Some people do the platform staff / dispatcher job for longer than they anticipated. Generally these tend to be fairly hardy souls who do not feel the need to complain about snow / rain / wind / puke / luggage every five minutes (although the odd moan is only to be expected on the railway...). They are also the people who get on well enough with most of the public, don't want to lock themselves away in a driver's cab, and manage to somehow make ends meet sufficiently. I've worked with more people who've given it up for a better income than those who have abandoned it simply because they didn't like it very much.
I've known some cracking station staff who've been dispatching trains for decades, equally I have also known people to barely make it half way through the first day of training. Each to their own, really!
Yes absolutely. You hear far more moaning from drivers, in my experience, usually for the silliest of reasons.
The dispatch staff at my location are cracking and range from new entrants to people who are semi retired, with diverse previous careers, doing it to pass the time. Interestingly, in my experience, there are more rail enthusiasts amongst the dispatcher population than there are amongst the driver population (although most enthusiast-drivers wouldn't ever admit to liking trains in the mess room!).
The people skills/putting up with endless questions/moans is a key part of the dispatchers' job. I have no idea how they put up with what they do. I'm far too impatient and enjoy my ability to walk away/slam my cab door/shut my window on people who are too distracting (or who are obviously behaving as pr*cks
).
It's not a job I would want, or be able, to do myself so I take my hat off to them for doing it!