Originally Posted by gold23

I'll get flamed for saying this, and there's absolutely some internal rage from having several weeks' worth of business and travel upended.....But multiple ATC taking up to 45 days worth of trauma paid leave is absolutely a couple of people exploiting the policy. I don't doubt for a single second that it was amazingly traumatic when the screens went blank. But, to be honest, if someone is that traumatized from that moment (that did not result in any incidents), I don't have a tremendous amount of faith that this is the right career for them. Two psychologists in my immediate family- in our text chain, they are adamant that 1) yes, this absolutely can be considered a traumatic experience, and one which someone might need a day or two to compress their thoughts and regroup 2) if such feelings persist beyond 48-72 hours, they absolutely, positively should not be in the position of air traffic control ever again, as the safety of future passengers will be at tremendous risk considering they are likely to have moments where they freeze/panic. So either we've lost those controllers and safety forever, or they're manipulating and taking advantage of a terrible situation to their benefit and the distress of thousands. Neither option is good.