Air traffic controller stress just comes with the territory when thousands of lives depend on you during any given working shift. Not only is an air traffic controller salary rewarded to you for your outstanding skills, but also because of the fact that you must deal with an incredible amount of stress related to work.

What Causes Air Traffic Control Stress?

In addition to the fact that controllers are responsible for keeping our skies safe; the work hours of an air traffic controller can be very demanding. Control towers must be supervised 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; this means morning, night and swing shifts. You can imagine the potential scheduling problems that can occur when control towers need to be supervised this many hours of the day. Just imagine what happens to the scheduling when a controller gets sick, or is on vacation, etc. There are certain regulations in place as to how many hours a controller must take off the clock before working his/her next shift, but in some cases a controller may be running on very little sleep.

It’s difficult enough to try and read a book, or do something relaxing when you are extremely tired; imagine having a job as important as an air traffic controller and trying to get it done on very little sleep. Now you can probably understand why this job can become very stressful at times, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Controller’s are also using a large amount of high tech equipment, which may not always be co-operating as it should. You know how you sometimes have those moments on your own computer, and just think how much more low tech your personal computer is compared to the equipment controllers are working with.

These are just a few of the issues air traffic controllers are dealing with that are contributing to stress levels of this job.

Dealing With Air Traffic Control Stress

Whether your already a controller or looking at how to become an air traffic controller, this next section on dealing with stress can be helpful for anyone experiencing stress.

Identifying the source of your stress

The first step you must take in eliminating stress from your life is to identify the sources causing your stress so that you can deal with them. Think about the things that get you worked up or “stressed out”. Is it deadlines, worrying about lack of sleep, your schedule, job demands, a co-worker that are leading to your stress?

How do you currently cope with your stress

Once you identified what is causing your stress, you can now examine how you are currently dealing with it.

Many people have very unhealthy ways of dealing with their stress, lets look at a few.

• Sleeping
• Drinking
• Smoking
• Drugs or pills
• Not eating enough, or eating too much
• Procrastination

If you are dealing with your stress using one of the above methods, then you need to work towards changing that. These are unhealthy ways to deal with stress, and you need to utilize more healthy methods.

More healthy alternatives to these above “solutions” is to either avoid the stress, or to adapt.

Avoiding stressful situations is always possible but may not be that easy to incorporate, especially if it means leaving post as an air traffic controller. In this case the better option might be to accept and adapt to the stress.

Tips to adapt

Re-frame situations and focus on the positives: No matter what the situation there is always something that could have made it worse, so focus on the positives. If something goes wrong, look at it as a challenge and something you might be able to learn something new from. Remember, in the whole scheme of life this is just a little tick mark on a long line that is your lifetime on this earth; this shall pass too.

Adjust your standards: As perfect as you would like for work to be each day, go in knowing that there is potential for there to be problems. Accepting this ahead of time, will help you when things don’t go as you had “planned”.

Take your mind off your stress

Besides adapting, and accepting the stress, you can also help to relieve it by making some time in your day to take your mind off of it. The best way to do this is by participating in some sort of activity that puts your mind “in the moment”, and doesn’t let your mind wonder into the past or future.

Here are some activities that can help to keep your mind in the moment.

• Taking a walk
• Playing a game
• Reading
• Surfing the internet
• Writing
• Drinking some tea or coffee
• Playing with a pet
• Listening to music
• Taking a drive

Lastly, in addition to everything mentioned above you should also incorporate living a health lifestyle which will also help with daily stress. This means exercising regularly, eating healthy, getting sufficient amount of rest, and avoiding vices.

We hope that you’ve found this article informative and informational. If you are thinking about becoming an air traffic controller it is good to familiarize yourself with healthy ways to deal with air traffic controller stress before getting deep into your career. If you are already a controller these tips may help you in dealing with the current stress you may be feeling.