Narrative:

I was coming off a 5-day break and came into work start time xa:00. This desk is not covered by a midnight shift dispatcher. Under the new dynamic dispatch workload management system; that means there is no pass down from midnight shift; no work sheet set up. Once I got dispatch view and sabre FPM started up; I saw that the first 4 flights were scheduled to be released at xa:00; xa:00; xa:01; and xa:10. With no idea what was going on in the national airspace system and no weather or NOTAMS whatsoever; I began my self-brief. As a result; those first 4 flights were released late. I didn't manage to release the xa:10 flight until xa:55. I'm not quite sure how I am supposed to be able to sit down with no information and start releasing flights. A thorough self-brief is required to safely and legally begin dispatching flights. With no briefing from a midnight dispatcher that is a 15 minute procedure. This automatically meant that those first 4 flights were going to be released late. I am worried that management will be pressuring dispatchers to release unsafe and illegal flight releases based on an unrealistically heavy work load from the very start of the shift.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Dispatcher reported flight releases were delayed due to being scheduled as soon as shift started and without a proper briefing.

Narrative: I was coming off a 5-day break and came into work start time XA:00. This desk is not covered by a midnight shift dispatcher. Under the new dynamic dispatch workload management system; that means there is no pass down from midnight shift; no work sheet set up. Once I got Dispatch View and Sabre FPM started up; I saw that the first 4 flights were scheduled to be released at XA:00; XA:00; XA:01; and XA:10. With no idea what was going on in the National Airspace System and no weather or NOTAMS whatsoever; I began my self-brief. As a result; those first 4 flights were released late. I didn't manage to release the XA:10 flight until XA:55. I'm not quite sure how I am supposed to be able to sit down with no information and start releasing flights. A thorough self-brief is required to safely and legally begin dispatching flights. With no briefing from a midnight dispatcher that is a 15 minute procedure. This automatically meant that those first 4 flights were going to be released late. I am worried that management will be pressuring dispatchers to release unsafe and illegal flight releases based on an unrealistically heavy work load from the very start of the shift.

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.