The Fountain of Wellbeing

We can find the name of at least 1 person associated with a quest for the fountain of youth in the annals of history.  Spanish conquistador, Juan Ponce de Leon is the most outstanding example because he was the center of a historical debate about whether the search for a mythical fountain was the motivation for his sailing adventures.  
In our 21^st century, the legendary fountain has a new name – wellbeing.  And the search is now openly embraced by swashbuckling organizations. We wonder if Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) are involved in this quest and the question arises:
What is the extent of wellbeing in Air Traffic Control (ATC)? 
The following are excerpts from an information paper on wellbeing in ATC to be presented at the upcoming IFATCA conference.

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Challenges to Implementing Wellbeing

When a controller from Bulgaria asked about the elements of a realistic complexity score, all of the respondents touched on various aspects of wellbeing. One entrepreneur of a South African Air Traffic Management (ATM) advisory service spoke about the culture and structure of management. A controller from Pakistan candidly described the conditions under which they worked and the points in their airspace that were frequently congested.  An FAA representative described the value of a suitable work environment with support systems. The message that wellbeing is and will be a daunting issue in ATC was very clear. But what are some challenges to implementing wellbeing and how can we overcome these challenges?

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Identifying the Drivers of Happiness

A Chief Executive of a factory complex that manufactures brand name software components is being interviewed about his efforts to improve working conditions for his 1,000,000 employees.

"No one in our industry is doing more to improve  the life of our employees...We are constantly auditing facilities, going deep into the supply chain, looking for problems, finding problems,...fixing problems and we report everything because we believe that transparency is...very important in this area."*

However, his impressive answer could not hide the fact that within a 4 year period, 18 fatal employee incidents were linked to suicide. How can we apply this situation to the ATC environment? 

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