Narrative:

Area 2 at ZME was forced to work short staffed due to incompetence. Management here waited until mid-morning to attempt to cover the shift with overtime. There was no one available on the yes list and they knew it. They deliberately waited too long and did not assign overtime to someone on the 'no' list. When we reported for the shift we were advised that not 1 but 2 controllers had called in that evening and offered to work. The supervisor denied them; telling them 'we have the shift covered.' by this they meant holding one cpc over and calling one in early. ZME is unique on the mid shift because we have a more traffic inbound and outbound. Weather developed and we were forced to open 3 sectors and have all three cpc's on duty at the same time. Two of us; myself included; worked over 4 hours and 6 hours with no break respectively with the 3rd going over 3 hours on position as well. Due to the weather the vast majority of transcontinental flights were allowed to deviate and fly through our airspace at the same time as the departure push. This was dangerous. The watch supervisor tried calling headquarters for help and the airlines and we were afforded no relief. We were exhausted. We missed things. Aircraft and people were unsafe all to save $400. Safety is not a budget line item. The same thing happened the evening prior. Dismiss the supervisor responsible and retrain the rest.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Memphis Center Controller reported an avoidable short staffed shift where controllers went over 3 and 4 hours on position without breaks.

Narrative: Area 2 at ZME was forced to work short staffed due to incompetence. Management here waited until mid-morning to attempt to cover the shift with overtime. There was no one available on the yes list and they knew it. They deliberately waited too long and did not assign overtime to someone on the 'NO' list. When we reported for the shift we were advised that not 1 but 2 controllers had called in that evening and offered to work. The supervisor denied them; telling them 'We have the shift covered.' By this they meant holding one CPC over and calling one in early. ZME is unique on the mid shift because we have a more traffic inbound and outbound. Weather developed and we were forced to open 3 sectors and have all three CPC's on duty at the same time. Two of us; myself included; worked over 4 hours and 6 hours with no break respectively with the 3rd going over 3 hours on position as well. Due to the weather the vast majority of transcontinental flights were allowed to deviate and fly through our airspace at the same time as the departure push. This was dangerous. The watch supervisor tried calling HQ for help and the airlines and we were afforded no relief. We were exhausted. We missed things. Aircraft and people were unsafe all to save $400. Safety is not a budget line item. The same thing happened the evening prior. Dismiss the supervisor responsible and retrain the rest.

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.