Narrative:

I was working sector 25R combined with sector 65 during busy and complex traffic for nearly 2 hours with no D side. It is an arrival sector and we had multiple shutoffs to denver airport during that time. I issued multiple reroutes and had the majority of aircraft deviating for weather in my sector and adjacent sectors. Aircraft Y flew through my sector at FL370 and was handed off to sector 30 eastbound and deviating for weather. After the aircraft left my airspace I dropped the data block.aircraft X came from sector 5 headed eastbound to sector 30 at FL370. The aircraft was in handoff status to sector 30 for approximately 7 minutes. Aircraft Y deviated back toward my airspace; but I had not been shown a data block or received any coordination. The conflict alert went off when aircraft X was about 2 minutes from the boundary. I called sector 30 and told him that I would turn aircraft X 15 degrees right. He said I didn't need to; that he would descend aircraft Y. I turned aircraft X when I didn't see aircraft Y descend in a timely manner. Aircraft Y began a slow descent; but when the aircraft reached FL364 and was on the edge of the bubble it began to climb again to FL370 when we had less than 5 miles.we were very short staffed and didn't have enough staffing to open up my D side or split off sector 65. The supervisor took 4 or 5 people back to have a 'break out session'. The supervisor made the comment during breakout that he knew there wasn't enough staffing to have them out; but he was proving a point to the evening supervisor because he approved shift changes that were outside of his shift. I feel that safety was compromised due to supervisors disagreeing with one another and trying to get even. Staffing has been falling below numbers a lot lately and we very rarely get overtime called in to help. Now that summer weather patterns have begun this is going to be a serious issue soon.we need more staffing and we need supervisors to make better choices.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Center Controllers reported a loss of separation between two aircraft deviating for weather.

Narrative: I was working Sector 25R combined with Sector 65 during busy and complex traffic for nearly 2 hours with no D side. It is an arrival sector and we had multiple shutoffs to Denver airport during that time. I issued multiple reroutes and had the majority of aircraft deviating for weather in my sector and adjacent sectors. Aircraft Y flew through my sector at FL370 and was handed off to Sector 30 eastbound and deviating for weather. After the aircraft left my airspace I dropped the data block.Aircraft X came from Sector 5 headed eastbound to Sector 30 at FL370. The aircraft was in handoff status to Sector 30 for approximately 7 minutes. Aircraft Y deviated back toward my airspace; but I had not been shown a data block or received any coordination. The conflict alert went off when Aircraft X was about 2 minutes from the boundary. I called Sector 30 and told him that I would turn Aircraft X 15 degrees right. He said I didn't need to; that he would descend Aircraft Y. I turned Aircraft X when I didn't see Aircraft Y descend in a timely manner. Aircraft Y began a slow descent; but when the aircraft reached FL364 and was on the edge of the bubble it began to climb again to FL370 when we had less than 5 miles.We were very short staffed and didn't have enough staffing to open up my D side or split off Sector 65. The supervisor took 4 or 5 people back to have a 'break out session'. The supervisor made the comment during breakout that he knew there wasn't enough staffing to have them out; but he was proving a point to the evening supervisor because he approved shift changes that were outside of his shift. I feel that safety was compromised due to supervisors disagreeing with one another and trying to get even. Staffing has been falling below numbers a lot lately and we very rarely get overtime called in to help. Now that summer weather patterns have begun this is going to be a serious issue soon.We need more staffing and we need supervisors to make better choices.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.