One Sleepy Controller

I find it fascinating that I -- a controller that has been retired for almost 5 years -- spent much of yesterday answering questions about sleeping controllers. That has given me a chance to sharpen my major points about the situation. And in that I have already addressed this subject, I thought I’d just quickly post them without elaborating (too much.)

1) There isn’t a “cure” or a “fix” for this problem. People are designed by nature to fall asleep at night. Put 50 people in 50 different rooms -- alone -- for a midnight shift and at least one of them will fall asleep. Intentionally or unintentionally. You can bet money on it.

2) Assigning two people to one control position will revert to one person on position when they decide to split the shift in half. (One works the first half while the other sleeps and then they swap.) Even if you try to manage it, history suggests that at some point in time, the situation will revert to splitting the shift. It’s human nature. Besides, you would need to assign a manager to the shift if you wanted to “manage” the situation. In other words, another body that you don’t have.

3) If there was some magical way to keep two controllers at their position and awake throughout the midnight shift, you would wind up with two exhausted controllers trying to work the morning rush. Sleep-deprived controllers aren’t anybody’s idea of safety.

4) The FAA doesn’t have the controllers available to increase staffing on the midnight shifts. The only way to increase that staffing is to assign overtime -- which increases fatigue in the workforce. In other words, the (proposed) “cure” is as bad as the “disease”.

5) The “best” way to manage the problem is to have three controllers assigned the shift. Two to man the position while the other rests. And yes, rest does mean sleeping. That isn’t going to happen -- for a multitude of social, political and financial reasons (i.e. non-safety reasons). The FAA doesn’t have the controllers to implement that strategy anyway. See #4.

6) This situation won’t be resolved. It will just fade away until some other incident brings it to the forefront again.

7) Don’t look for anybody to propose #5. The Republicans would skewer the union for proposing it and they’d treat the FAA almost as badly for “wasting” taxpayer dollars “coddling” those “overpaid, lazy government workers”.

You watch, they will take the overtime controllers will be forced to work in order to have two people on the mid shifts and use it to inflate controller’s average salaries and/or inflate the cost of how much it takes to run an FAA Tower compared to a contract Tower. When it is time to negotiate, the Republicans will use the cost of that overtime against controllers -- just like Spain did to their controllers. And when they have enough power to try and privatize the system again, they’ll use the increased costs to show how “inefficient” the government is.

Don’t think that this sleepy-controller situation isn’t a serious safety problem. It is. It just won’t be resolved because our society doesn’t like the answer to the problem.

Now, try not to interrupt my nap with all these questions, like yesterday. I fell asleep watching TV last night and my wife wasn’t happy about it. And yet, I woke up again after less than 6 hours of sleep. Rotating shifts are a “gift” that keeps on “giving” -- even after you retire. I’m one sleepy (ex)controller.

Don Brown
April 15, 2011