Dispatch Dispatcher
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Work Refused
Procedure; Company Policy; Environment - Non Weather Related; Staffing; Human Factors
When I got to work at XA:50 local; I started checking my workload and the number of flights I was going to receive from the dispatchers I was relieving. I counted 25 flights in the air; that I was supposed to inherit; at least 17 of them were medium to long hauls; departing between XG:00z and arriving before XJ:30z. When I determined the workload I immediately sent the help message; around XB:00 local; and went to talk to the Chief Dispatcher and the Duty Director; and we discussed possible mitigation to the problem; because I was refusing to take the desk in those conditions. First; it was said that a unit coordinator position was going to be closed to alleviate the workload; but that never happened. Then a sector manager came down to my colleague; Dispatcher Y; and asked him if he could take some of my flights; when Dispatcher Y had 20 flights in the air. He declined; since his plate was full already. To me that is lack of situational awareness; as the sector manager are the ones in charge of the flight distribution. Then he continued asking around and a couple of my colleagues picked 2 flights each; so my workload went down to 19; since 2 of those were about to get to the gate; which is still over the company policy; but it was acceptable since there were no complications on the desk. Increase mid night desks and improve the flights distribution.
Dispatcher reported having to work too many flights during shift.