Main causes of stress
People have always said to me "Wow, that's a really stressful job", but a lot of people I've brought to the air traffic control (ATC) centre remark on how calm it is. There are some stressful days but you get stressed only in the sense that you are wise all the time to how busy you are. Not that you would ever become complacent - and obviously the more trained and skilled you become, the more competent you become as a controller. All controllers are human and we all have ways of dealing with things.
Sometimes you find you could have been more efficient. There would have been absolutely no safety implications, but you've just made work for yourself. The stress of the communications job is a very different type of stress.
The opening of our new training centre recently caused me a certain amount of stress because of the organisation, and then there were so many people milling around. When you are a controller, you take off your headset, put it in the drawer and go home or go on holidays. You leave the job behind you. But with the communications job, I'm on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer questions from the media or to deal with something which might be of concern.
Coping with stress
Teamwork is very important and all the air traffic controllers give each other a lot of support. I think, because there are so few of us, we build up a rapport with each other. I consider myself a very relaxed person anyway and there are very few circumstances where I have to say to myself "I need to relax". I have two dogs who keep me entertained and I enjoy reading and walking.
The quiet life
I live in Ennis where I bought a house a few years ago. I came back here after a short time in Dublin because this is where I want to live. I moved here when I was 18, so all my adult life has been spent down here. The quality of life is better.
In conversation with Elaine Edwards