Narrative:

I re-released a flight under pressure from PIC and ops agent to accommodate 'last minute' payload.in short; an ops agent called asking for more weight; I said not possible-maybe 200lbs increase in ATOG but not much. Roughly 10-20 min later the pilot calls pressing for more ATOG. I felt pressured into creating a plan to increase ATOG and even told the captain; 'I don't want to put my name on this plan' and mentioned not liking being forced to pencil whip a plan.the long version:20 prior to dept ops agent calls; 1300lbs over atog. I ask if fuel is on plane; and learn it is. I tell them 'nothing I can do- I can maybe get them 200lbs as the stage length is too short.'at departure time captain (ca) calls; says we need more weight. I say; (thinking no way he will go for it;) 'the only way we can get more weight is to drop the planned altitude by maybe ten thousand feet.' he says do it. I reluctantly plan it; tell him it only gives us 500lbs more weight-they still have 800lbs too much.after some digging I see the preplan from this ops agent is 2000lbs below ATOG. My plan on the release is 900lbs below ATOG. (My ATOG was 132.2 and his preplan was 130.something)... I'm at a loss; don't understand why all of the sudden we are 1300lbs over atog. We decide to change the alternate; plan to fly lower and remove 1300lbs of fuel from the airplane to accommodate all passengers. Ops calls for the fueler; they arrive without a truck.next we are told de-fuel will take 90 minutes due to shift change for them. (Time pressures/threats) I tell the agent that if had he called me 1 hr before departure I could have helped and he has put me into a corner. I ask where did this weight come from-he says it is standby passengers. I ask; revenue or non-revenue? He says non-revenue.then the captain gets back on and says 'so I guess I have to be the bad guy and kick passengers off' (passive aggressive pressure applied to the dispatcher; making the dispatcher feel like the real 'bad guy'). So I said yes; 800lbs worth. I remind him as well; had the ops agent called me before we fueled the airplane I could have helped out. At some point I was informed the fuelers loaded 15.4 on the plane; and I had asked for 15.0.main factor/threat: I was pressured by the captain who was probably just trying to be the good guy-but these scenarios should not even be happening. When I come up with a plan below ATOG and the ops agent calls me after the aircraft is fueled; telling me that they are above atog-not much I can do for them.secondary factor: I had 10 flights scheduled to push at that airport within 40 minutes--and a flurry of phone calls from ops agents; pilots ; and chasing weather forecasts to make sure alternates were legal made for a very busy time frame. One flight monopolizing all my time set me up to just want to get them taken care of and off the gate. This one flight took up 15 minutes of my time.another factor: I noticed reposition flight appear on my desk a few minutes before I got the call weight issue. The sod who built the flight did not contact me to tell me it was coming; or tell me it was placed into my workload. I immediately called the chief dispatcher and said no-I can not accept another flight during this departure bank. The distraction of an added position flight during a very busy departure bank contributed to the over saturation of workload. The subsequent phone calls for that position ferry also created additional workload-even after the flight was reassigned to a neighboring desk.the preplan by all agents should include standby passengers; this particular agent may need more guidance/supervision (I don't think his preplan included non revenue passengers and may have set this scenario up). Pilots should not be expected to ask to get all possible passengers on the airplane; or should not be put in the position to have to take passengers off the plane. The ops agent started the boardingprocess knowing he was going to have a weight issue; and put us in an uncomfortable position of removing passengers. We are in the business of moving people safely; and nothing about this plan was unsafe per se; but the fact that the captain and ops agent lobbied so hard to get non revenue passengers/standby passengers on this flight can be the start of the classic slippery slope. ATOG should not be negotiable when it is a landing limit. Pilots and ops agents should not even ask. I was pressured into a plan to accommodate passengers; and then find out it was for standby passengers. Due to the workload on my desk at the time my reaction after saying 'no' 2 times was to do whatever it took to get off the phone and get the flight off the gate. Desk workload needs to be assessed. If the weather was VFR this may not have been an issue. However; all flights required alternates; this airport was set up for deicing delays; 10 flights pushing there within 40 minutes of each other is not a reasonable workload for one dispatcher. 10 flights pushing from different departure cities may be a more plausible scenario. However; when you put 10 planes; 20 pilots; 10 ops agents on one desk if *anything* abnormal occurs ...well you get the idea.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain and Agent attempted to force an overloaded Dispatcher into increasing the Allowable Takeoff Weight to accommodated non revenue passengers.

