Narrative:

The event was the whole session. This was my second session on this sector and the first one was also extremely busy. The sector had weather all over it and tmu (traffic management unit) knew about it earlier in the day. The previous session we made sure to tell the supervisor that the dca; bwi and iad arrivals were all deviating. We needed a lot of in trail because we had no room to space. When I took over for this session; it was worse and we were holding for dca for vip movement at the airport. We had weather at our usual holding place so we had to hold at air; which is one of the busiest areas of our sector. From there it went downhill. My uret (user request evaluation tool) was full and I could tell that the list went down past what was showing. I told the supervisor that something needed to be done because I was already busy with deviations and I have nowhere for anyone to go. I did not have the space to go red. I had multiple aircraft that needed to land that were high and I couldn't get down; because of weather deviations and other sectors.I had one aircraft I had at FL340 that wanted to deviate. I cleared him without pinning him down to a certain number of degrees and he turned more than I thought. I descended him to FL330 and asked him to expedite and report reaching. I also called traffic. I turned the other aircraft but it was so busy I had no idea if he was there or if he answered the turn. The ca (captain) never said he was closer than five miles but I was not sure and the situation of the sector for the whole session was unsafe and I feel we had no help whatsoever from anyone around us; tmu; ZID; ZDC. This was one of the most unsafe situations I have been a part of in my career and I am angry that we were put in this situation to be scared for the safety of the airplanes. This was ridiculous and unsafe. We had the most weather in the whole center and I was confused as to why airplanes were all coming through our sector. I feel that there was no planning and no help from tmu. When I finally went on break (I mentally needed one well before I was offered one because we were one under the number) I walked past tmu and they were all laughing and laid back not looking remotely busy. I had no time to call weather and the pilots did not get any kind of heads up on the weather because of how busy it was and the congestion on the frequency. I feel this was a fail on management and tmu!as a controller and the one actually having to work the traffic and be scared about the safety of the aircraft; I do not appreciate being put in this situation; it could have been prevented. Aircraft should have been rerouted before our sector. I would not have wanted to be on an airplane in that and I would not want any of my family on it either. It is not often I have felt that way about the product we put out. I recommend that the new new york situation of not being able to put in trail or pretty much ask for anything not come before the safety of aircraft. If there is weather; there needs to be in trail for safety; I recommend more staffing. We may not need as many people during the winter but summer our staffing is not acceptable. Six day work weeks are not a good situation for the mental strength of the employees. I recommend that we staff to the number; we were one under and we really needed more people. I need tmu to help us rather than saying yes to everything that other centers ask for. I can't tell you how many times we have a push for dca; iad; bwi and the weather is literally covering the whole border of us and blue ridge. So then we have departures and arrivals head on. And it was starting earlier in the day and could have been prevented.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZOB controller reported sector workload being overwhelmingly unsafe; due to weather and aircraft. TMU and management failed to help.

Narrative: The event was the whole session. This was my second session on this sector and the first one was also extremely busy. The sector had weather all over it and TMU (Traffic Management Unit) knew about it earlier in the day. The previous session we made sure to tell the Supervisor that the DCA; BWI and IAD arrivals were all deviating. We needed a lot of in trail because we had no room to space. When I took over for this session; it was worse and we were holding for DCA for VIP movement at the airport. We had weather at our usual holding place so we had to hold at AIR; which is one of the busiest areas of our sector. From there it went downhill. My URET (User Request Evaluation Tool) was full and I could tell that the list went down past what was showing. I told the Supervisor that something needed to be done because I was already busy with deviations and I have nowhere for anyone to go. I did not have the space to go red. I had multiple aircraft that needed to land that were high and I couldn't get down; because of weather deviations and other sectors.I had one aircraft I had at FL340 that wanted to deviate. I cleared him without pinning him down to a certain number of degrees and he turned more than I thought. I descended him to FL330 and asked him to expedite and report reaching. I also called traffic. I turned the other aircraft but it was so busy I had no idea if he was there or if he answered the turn. The CA (Captain) never said he was closer than five miles but I was not sure and the situation of the sector for the whole session was unsafe and I feel we had no help whatsoever from anyone around us; TMU; ZID; ZDC. This was one of the most unsafe situations I have been a part of in my career and I am angry that we were put in this situation to be scared for the safety of the airplanes. This was ridiculous and unsafe. We had the most weather in the whole center and I was confused as to why airplanes were all coming through our sector. I feel that there was no planning and no help from TMU. When I finally went on break (I mentally needed one well before I was offered one because we were one under the number) I walked past TMU and they were all laughing and laid back not looking remotely busy. I had no time to call weather and the pilots did not get any kind of heads up on the weather because of how busy it was and the congestion on the frequency. I feel this was a fail on management and TMU!As a controller and the one actually having to work the traffic and be scared about the safety of the aircraft; I do not appreciate being put in this situation; it could have been prevented. Aircraft should have been rerouted before our sector. I would not have wanted to be on an airplane in that and I would not want any of my family on it either. It is not often I have felt that way about the product we put out. I recommend that the new New York situation of not being able to put in trail or pretty much ask for anything not come before the safety of aircraft. If there is weather; there needs to be in trail for safety; I recommend more staffing. We may not need as many people during the winter but summer our staffing is not acceptable. Six day work weeks are not a good situation for the mental strength of the employees. I recommend that we staff to the number; we were one under and we really needed more people. I need TMU to help us rather than saying yes to everything that other centers ask for. I can't tell you how many times we have a push for DCA; IAD; BWI and the weather is literally covering the whole border of us and Blue Ridge. So then we have departures and arrivals head on. And it was starting earlier in the day and could have been prevented.

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.