I think it all goes back to the fact that the FAA in combination with location management and union protections is unwilling to address problem children. A few controllers fall asleep or show up to work in an unsuitable condition, write a new national policy. A handful of facilities can't get their training together and have excessively long training programs with excessively high failure rates, write a new national policy. You're not getting the diversity in hiring that you want? Throw out the entire list and change the entire process maybe that'll help a staffing crisis. The FAA tries to make nationwide policies when it isn't realistic. Things need to be handled at a regional and local level. We've got NATCA reps for everything from drones to navigational aids to childcare... We can't find a role for someone who travels locally from facility to facility and overwrites the training plan to be more successful?
I fully support firing anyone caught sleeping in the mid or showing up incapacitated. I have personally seen trainees drag out their training for years beyond where it should be and then get certified when they shouldn't. There needs to be a legit way to get rid of people who cannot do this job yet are beyond their one year probationary period. Well all have that co-worker we don't want to work next to, who we all wonder how they even got here...
We need to address the problem children instead of writing sweeping policy for the entire NAS.