Narrative:

My swing shift coworkers and I are expected to take over an enormous amount of flights every evening. I am a relief dispatcher and have worked this shift many times since november when the workforce on swing shift was cut in half. Of those times; at least 1 of the 3 dispatchers (sometimes 2 dispatchers) have had to dump part of their workload onto the assistant dispatcher and/or chief; as they felt the flight load was unmanageable and unsafe. Today it was all 3. This has been discouraged by our manager; which has made it a very conflicted and uncomfortable environment for some of my coworkers. Today I was expected to take over 41 airborne flights ranging geographically from the east coast -- ewr; mia; dca; ord; to mexico; the west coast phx; san; midwest ord; msp; etc. -- Basically all of north america. Taking over 41 flights that were already airborne was unacceptable to me. Our flight following program is not even designed to handle that many flights; so you have to scroll down 2 pages to see all of the active flights. Today I gave half of those airborne flights to the assistant dispatcher and added the other half of those airborne flights to my workload. The assistant also took over another full desk; and the chief took over some flights from the third swing shift dispatcher. Recommendations: open another swing shift desk immediately. This safety issue has been voiced by many if not all of the dispatchers who work this shift. It is a safety hazard that has not been corrected by the company for the last 2 months.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Swing shift dispatcher reports being required by his company to take over as many as 40 flights each night and finds the work load unmanageable.

Narrative: My swing shift coworkers and I are expected to take over an enormous amount of flights every evening. I am a Relief Dispatcher and have worked this shift many times since November when the workforce on swing shift was cut in half. Of those times; at least 1 of the 3 dispatchers (sometimes 2 dispatchers) have had to dump part of their workload onto the Assistant Dispatcher and/or Chief; as they felt the flight load was unmanageable and unsafe. Today it was all 3. This has been discouraged by our Manager; which has made it a very conflicted and uncomfortable environment for some of my coworkers. Today I was expected to take over 41 airborne flights ranging geographically from the East Coast -- EWR; MIA; DCA; ORD; to Mexico; the West Coast PHX; SAN; Midwest ORD; MSP; etc. -- basically all of North America. Taking over 41 flights that were already airborne was unacceptable to me. Our flight following program is not even designed to handle that many flights; so you have to scroll down 2 pages to see all of the active flights. Today I gave half of those airborne flights to the Assistant Dispatcher and added the other half of those airborne flights to my workload. The Assistant also took over another full desk; and the Chief took over some flights from the third swing shift Dispatcher. Recommendations: Open another swing shift desk immediately. This safety issue has been voiced by many if not all of the dispatchers who work this shift. It is a safety hazard that has not been corrected by the company for the last 2 months.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.