Narrative:

Fatigue is becoming a problem at jacksonville center ARTCC. Our facility has a new policy that all air traffic controllers must be signed on position for 5 1/2 hours a day regardless of traffic. My co-workers and I do not have a problem of working 5 1/2 hours if we are needed to do so for operational purposes and we are actually working a fair number of aircraft. Working too many aircraft for long periods of time causes fatigue but the problem now is working too few. Traffic is down across the country due to economic conditions beyond our control so our facility manager has decided to make us work longer on position to improve our time on position (top) to make us look like we need more trainees which we obviously do not at this time. In doing so; many controllers are working 1-3 aircraft at a time for long periods of time. Today I worked a period of 1 1/2 hours and talked to 1 airplane the entire time and had a D side at my sector. D side positions are staffed at sectors that have 1-3 aircraft and sometimes no aircraft for long periods of time. This has caused us to become complacent and fatigued due to long periods of time with little or no activity. It also causes controllers to socialize with other controllers during these periods and this distracts everyone in the area. This in my opinion is a dangerous situation and will lead to controllers making mistakes and quite possibly cause an operational error; or worse; an accident. Most operational errors across the country occur with fewer than 10 aircraft in a sector. Controllers must be continuously occupied to keep us fully alert. I am not complaining about working more time on position because I want more breaks. I would be glad to do other duties at work to keep occupied during periods we are well staffed. But opening up positions just to improve top and make our center look better to the bean counters in washington is dangerous. It is causing long periods of fatigue that I feel is detrimental to the safety of the air traffic system.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZJX controller voiced concern regarding new facility policy/procedure to maximize time on position claiming new procedure is causing increased fatigue; distractions and complacency while on position.

Narrative: Fatigue is becoming a problem at Jacksonville Center ARTCC. Our facility has a new policy that all air traffic controllers must be signed on position for 5 1/2 hours a day regardless of traffic. My co-workers and I do not have a problem of working 5 1/2 hours if we are needed to do so for operational purposes and we are actually working a fair number of aircraft. Working too many aircraft for long periods of time causes fatigue but the problem now is working too few. Traffic is down across the country due to economic conditions beyond our control so our facility manager has decided to make us work longer on position to improve our time on position (TOP) to make us look like we need more trainees which we obviously do not at this time. In doing so; many controllers are working 1-3 aircraft at a time for long periods of time. Today I worked a period of 1 1/2 hours and talked to 1 airplane the entire time and had a D side at my sector. D side positions are staffed at sectors that have 1-3 aircraft and sometimes no aircraft for long periods of time. This has caused us to become complacent and fatigued due to long periods of time with little or no activity. It also causes controllers to socialize with other controllers during these periods and this distracts everyone in the area. This in my opinion is a dangerous situation and will lead to controllers making mistakes and quite possibly cause an operational error; or worse; an accident. Most operational errors across the country occur with fewer than 10 aircraft in a sector. Controllers must be continuously occupied to keep us fully alert. I am not complaining about working more time on position because I want more breaks. I would be glad to do other duties at work to keep occupied during periods we are well staffed. But opening up positions just to improve TOP and make our center look better to the bean counters in Washington is dangerous. It is causing long periods of fatigue that I feel is detrimental to the safety of the air traffic system.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.