Narrative:

While in climb to FL410 we were given a turn 20 degrees left for traffic. Passing through 36;600 feet controller said a mistake had been made and descend to FL360. As we were descending controller gave us a right turn to 110. At that time we received an RA which we followed to 35;500 before we were clear of conflict. We then climbed back to FL360 and reported our altitude and RA event to ATC. ATC stated there was confusion between two controller's plans. The controllers [should be] on the same page. What happened today isn't a surprise to me. Since the reduction in staffing of the controllers from the covid-19 pandemic flying has been miserable and less safe. Most controllers are controlling several frequencies and are overloaded. We have had more TA's in the last 2 months than the last 3 years.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Corporate jet Captain reported a communication issue between ATC facilities resulted in an airborne conflict.

Narrative: While in climb to FL410 we were given a turn 20 degrees left for traffic. Passing through 36;600 feet Controller said a mistake had been made and descend to FL360. As we were descending Controller gave us a right turn to 110. At that time we received an RA which we followed to 35;500 before we were clear of conflict. We then climbed back to FL360 and reported our altitude and RA event to ATC. ATC stated there was confusion between two controller's plans. The controllers [should be] on the same page. What happened today isn't a surprise to me. Since the reduction in staffing of the controllers from the COVID-19 pandemic flying has been miserable and less safe. Most controllers are controlling several frequencies and are overloaded. We have had more TA's in the last 2 months than the last 3 years.

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.