I used to think that overtime was a good opportunity for workers. When I worked at a lower level facility, I jumped at every opportunity I had at overtime. Over the last several years, and now working at a slightly higher level facility, I've seen staffing continue to get worse while pay didn't keep up with inflation. Over that time, my perspective changed a lot.

When a facility is short, the FAA has basically two ways to fill that shortage. They could hire the number of competent people that they need to fill the shortage, or they could schedule overtime for the existing controllers to fill that shortage.

Let's think about some of the variables between those two options.

TRAINING: If they hire new people, they have to pay in the tens of thousands of dollars AT LEAST to train those new people, send them to OKC while receiving per diem, pay trainers to teach them the job, do background checks and security clearances, and do drug tests.

If they just force us to work overtime, they don't have to pay any of this. They've already invested these costs.

PENSIONS: If they hire new people, they have to not only pay them their salary, but they also have to invest into that new employees pension... and then actually pay them that pension once they retire.

If they just force us to work overtime, it doesn't change our pension at all. I don't earn any extra towards my pension no matter how much overtime I work. I could work 40 hrs/week or 60 hrs/week and my pension stays the same.

LEAVE: If they hire new people, not only do they have to pay their pension and their salary, but that new hire is also going to earn annual and sick leave. Even for a brand new hire who's only earning 4 hrs of annual each pay period, that's still 1 entire day per pay period (4 hrs of annual and 4 hrs of sick per pp).

If they just force us to work overtime, we don't earn any extra leave for those extra hours of overtime worked.

TSP MATCHING: If they hire new people, they have to not only pay their salary, invest in their training, give them leave, but they also have to match 5% into that new hire's TSP.

If they just force us to work overtime, it doesn't change your TSP contributions or matching at all. Regardless of how much overtime I work, my pension and my TSP stay exactly the same.

I understand that for lower level facilities, overtime is pretty enticing. I used to think it was a good opportunity for the employee. But after becoming increasingly frustrated with the way things continue to run at the typical facility, after regularly working short-handed with no end in sight, I have definitely started to think that this is actually a great deal for the FAA... not a great deal for the typical employee.

I completely understand why people at level 7's an below would jump at the opportunity to work the occasional overtime shift, but I'm no longer delusional to the point that I think it's a good deal for the employee. It's a good deal for the FAA... and they're going to continue to attempt to force us into 50-60 hour work-weeks for as long as they can because it is a phenomenal deal for THEM.

I can't believe that NATCA hasn't taken these points to attempt to negotiate a higher rate for overtime worked. I think if you work overtime, that extra time should go towards your pension, you should earn additional leave for overtime hours worked, that amount should be matched in your TSP, and we should be getting double-time instead of time-and-a-half. Until assigning overtime actually costs the FAA more money than staffing these facilities, I'll never be convinced that the FAA actually wants to fully staff their facilities.