“You get mentally exhausted and mushy listening too long,” an air traffic controller in the Dallas–Fort Worth area told me. “You have to be careful because it happens to some people sooner than others.” He said he often feels like he has used up his capacity to listen once his shift is over. “There are days when I come home and the last thing I want is to engage with my family,” he said. “It makes everyone walk on eggshells around Dad, but I just can’t listen to anyone else.”
