am limited in upward mobility. We make enough to get by and go on vacation with the same retirement as the FAA. If anyone is looking to jump ship, the DOD is getting another 10% raise and that puts it about at a level 8 pay for GS 11 radar controllers and your pay transfers over if you in band.

Getting rid of the rattler is a big plus.

 

[Raise when?]

this job is not what it used to be in many ways. i'd forbid my kids to do this job. you want your kids to do better than you, not worse.. this career is going downhill fast

Pre-covid - absolutely.
Post covid? - meh.

The job stability is still there but the promise of making more than most people from your socioeconomic background is almost gone and the promise of amazing work/life balance is also not a reality for most facilities. Six figure jobs are not that uncommon anymore especially for people with bachelor's degrees. The question now becomes "how much are you willing to give up for the ultimate in job security?" While other people from your background are landing 6 fig jobs fully remote with no mids or weekends and similar PTO to us.

covid decimated ATC purchasing power because we took 15-20% pay cuts from the yearly 10%+ inflation

while everyone else got massive raises and WFH, we got more ELMS and mandatory OT

 

[acutetriangles]

Yes

 

[DonnyDarcycle]

This job isn’t worth it, when you are half way to a pension it is pretty hard to leave. If our pay kept up with inflation it would be a little more bearable. Also, if people who aren’t good enough to be controllers aren’t allowed to move up into management that would help. I don’t love having moron OM’s actively working against us while riding on our backs to a successful operation.

Tendy, GREAT way to put it!!

 

[FlightOfTheShortGuy]

covid decimated ATC purchasing power because we took 15-20% pay cuts from the yearly 10%+ inflation

while everyone else got massive raises and WFH, we got more ELMS and mandatory OT

Yup. The job isn’t as much of a gem as it once was. Sure we get a lot of breaks but I imagine most are at facilities where breaks are becoming shorter and shorter due to BS staffing. It pains me to see how many people can WFH and have weekends off like it’s nothing. You can legit travel on Thursday night to wherever you want to visit for the weekend, work a half day from the hotel/airbnb on Friday (since hardly anyone in the corporate world works a full 8 hours on Friday) then enjoy the rest of the weekend wherever you’re at. We need a substantial pay raise badly in my opinion.

 

[ATCJoe85]

As long as my friends are talking about how good Uber Eats pays, I can't knock on ATC.

OTOH, as a fed, I do concur we need raises to keep with inflation.

 

[meanjoe]

Worth it? Depends on a litany of factors, not the least of which is who you work for, who you work with, where you work and how much you get paid.
I moved a lot chasing paper and chasing the perfect gig. I have 3 years until I'm eligible and I haven't found it yet. I'm on facility number 9 but really I'll have transferred 11 times because I've been to one of them 3 times. I seem to be never content. oh well.

Would I do it all the same again? Yes. I'll be 48 and fully retired, assuming I survive 3 more years. I have no other skills and no education. If you have these things ymmv. But in the early 2000's there wasn't anything that paid this well for this little up front cost.

I'm just focused on sticking the dismount.

 

[blarg]

Worth it? Depends on a litany of factors, not the least of which is who you work for, who you work with, where you work and how much you get paid.
I moved a lot chasing paper and chasing the perfect gig. I have 3 years until I'm eligible and I haven't found it yet. I'm on facility number 9 but really I'll have transferred 11 times because I've been to one of them 3 times. I seem to be never content. oh well.

Would I do it all the same again? Yes. I'll be 48 and fully retired, assuming I survive 3 more years. I have no other skills and no education. If you have these things ymmv. But in the early 2000's there wasn't anything that paid this well for this little up front cost.

I'm just focused on sticking the dismount.

Good job spending a large portion of your career wasting everyone's time training you.

 

[FlightOfTheShortGuy]

I recently took a staff job to combat these concerns. With a young family I was missing out on too much. Not a good time position, but I dry my tears sharply at 3PM each day. No weekends, no holidays, no overtime and still keep the job security as well as keep my head in ATC. Is it permanent? Probably not, but for right now its pretty great.

I get some flack from controllers for taking this job when I could keep controlling, but on the same token I have plenty of controllers coming to me curious about the job or saying how they wish they had bid it. Its a tough time for ATCers.

Staff support is the dream man. You’re ATM lets you work 7-3 everyday? I hope to be like you someday. The staffing is only gonna get worse to agency wide. I could not imagine putting up with all this BS with staffing and bidding when I’m late 30s and 40s. Gimme that desk job and in this agency and I’ll be golden.

 

[GulfBravoPapa]

Staff support is the dream man. You’re ATM lets you work 7-3 everyday? I hope to be like you someday. The staffing is only gonna get worse to agency wide. I could not imagine putting up with all this BS with staffing and bidding when I’m late 30s and 40s. Gimme that desk job and in this agency and I’ll be golden.

While a staff support schedule and ability to take leave sounds nice the actual job sounds brutally boring. I'd take being a controller any day. To each there own and we need people to do the support jobs.