Asleep at the Switch

These methods may help, and will keep the employers squeaky-clean, but they won't prevent a daytime sleep being interrupted by family/deliveries/road drills/aircraft noise and whatever else.

That's not bad money, and it deserves a conscientious attitude, with due regard for sleep/rest requirements.

It is as much that "the management" has also been asleep at the switch. Poor policy and oversight (typical of most government run entities) needs to be corrected along with the undisciplined, unmotivated controllers. As in most cases, you can seldom just "blame the workers", especially where a trend is present!

I think rcrain is "right on" as they say. A job as a controller is a job with certain specified responsibilities. Doing other things in your time off that somewhat interferes with your paying job is the problem. At that rate of pay, you would not think a second job was necessary. But of course there is never enough $$$$. He is also right in saying it is a management problem---get some discipline into the system!

I`m going to go out on a limb here again, but didn`t President Reagan fire a bunch of controllers cause they could not get there way. My mind is fuzzy, but seems to me they wanted shorter work hours, and more money.It seems to me what they were asking was intolerable, and the unions and management were backing them.I believe Reagan gave them a deadline, or it was the bricks. Apparently he was not kidding. I was much younger then, and don`t remember all the particulars, but they straightened up and flew right until Reagan left office, then it was back to the same old thing.Since management means the goverment, where do you start to clean house. Just a thought.

Reagan fired them because the Union and its rank and file participated in an illegal strike. They went on strike because of the reasons you gave. Part of the problem, though, is a lot of what they wanted was/is non-negotiable. It's set down by Congress, as actual law, in the Civil Service System.

Hooker <--- ex IAM official from a Fed gov't union shop

Thank you Hooker for setting the record straight. Like I said, it was a long time ago, and I have slept since then. Its always good to know the straight skinny on something. Again, thank you sir.

Circadian rhythm desynchronization is a much underrated issue. Function seems to stabilize for most after 3 months, by which time the various neurochemical cycles are fully synched up with the sleep/wake cycle. Going from days to nights to days, even with 8 hours of sleep in between, is a recipe for vastly increased stress responses.