No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 16
Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Company Policy; Human Factors; Staffing; Weather
On the overnight shift we encountered a significant amount of weather and deviations affecting the inbound push. Although the weather had been sitting in the airspace all afternoon; the 4 of us mid shift crew arrived to find 3 sectors open with one sector also requiring a D-side (Assist). There was no hold over and no plan for how we were expected to safely and efficiently get the arrivals in. There seemed to be significant confusion between TMU (Traffic Management Unit); the Supervisors; and the Controllers on the floor. We moved the inbound lines from one Area to another Area and back. The planes went in and out of holding with zero information on what to expect next. At the end of the push; all the arrivals were sent back up north and west without any form of plan or sequence; even as we attempted to contact our supervisor on the shift that we would be able to take arrivals. We also went for hours without an opportunity for a break as every time we asked if we could close a sector (when the traffic was down to one or no aircraft;) we got an exasperated sigh for a response. I feel the night shift managers and TMU crew failed to successfully set up the mid operations by not holding over controllers; not devising a plan and not providing the supervisors on the night shift with the ability to handle all the sectors; employees and flow control. There is a sense of 'Not my problem' at the end of shifts that is now affecting the safe flow of our very busy mid operations. There is also no concern of how long controllers stay on break over night without knowledge of if they will even be provided a break.
A Center Controller reported the Area was understaffed and Traffic Management flow was not in place during a period of known weather deviations.