No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 9.0
Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Airspace Structure; Company Policy; Staffing
Apparently Approach had coordinated to have Center take their airspace due to staffing issues. That information never made it to the supervisor or the controllers who were then surprised when Fargo called to give us the airspace. That sector is one of the most complex in the building with intensive flight training; multiple frequencies; non-radar areas; manual coordination required with Canada on all aircraft; CAN routes; and sequencing for an arrival.In fact; he wasn't even in the room for most of the operation. I came back from break to find a controller working combined sectors which had a lot of deviating and coordination with Canada required and no handoff position and no supervisor. I chose to get in to the handoff position and we were both super busy for well over an hour. Those sectors should not have been combined and the supervisor should have had a clue or at least pretended he cared. There was a degradation of service provided due to having 2 sectors non-radar; multiple arrivals into KFAR; multiple other arrivals into other airports; weather deviations; and non-radar. This is not the first time we have failed to have a heads up on Approaches closing. Clearly this issue needs to be coordinated in a better manner. It makes a difference.Tell the supervisors to keep in the area and not spend most of their time socializing with others in flight data or the other areas. Do not allow a sector that is busier than usual with working an approach control that involved working an extra 10'ish arrivals an hour to be combined with another sector when you have staffing to keep them split. Put in a Handoff position to take all the Canada coordination calls and the tower release/down time/inbound calls. Create a fool proof method of notification for important information such as airspace closures.
ZMP Center controller reported they had to unexpectedly take over TRACON Airspace due to staffing into a Center sector that was already combined.