Dispatch Dispatcher
Distraction; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Company Policy; Human Factors
At the start of shift; I began familiarizing myself with the current weather and its patterns; known ATC issues; taking pass-down briefings and analyzing future workload for the morning shift I was responsible for. Due to forecasted TS from the Ohio Valley thru the Tennessee basin and an excessively high workload on desks; I submitted a help message to my supervisors. The chief dispatcher on duty personally visited my desk to relay a message from the Director: He was personally busy; and would not be able to respond to the messages at this time. However; only 1 person was on the callout list. A mass broadcast to all employees could not be accomplished until 75 minutes prior to a desk being open (A desk was never opened).[My] desk had 18 flights departing in the [scheduled] hour. The majority of these flights were either to stations with weather directly impacting/forecasted to impact; or were scheduled to cross the line of weather. [Three hours before]; I called the Director to talk about the morning operations. He stated that he was still busy and had no one to call in for help. I relayed to him that I had a plan; and he said he would be down to talk to me about it. More than 2 hours went by; and I felt compelled to place the plan into action by delaying 14 flights in order to maintain operation control and safety. [The Director] immediately came to my desk; and sat directly behind me. I had a high volume of phone calls due to pilots wanting weather briefings; releases and stations trying to get fuel loads for uncompleted releases. Once I had a small break between phone calls; [he] started lecturing that I was in the wrong and violated the Dispatch Manual by not coordinating delays over 45 minutes with management. He threatened that a meeting will be in my future; and to not delay any flights without talking to my supervisors. This conversation took place at my desk while trying to release flights; flight follow and handle an extremely high workload with numerous phone calls. Our Safety Management System is in place; and I felt that I operated in the yellow margin for most of the night.Workload on dispatchers in the office is encroaching on the safe operations of the hundreds of flights we are expected to release and follow. [One] desk had 54 flights to release and follow; [another] had 57 flight and [a third] had 58 flights. Seventy-five percent flights traversed or landed in the areas with major weather concerns. Lower the workload to a more manageable and safe load.
Air carrier Dispatcher reported a very high workload and management pressure interfered with his duties.