Narrative: I re-released a flight under pressure from PIC and Ops agent to accommodate 'last minute' payload.In short; an ops agent called asking for more weight; I said not possible-maybe 200lbs increase in ATOG but not much. Roughly 10-20 min later the Pilot calls pressing for more ATOG. I felt pressured into creating a plan to increase ATOG and even told the captain; 'I don't want to put my name on this plan' and mentioned not liking being forced to pencil whip a plan.The long version:20 prior to dept ops agent calls; 1300lbs over atog. I ask if fuel is on plane; and learn it is. I tell them 'nothing I can do- I can maybe get them 200lbs as the stage length is too short.'At departure time Captain (CA) calls; says we need more weight. I say; (thinking no way he will go for it;) 'the only way we can get more weight is to drop the planned altitude by maybe ten thousand feet.' He says do it. I reluctantly plan it; tell him it only gives us 500lbs more weight-they still have 800lbs too much.After some digging I see the preplan from this ops agent is 2000lbs below ATOG. My plan on the release is 900lbs below ATOG. (my ATOG was 132.2 and his preplan was 130.something)... I'm at a loss; don't understand why all of the sudden we are 1300lbs OVER atog. We decide to change the alternate; plan to fly lower and remove 1300lbs of fuel from the airplane to accommodate all passengers. Ops calls for the fueler; they arrive without a truck.Next we are told de-fuel will take 90 minutes due to shift change for them. (Time pressures/threats) I tell the agent that IF had he called me 1 hr before departure I could have helped and he has put me into a corner. I ask where did this weight come from-he says it is standby passengers. I ask; revenue or non-revenue? He says non-revenue.Then the captain gets back on and says 'so I guess I have to be the bad guy and kick passengers off' (passive aggressive pressure applied to the dispatcher; making the dispatcher feel like the real 'bad guy'). So I said yes; 800lbs worth. I remind him as well; had the ops agent called me BEFORE we fueled the airplane I could have helped out. At some point I was informed the fuelers loaded 15.4 on the plane; and I had asked for 15.0.Main factor/threat: I was pressured by the captain who was probably just trying to be the good guy-but these scenarios should not even be happening. When I come up with a plan BELOW ATOG and the ops agent calls me AFTER the aircraft is fueled; telling me that they are ABOVE atog-not much I can do for them.Secondary factor: I had 10 flights scheduled to push at that airport within 40 minutes--and a flurry of phone calls from ops agents; pilots ; AND chasing weather forecasts to make sure alternates were legal made for a very busy time frame. One flight monopolizing all my time set me up to just want to get them taken care of and off the gate. This one flight took up 15 minutes of my time.Another factor: I noticed reposition flight appear on my desk a few minutes before I got the call weight issue. The SOD who built the flight did not contact me to tell me it was coming; or tell me it was placed into my workload. I immediately called the chief dispatcher and said NO-I can NOT accept another flight during this departure bank. The distraction of an added position flight during a very busy departure bank contributed to the over saturation of workload. The subsequent phone calls for that position ferry also created additional workload-even after the flight was reassigned to a neighboring desk.The preplan by all agents should include standby passengers; this particular agent may need more guidance/supervision (I don't think his preplan included non revenue passengers and may have set this scenario up). Pilots should NOT be expected to ask to get all possible passengers on the airplane; or should not be put in the position to have to take passengers off the plane. The Ops agent started the boardingprocess knowing he was going to have a weight issue; and put us in an uncomfortable position of removing passengers. We are in the business of moving people safely; and nothing about this plan was unsafe per se; but the fact that the captain and ops agent lobbied so hard to get non revenue passengers/standby passengers on this flight can be the start of the classic slippery slope. ATOG should not be negotiable when it is a landing limit. Pilots and Ops Agents should not even ASK. I was pressured into a plan to accommodate passengers; and then find out it was for standby passengers. Due to the workload on my desk at the time my reaction after saying 'NO' 2 times was to do whatever it took to get off the phone and get the flight off the gate. Desk workload needs to be assessed. If the weather was VFR this may not have been an issue. However; all flights required alternates; this airport was set up for deicing delays; 10 flights pushing there within 40 minutes of each other is not a reasonable workload for one dispatcher. 10 flights pushing from different departure cities may be a more plausible scenario. However; when you put 10 planes; 20 pilots; 10 ops agents on one desk if *ANYthing* abnormal occurs ...well you get the idea.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.