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I remember when we just used to call “mind viruses” ideas
No the word we used to have for mind virus was “cult”.
Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
91–100 of 238 posts
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think “sense of urgency”, “trouble shooting”, “understanding what is influencing other people’s actions” and even the ability to run a sort of “run a mental simulation and anticipate second order effects” are uncommon skills. I worked with a good technical support team that worked on some high end equipment, and regardless of education the ability to troubleshoot could be found regardless and … in spite of educatio…
Some of the best troubleshooters I’ve ever met were comparatively uneducated factory workers in Mexico who just assumed they were diagnosing for diagnosing and fixing everything from forklifts to PBX systems. The culture of that factory was amazing.
A former truck driver was one of the best troubleshooters I ever met. We also had a guy who worked on as a carpenter, a lady who was a former bank teller.
Also very loyal / hard workers.
In every job I’ve had since then their resumes would have been tossed in the bin by HR, but they were hired in the late 90s when companies were desperate for warm bodies.
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#93Hundreds of qualified applicants were denied jobs through a "Biographical Assessment" that you can take yourself: https://kaisoapbox.com/projects/faa_biographical_assessment/ Spend a bit of time taking it and it's clear what at least one reason for this shortage is.
And yet, this utter nonsense doesn’t appear to be DEI nonsense, just incompetence.
I imagine this was the result of an inappropriate and inadvertently p-hacked analysis of a silly survey of existing employees, along with a large helping of unjustified assumptions.
This is the kind of thing that might be, gradually, mitigated by improved high school math education. We don’t need more calculus to fix this, and we also don’t need more Pandas or R or “data science” or statistics-taught-the-way-it-usually-is. I think students could use a serious education in what data and statistics means, how to ask the right questions, and how to identify cases where the wrong question was answered, even if the answer came from fancy math.
edit: I saw https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/the-faas-hiring-scandal-... — wow, apparently a good amount of actual bad intentions may have been involved. Although the people in charge may well have thought that their bad intentions were good intentions. Sigh. One of the worst parts of the current anti-DEI madness is that its proponents are not entirely wrong.
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#94Please just entertain a hypothetical: If it turns out that the FAA was hiring much more slowly than it needed to be because it was unable to reach its DEI goals, can we all agree that we should stop doing DEI for important things?
Sure, if you’ll also entertain a non-hypothetical that DEI does not mean hiring quotas where you refuse to fill open spots, it means proactively reaching out to find talent in non-traditional areas (e.g. doing a job fair at an urban vocational school in addition to the usual ones at mostly-white colleges).
And, if for some reason it turns out that the FAA was doing a terrible job of DEI and somehow was trying to meet quotas, can we agree that we should fix the implementation, not just throw up our hands and say “I guess these jobs are whites-only”?
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
The hangup is that the current administration is asking them to resign en masse, not hiring more.
> the current administration is asking them to resign en masse, not hiring more While they did initially receive the resignation memo the Office of Personnel Management clarified that Air Traffic Controllers aren’t eligible for the resignation offer nor subject to the hiring freeze. [1] 1. https://apnews.com/article/jet-helicopter-crash-air-traffic-...
> Office of Personnel Management clarified that Air Traffic Controllers aren’t eligible
I'm curious to know if this OPM policy was there was there from the beginning, or whether it's a backtrack after the 'bad optics' after the Washington, DC, crash.
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#96It seems like there are shortages in every field according to the media. Shortage in tech workers, shortage in doctors and nurses, shortage of air traffic controllers. Shortages all around. Here's how to instantly cure shortages of ATCs: Each airline is responsible for staffing N ATCs per scheduled flight at a given airport, calculated on a yearly basis.
This is a bad idea. If implemented airlines will shut down services to small and less profitable airports and routes. It will only negatively affect passengers.
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#97The big question every one seems to be ignoring is whether air travel in the US should now be considered dangerous. If ATC is understaffed or filled with unqualified people, then how is any flight safe? Why would anyone get on a plane unless they really have to and have no other option?
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think “sense of urgency”, “trouble shooting”, “understanding what is influencing other people’s actions” and even the ability to run a sort of “run a mental simulation and anticipate second order effects” are uncommon skills. I worked with a good technical support team that worked on some high end equipment, and regardless of education the ability to troubleshoot could be found regardless and … in spite of educatio…
ATC here (opinions are my own, not of the FAA, etc) I agree those uncommon skills help make someone be a good controller. Unfortunately I don't think the FAA is testing for that, of course the hiring process tests have changed since I was hired on. (I hope someone from the FAA is reading this and tells CAMI. I was disappointed when there was no free text response on the survey they gave out a few weeks ago.)
When I think of the “uncommon” hires (former truck driver, bank teller) who I encountered who had those skills I mentioned and thrived… they would never be hired today.
It’s sad.
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#99If they are understaff (namely giga honest, super solid competent people for air traffic ground control), you have to reduce air traffic as it is way too dangerous. For this kind of staff, it is not just a matter of "training", it is way more demanding.
They won't cut traffic for the same reason they are understaffed: money. Raise pay until you have enough staff. It's not always that simple, but sometimes it is. Not everyone could do it, but a lot of people could. You just have to pay them to attract them from more lucrative jobs (which includes training them to do it). Instead they'll pay as little as they can, and occasionally pay to replace an aircraft.
A whole bunch of ATC staff just left because the new contracts they got offered reduced pay.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91270064/a-bay-area-airport-near...
Re: Over 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, data shows
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessarily. In the reparations lawsuit, there are only 1000ish individuals. Assuming all of them would have qualified, you are talking about around 2% of the current workforce. Not nothing. But the last admin grew the workforce by more numbers. And did not have this policy. So, by all means, chase reparations. But don't think you've stumbled on the reason, either.
What makes you think this wasn’t indicative of how the agency was run? The test was shut down because it was obvious and egregious: https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/the-faas-hiring-scandal-... . But the people who designed it didn’t resign.
What evidence have you that it was a present problem?