Narrative:

I began my shift on desk X at xa:00L; and I was to relieve three dispatchers at desks Y; Z and a at xa:00L. The chief dispatcher sent a message to the entire floor that the midnight desk assignments had been revised. It now showed that my desk would pick up a total of 7 desks instead of the original 3. The new desks were X; Y; Z; a; B; C; and D. There was a note on the revision that there were only 14 total flights among the new desks. It appeared that they only counted the number of releases to work the next morning; because there were a total of 38 flight in the air that I would now be responsible for. Just as I finished reading this revision; I received a call from a flight in the air having issues with the number two engine. I told a fellow dispatcher to call the bridge and advise them that I am refusing to accept this many desks and flights. The chief dispatcher came down to my desk and I was able to show him how many flights I would have to handle. He apologized and said that he was told that it was only 14. The chief dispatcher returned to the bridge; and another revision was issued to remove three desks from my workload. The workload model agreed to by the company and my union is no more than X releases per hour; and no more than xx flights in the air at one time. This would have been more than double the allowed number of flights per desk. The company reduced the number of domestic midnight desks beginning on this shift. This reduction in dispatchers and desks has caused a new workload issue.honor the workload model that has been agreed to and open the closed desks to mitigate the workload problem.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dispatcher reported an overwhelming amount of flights the Dispatcher was advised they would be working; due to staffing issues.

Narrative: I began my shift on desk X at XA:00L; and I was to relieve three dispatchers at desks Y; Z and A at XA:00L. The Chief Dispatcher sent a message to the entire floor that the midnight desk assignments had been revised. It now showed that my desk would pick up a total of 7 desks instead of the original 3. The new desks were X; Y; Z; A; B; C; and D. There was a note on the revision that there were only 14 total flights among the new desks. It appeared that they only counted the number of releases to work the next morning; because there were a total of 38 flight in the air that I would now be responsible for. Just as I finished reading this revision; I received a call from a flight in the air having issues with the number two engine. I told a fellow Dispatcher to call the bridge and advise them that I am refusing to accept this many desks and flights. The Chief Dispatcher came down to my desk and I was able to show him how many flights I would have to handle. He apologized and said that he was told that it was only 14. The Chief Dispatcher returned to the bridge; and another revision was issued to remove three desks from my workload. The workload model agreed to by the company and my union is no more than X releases per hour; and no more than XX flights in the air at one time. This would have been more than double the allowed number of flights per desk. The company reduced the number of domestic midnight desks beginning on this shift. This reduction in dispatchers and desks has caused a new workload issue.Honor the workload model that has been agreed to and open the closed desks to mitigate the workload problem.

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.