No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 15
Training / Qualification
ATC Issue All Types
Staffing
My developmental and I were paged back from break after 25 minutes so that we could go into the rotation as operational; instead of conducting OJT. The reason we were told is because we had people coming up on 2 hours TOP [Time On Position] and getting them out was more of a priority. We worked operational for about a half hour and then we took over the sector from the other developmental training at sectors 80/89. The developmental then was assigned our d-side for about a half hour before he was offered a break. During this time frame another developmental who is only checked out on one d-side had his training stopped so that his On the Job Training Instructor (OJTI) could also work operational instead of provide OJT.Tonight's staffing is at 8 Certified Professional Controllers (CPCs) and we have had 5 sectors open with d-sides assigned to at least 2 sectors. This is an unsafe situation and we are not even at the summer month's traffic levels yet. What do we need to do to get someone here on overtime? The number of bodies that we are starting shifts with has never been so low and yet we just keep working short. At some point we will need to open more sectors than we have bodies to fill the seats.Get us some overtime so we can get the developmental we have checked out and then send more bodies.
ZID Controller reported a shift was short staffed. Reporter stated that training had to cease at times to allow breaks.