Personnel

• The strength of a company depends on the strength and ability of its workers. This is most true and important in the business of air traffic control.
  
  The duty of an air traffic controller is to develop plans for traffic flow, monitor the events that take place, and to communicate with the pilots involved to ensure safety. The results of the FAA's biennial employee attitude survey (EAS) provide information about organizational culture and climate, including employees' perception of the extent to which the formal structure and practices meet their needs.
  
  The results of the most recent survey (1995) indicate that air traffic employees generally consider their jobs to be satisfying, but they are generally dissatisfied with workload, bad hours, and management practices with the organizational context within which they perform their job (Wickens 8).
  
  The controller cannot properly perform his needed duties if his workload is too large.
  
  
• This is just one of the problems faced by traffic controllers. With the ever-expanding market of commercial flight, controllers have to deal with an increasing number of aircraft. If there are too many aircraft for one controller to handle he cannot observe each one and can quite possibly miss or skip over a potentially fatal accident. Another factor, which makes the workload for a controller too complex, is the quality of the displays which is another piece of ATC aging technology. The displays are a black screen with color-coded T's, that represent an aircraft, moving across the screen. With poor displays a controller has a difficult time observing the actions of the aircraft. An overload of work often leads to vigilance in the workplace and anger between the controller and his boss. For example, on January 7, 1997 an Emery DC-10 airfreighter almost collided with a United 737 over Denver when an ATC controller reportedly left his workstation after an argument with his superior (Ladkin).
  
  
• An interview via email with an anonymous air traffic controller shows the stress and hard work involved with a job at ATC. Questions regarding work stress and the lack of federal funding for ATC were asked of the anonymous controller. The controller was questioned if he had ever felt so stressed to the point of leaving his workplace, and the effects on his efficiency due to outdated equipment.
  
  
• "The profession of air traffic control is not as difficult or complex as it was five years ago but it is a fairly stressful job. Currently on average I work twelve hours of overtime every week, this work time is not directly scheduled for me but I am required to work anyway. Twelve hours of overtime is low as compared to that required of my co-workers. The computers and data terminals at Charlotte (CLT) have recently been refurbished and therefore are not yet on the obsolete list. Before the new terminals were purchased the old equipment would crash on a monthly basis. In 1996, ATC was downsized considerably, reducing our work force nationally by five thousand employees and also over the past two years cutting our budget by six hundred million dollars. The budget cut has not had an enormous impact on CLT but we were fortunate to receive the new data-terminals when we did." (Breedlove)

• Generation loss is another factor faced by traffic controllers today. Many controllers received their job after returning from the World Wars. These elderly controllers are preparing to retire or pass away. This leaves ATC largely understaffed. This loss of elderly workers has left the large and growing workload upon the younger and under-trained personnel. The remaining personnel in ATC do not have adequate time to leave their work place to take refresher work training courses on new or upgraded software. Human factors including fatigue, shift work problems, and stress, all lead to situations in which fatal errors can and possibly will occur. Furthermore, a 1996 review of air traffic control operations at the New York Center and New York Tracon facilities found that of those air traffic control specialists reviewed, almost 75% of those who worked a seven-day week (five regular scheduled days and two days of overtime) took some type of sick leave during that week (Salac). Communication in groups, working with new technologies, and the constant study of changes all distract the work of the controller and must be observed by those in control. In the ATC system there is little focus on the work structure and systemic tasks of the humans and the equipment that comprise and compromise the system (Wickens 12). The ATC system depends on its workers and if those workers are inhibited the system will fail.