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During my Interaction Design master I had to read a paper about the interface design for tools aiding people in these kinds of jobs. The designers spent a lot o

During my Interaction Design master I had to read a paper about the interface design for tools aiding people in these kinds of jobs. The designers spent a lot of time observing them at work and concluded that one specific feature of this work environment was that it doesn't have a "normal" situation and "emergency" situation, it's a non-stop juggling of emergencies all the time. Which I guess is part of why they stayed calm: you can't switch to panic mode if you're already constantly in that kind of stress situation, and anyone who can't handle that will be filtered out of those kinds of jobs very quickly.

amarshall 6y ago
Would you be able to provide a link to the paper? Sounds like an interesting read.
- aghillo 6y ago
  It may well be this classic from my old office colleague https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Richard+bentley+&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DBYjDWp30C04J https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Rich...
  - vanderZwan 6y ago
    Thank you, his air traffic control paper was definitely one of the papers involved, but I couldn't quite remember the right name of the design field - "computer-supported cooperative work"[0] - so I failed to find it again. I also read few other ones, including one about the London underground that described a situation where these traffic controllers were both looking at their screens, but also constantly listening to their colleagues in their periphery. This let them adjust their strategies for handling emergencies on-the-fly as new information became known[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_cooperative_work https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_cooperative... [1] http://www.academia.edu/download/48677152/Collaboration_and_Control_Crisis_Managem20160908-1044-8bh02r.pdf http://www.academia.edu/download/48677152/Collaboration_and_...
danlugo92 6y ago
Glassdoor says they earn $30k - $64k yet lots of us earn more in our comfy office jobs typing code into a text editor, kinda puts things into perspective.
- braythwayt 6y ago
  It's amazing how much leverage an employer has when they have the legal right to simply fire everyone, and there is no recourse for the employees because the employer is the federal government itself. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-000-striking-air-traffic-controllers-aug-5-1981-241252 https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-00...
  - blackflame7000 6y ago
    Or Mozilla
  - PhantomGremlin 6y ago
    For people who won't click, here are some salient facts: this air traffic controller strike occurred in 1981 In 1955, Congress had made such strikes punishable by fines or a one-year jail term a law the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 1971 You don't like it? Then don't take the job. Take a job where you do have the ability to go out on strike. When you simply cater to union-protected municipal employees, you wind up with the following, discussed on HN twice in the last day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24350022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24350022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24342828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24342828 We found truck drivers loaded up with $262,898; city painters making $270,190; firefighters earning $316,306; and plumbing supervisors cleaning up $348,291 every year. One deputy sheriff earned $574,595 last year – including $315,896 in overtime All paid for by tax dollars.
    - dsr_ 6y ago
      The highest-paid public employee in most states is a football coach.
    - 6y ago

amarshall 6y ago

Would you be able to provide a link to the paper? Sounds like an interesting read.

aghillo 6y ago
It may well be this classic from my old office colleague https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Richard+bentley+&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DBYjDWp30C04J https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Rich...
- vanderZwan 6y ago
  Thank you, his air traffic control paper was definitely one of the papers involved, but I couldn't quite remember the right name of the design field - "computer-supported cooperative work"[0] - so I failed to find it again. I also read few other ones, including one about the London underground that described a situation where these traffic controllers were both looking at their screens, but also constantly listening to their colleagues in their periphery. This let them adjust their strategies for handling emergencies on-the-fly as new information became known[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_cooperative_work https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_cooperative... [1] http://www.academia.edu/download/48677152/Collaboration_and_Control_Crisis_Managem20160908-1044-8bh02r.pdf http://www.academia.edu/download/48677152/Collaboration_and_...

danlugo92 6y ago

Glassdoor says they earn $30k - $64k yet lots of us earn more in our comfy office jobs typing code into a text editor, kinda puts things into perspective.

braythwayt 6y ago
It's amazing how much leverage an employer has when they have the legal right to simply fire everyone, and there is no recourse for the employees because the employer is the federal government itself. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-000-striking-air-traffic-controllers-aug-5-1981-241252 https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-00...
- blackflame7000 6y ago
  Or Mozilla
- PhantomGremlin 6y ago
  For people who won't click, here are some salient facts: this air traffic controller strike occurred in 1981 In 1955, Congress had made such strikes punishable by fines or a one-year jail term a law the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 1971 You don't like it? Then don't take the job. Take a job where you do have the ability to go out on strike. When you simply cater to union-protected municipal employees, you wind up with the following, discussed on HN twice in the last day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24350022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24350022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24342828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24342828 We found truck drivers loaded up with $262,898; city painters making $270,190; firefighters earning $316,306; and plumbing supervisors cleaning up $348,291 every year. One deputy sheriff earned $574,595 last year – including $315,896 in overtime All paid for by tax dollars.
  - dsr_ 6y ago
    The highest-paid public employee in most states is a football coach.
  - 6y ago