Originally Posted by Turbosina

Fair question. Put yourself in the position of a controller. You've been overworked and stressed for years. You know the system is one error away from a tragedy such as happened this week. Yet you come into work every day (or night), doing your best to keep the skies safe.

Then a link in the accident chain breaks. One of your fellow controllers -- a union brother -- is on duty in an understaffed tower. He witnesses a fireball above the Potomac. Exactly what you've been dreading had just happened.

You hope, in the immediate aftermath of this tragedy, that your elected leadership will step up to the plate and vow to fix the understaffing issue. That you will hear warm words of condolence and support. But instead, you get a mass email -- the second such email in just a few days -- encouraging you to seek employment in a "higher productivity job in the private sector."

How do you think you'd feel? Appreciated? Understood? Would you feel that your elected leadership has your back?

Or would you feel disgusted and disillusioned at the way you're being treated?

I know how I'd feel.

Is this really how we, as a country, want to treat some of the most talented and hard working folks in our government? Is this fair? Is it empathetic? Will it lead to greater safety? We as pilots depend on these men and women to do their jobs correctly -- without them, our livelihoods would not be possible. Controllers deserve our respect and gratitude. They do not deserve to be treated as disposable human drones, which is how that email approaches them.

That's the point.