Narrative:

I spent nearly 2 hours on position. I went on a lunch break. I was paged back 19 minutes in. I plugged into position 20 minutes after my last break started. The controller I was getting out was nearly past 2 hours on position. It is a pattern; an ordinary practice to spend more than 2 hours on position. Sector was above capacity (red) which is also a normal and daily occurrence and nothing is done to mitigate these situations. Other sectors in the room were also red. Going over 2 hours on position has also become a regular occurrence.I had pointed out air carrier X to one sector and handed both of them off to another sector. A typo had them handing off to the wrong sector instead. My mistake wasn't caught until the aircraft were inside their airspace. Controllers in my area (and I imagine other areas as well) are routinely forced to work too much traffic without adequate help in the form of splitting sectors; assist sides; trackers; or tmu support. While this behavior has become ordinary everyday conditions it is completely unsustainable and completely unacceptable from a safety standpoint.sectors need adequate support for the volume and complexity of traffic they are dealing with. Controllers need appropriate breaks throughout their shift to allow recuperation before working more heavy traffic. Working a busy workload takes a huge mental toll on controllers which is not being addressed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZLC Center Controller reported handing aircraft off to the wrong sector during high volume traffic. Reporter stated staffing issues and fatigue contributed to the incident.

Narrative: I spent nearly 2 hours on position. I went on a lunch break. I was paged back 19 minutes in. I plugged into position 20 minutes after my last break started. The Controller I was getting out was nearly past 2 hours on position. It is a pattern; an ordinary practice to spend more than 2 hours on position. Sector was above capacity (red) which is also a normal and daily occurrence and nothing is done to mitigate these situations. Other sectors in the room were also red. Going over 2 hours on position has also become a regular occurrence.I had pointed out Air Carrier X to one sector and handed both of them off to another sector. A typo had them handing off to the wrong sector instead. My mistake wasn't caught until the aircraft were inside their airspace. Controllers in my area (and I imagine other areas as well) are routinely forced to work too much traffic without adequate help in the form of splitting sectors; Assist sides; Trackers; or TMU support. While this behavior has become ordinary everyday conditions it is completely unsustainable and completely unacceptable from a safety standpoint.Sectors need adequate support for the volume and complexity of traffic they are dealing with. Controllers need appropriate breaks throughout their shift to allow recuperation before working more heavy traffic. Working a busy workload takes a huge mental toll on controllers which is not being addressed.

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.