A dispatcher reported that company policy has their dispatch center under staffed and unable to comp...

Narrative:

I'm currently a line holder on the afternoon shift. Today due to the company's inability to appropriately staff the office I was scheduled to work the first hour on desk X and then move to the ATC coordinator position when another afternoon shift dispatcher arrives an hour after me. When I accept the shift on desk X I have approximately 6 releases due in the first hour of the shift. At this time I am also signing into the applications on the desk in order to maintain situational awareness and begin my shift briefing. Due to the company not being able to adequately staff the office and thus having me move to the ATC coordinator position after the first hour this does not give me sufficient time to comply with far 121.599 prior to having to accomplish these releases before I am expected to complete a shift turnover to the oncoming dispatcher. This situation also sets both dispatchers up to fail as I don't feel I was adequately self-briefed to provide a comprehensive shift turnover to the incoming dispatcher. At the time there was significant weather impact at a mid west airport with thunderstorms. When the afternoon shift dispatcher arrived I had not been able to complete the releases on the worksheet in the one hour which now puts this dispatcher behind on the workload when they assume operational control of the shift.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Dispatcher reported that Company policy has their Dispatch Center under staffed and unable to complete the FAR dispatch duties particularly at shift change and brief times.

Narrative: I'm currently a line holder on the afternoon shift. Today due to the Company's inability to appropriately staff the office I was scheduled to work the first hour on Desk X and then move to the ATC Coordinator Position when another afternoon shift Dispatcher arrives an hour after me. When I accept the shift on Desk X I have approximately 6 releases due in the first hour of the shift. At this time I am also signing into the applications on the desk in order to maintain situational awareness and begin my shift briefing. Due to the Company not being able to adequately staff the office and thus having me move to the ATC Coordinator position after the first hour this does not give me sufficient time to comply with FAR 121.599 prior to having to accomplish these releases before I am expected to complete a shift turnover to the oncoming Dispatcher. This situation also sets both dispatchers up to fail as I don't feel I was adequately self-briefed to provide a comprehensive shift turnover to the incoming Dispatcher. At the time there was significant weather impact at a Mid West airport with thunderstorms. When the afternoon shift Dispatcher arrived I had not been able to complete the releases on the worksheet in the one hour which now puts this Dispatcher behind on the workload when they assume operational control of the shift.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1006947
Time
Date	201204
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Environment
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Dispatcher
Qualification	Dispatch Dispatcher
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A dispatcher reported that company policy has their dispatch center under staffed and unable to complete the far dispatch duties particularly at shift change and brief times.