Preoccupations: An Air Traffic Controller Thrives on Stress
March 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
I’VE been an air traffic controller at Kennedy International Airport for 20 years. Most people would call this job high-stress, but I thrive on it. You either love this type of job or you quit, or you never get into it in the first place.
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A Choreographer of Aircraft
You’d think I was the type of kid who loved excitement or always took chances. I wasn’t. I could never be a firefighter and go into a burning house. That would be stressful. It’s just not in my makeup.
There are other jobs you could characterize as stressful, too, such as food safety managers who have to worry about food-borne illnesses. Probably most corporate jobs are stressful today. It seems that everyone is asked to do the work of three people and those who haven’t been laid off are wondering if they’re next.
Jobs involving people’s health or safety can add a whole other level of stress if you let them. Most of these jobs, however, have some downtime. We’re busy every single minute we’re actually working.
It takes a certain kind of person to do this job — you can’t mind shift work. The schedule changes all the time. Some people would have a hard time with that. You work a lot of holidays, so you have to have a spouse and children who understand.
Air traffic controllers are responsible for thousands of lives. People expect …
Read the original article at NYTimes
