Wow - 10 pages! I normally don't spend the time reading page after page of the same thread, but this one's got me hooked. I'm an ATC'er and a lot of what's been posted on here, is similar to the varying sentiments we non-flyers have.

• I used to love my job, but now I can't stand it - all thanks to management. I have a countdown clock that says I only have 2541 more days until I can retire - never too early to start thinking about it...
• There are many controllers who have always viewed our job as just a job and nothing more.
• There are people like me, bordering on geek, that grew up in or around aviation, and have or had a lot of passion about it.
• Management has decided safety can be marginalized and economized, so their big focus is no longer about maintaining the world's best atc system. Rather, it is "how cheap can we make it, and if we make it cheap enough, we can sell it to a private company and then go work for them afterwards."
• New recruits in OKC are being told not to apply for financial assistance while they are in training, despite only being payed $8/hr with little or no per diem, because the state of OK is going after the FAA for all of the applications for $ assistance that they're having to pay. I went through in 1989 and was paid enough to live on, so I could spend all of my time studying and passing the course, like these kids should be doing, and not standing in a welfare line. That my folks, is a crime.
• If they pass, they will be paid at least 1/3 less than a person hired one or two years ago. This ought to make the Republicans REAL happy. (insert "you get what you pay for" here)
• The public has no real concept of what our career is like. Lousy hours, lousy bosses, decrepit workplaces, no recognition you're even an employee, save for the paycheck that comes every 2 weeks - that's it. Sure, I get to go home every night, after my wife and kids have gone to bed. Then I'm back at work the next day, before my kids are up. Might be days before I see them. Rinse, Repeat for 18 years now. Forget vacations with "normal" people like your family. Your kids are off in July, but you won't be. (big ax to grind here, sorry)
• Despite all of the gloom above, the actual job is fun. But it's buried so deep in all of the bs, it's hard to see it anymore. If only it weren't for all of the idiots