EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Human Factors
The rides had been bad and several aircraft had been asking for ride reports and I was spacing for the Class B airport. An E170 was eastbound at FL350 and requesting FL330 because of the bad rides. The E170 was in Sector X's airspace and I had just given Sector X the first of two northbound arrivals at FL340. In the next couple of minutes I was distracted by a situation in the southern part of my sector. When I scanned back to the north; the E170 had entered my airspace and the first arrival northbound was in Sector X. I gave the E170 a clearance for lower and Conflict Alert went of with an E145; the second arrival at FL340. I turned E170 20 degrees left to add more space between them. There was no loss of separation but it felt like a safety issue to me because they were closer than I usually let airplanes get and I had just been dealing with the other situation in the sector. I need to take a moment to refocus after some kind of distraction. When pilots are trying to get out of bad rides; it adds a sense of urgency to get them out of it as quickly as possible. If I would have taken just a moment to scan my entire sector again I would have made another evaluation at the traffic situation with the E145; and probably waited two minutes before descending E170.
Distracted by attempts to resolve 'bad ride' reports; an Enroute Controller experienced a near separation loss.