You don’t see us in the airports or on your flight, but if you fly into or out of the airports here in South Florida, or in the vast airspace over the northern Caribbean and western Gulf of Mexico, you rely on the work we do. We are air traffic controllers and our profession has been criticized in the news media over isolated reports of controllers falling asleep on the job.

We work in the glass-enclosed air traffic control towers moving aircraft from the gates to the runways. Once you’re in the air, we hand you off to highly skilled and dedicated co-workers in the radar room and the regional radar center located away from Miami International Airport. There are 15,500 of us nationwide, safely handling 70,000 flights a day.

After the 9/11 attacks, we were tasked with safely shutting down the nation’s airspace. We are called upon to assist in emergencies, such as smoke in the cockpit, or when there’s a hydraulic failure or some other type of mechanical malfunction. We intervene when a pilot has a heart attack and a passenger with no experience has to bring the plane down to the ground. (Yes, that actually happened in 2009.)

We cope with South Florida’s thunderstorms when all pilots want to be in the same piece of sky, and with lightning — it’s a normal day at the office for us.

We are acutely aware that every blip on a screen represents lives that depend on our expertise.

The headlines you’ve seen regarding controllers falling asleep on the job have put the air traffic control profession in a negative light. They may even have led you to question your trust and confidence in the air traffic control system.

We feel the pain of what’s happened very deeply. We have a highly professional workforce of controllers who go to work each day ready to meet the standard of perfection that is expected and demanded of us. When we go home and see our beloved profession become fodder for the late night comedians, or endure yet another wisecrack from a friend, relative or neighbor, it hurts like a punch in the gut.

Falling asleep at a work station is unacceptable. But there are serious workplace issues that need to be addressed rationally, especially with regard to scheduling of air traffic controllers. Fortunately, that is happening with some urgency.

Until a couple of weeks ago, controllers would sometimes be scheduled to work from 2 to 10 p.m.. then have to return at 6 the next morning to start a new shift. A brutal turnaround like that plays havoc with your sleep patterns. A study by the Federal Aviation Administration and our union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, confirmed this was a problem. The study was rolled out in March, just as reports of sleeping controllers became fodder in the press. That specific scheduling issue has just been addressed. Schedules have been adjusted to allow for nine hours between shifts — instead of eight — when a controller has a quick turnaround from the 2-to-10 swing shift.

In all, the study makes 12 recommendations for easing the strain of a job that ensures U.S. skies are the safest in the world, and the safest they have ever been. Discussions about implementation are ongoing.

We are proud of our profession and the quality of our work.

We are the voices that guide you home.