Is this schedule crazy?

[bgaviator]

I currently show up for my shift at 4 am and get off at 2. On this current schedule I am barely getting 6 hours of sleep a night. By day 4 I'm ready to drop. When you're married, and your wife doesn't get him until 6:30pm...by the time you eat dinner...getting to bed to make 8 hours of sleep is almost impossible. Now I just found out that they want us to start coming in at 3 am!!!! I seriously have no idea how I'm going to do it....I guess sleeping pills and Tim Hortons will become my friend. Can dispatchers call fatigue?

 

[propsarebest]

Yes and no...

You get more than 2 days off, correct?

 

[onewithwings]

Can dispatchers call fatigue?

Unless it's addressed in your collective bargaining agreement, it's highly unlikely!

(BTW welcome to the dispatch world, consider yourself lucky you aren't required to work a graveyard shift! )

Hint:Wear earplugs, they work wonders!

 

[bgaviator]

yes, we work a 4 on, 3 off. I just don't see how anyone in their right mind can be expected to try to be to bed by 8 pm just to get 6 hours of sleep. The real pisser is that we have enough dispatchers to have 3 shifts, 24 hour coverage....but it would leave us with no vacation relief except for the managers....and of course they don't want to have to work extra to cover people's vacations....so they just keep trying to stretch 2 shifts into covering as much of a 24 hour period as they can.

 

[dispatchguy]

24hr coverage - if youre at a regional, welcome to the world of inadequate staffing. Airlines who staff to an 8hr shift, at least what I hear about on WDFF, are becoming a rarity.

Once, at a regional a while back, we were poorly staffed with only 5 dispatchers, me and the rest (including the dispatch manager)

I am AM shift, PM calls sick (single manning), I call my SOC director, and he (pilot for us), tells me to start calling around.

Guy 1 - having a party, started drinking already (at 1100am)

Guy 2 - In florida

Guy 3 - In Pennsylvania (were in the midwest)

Guy 4 - The one that called off

I ended up working a 20 hour day! No, I didnt pitch a bitch about a 10hr max violation, for I did see it as an emergency situation, and the shortage was not foreseeable; it wasnt like the PM shift was uncovered and I got juniored for it; for if that had happened, I probably wouldve told them to go pound sand. Thankfully the weather in the entire system was hard VFR, and the airplanes were all cooperating, ATC was playing nice, the crews werent calling in sick (plus, it did make me look like a savior to the front office shmoes)

I did tell our SOC manager that if it had been a typical day, that he wouldve had to have come in and start to help me draw the system down and position the overnites for tomorrow, for I wouldve quickly become fatigued.

The one nice thing about 10 hr shifts, is that it does provide the ability to have a 4-3 schedule, assuming that you have a 2080 hour work year.

Just remember, they can work you 52 or so days straight, and thats completely legal. 4 days off at the beginning of month one, and 4 days off at the end of month two; and as long as they dont schedule you to bust a 10 in 24, and give u 8 hrs of rest between duty periods, thats completely legal. Is that safe (but imagine that overtime

I hate quickturns as well; and yes, I am always shot afterwards.

 

[WalterSobchak]

Welcome to dispatching, buddy.

I bid 4am-2p shifts...but I rarely work at 4a. This week, I've worked a 2am, a two 3am's, and a 4am today. I jump back and forth all the time (with start times varying at 2a, 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a, 8a, 10a...and even the occasional afternoon) and usually put in 6 days in a row if I have no other plans. I haven't been to bed before 10pm each night. And, believe it or not, I have a life outside of work. Time for you to learn the greatness of the 30-60 minute afternoon power-nap.

If I remember correctly from before you found a dispatching job, I think you were adequately warned.

 

[XPOO]

Walter...

I was thinking the same thing. You sleep from 3pm-6pm and then wake up and watch all your sports game and have a beer or two and eat. By 9 or 10, you're ready for bed again. This way you at least get a 7-8 hours of sleep a day. Just not all at one time. Soon it will become part of your regular routine.

 

[dispatchguy]

As a licensed airman, you are responsible to manage your own rest schedule in order to be rested for your duty schedule.

If that means you miss quality bonding time with the missus, well then, you miss it if you need that bonding time to rest for your scheduled shift.

What your definition of "well rested" is up to you.

All that the air carrier is responsible for is to schedule you in accordance with FAR, nothing less, and nothing more (unless you're in a union shop).

6 hours of sleep a nite, damn; I'm 40 and that is my standard sleep time, the older you get the less sleep you require (one of life's more dastardly lessons).

 

[propsarebest]

I work 12 hour shifts, 5a-5p. We work 4 on and 4 off. There are 8 in our office, and 2 are out on vacation. sooo, that means that we get to pick up the slack, which means that one person is currently working 16 days in a row.

Ohh yea, I work for a supp. carrier, so all those cushy FARS about not working over 8 hours and over 6 days don't apply.

Welcome to the real world.

 

[dispatchguy]

I work 12 hour shifts, 5a-5p. We work 4 on and 4 off. There are 8 in our office, and 2 are out on vacation. sooo, that means that we get to pick up the slack, which means that one person is currently working 16 days in a row.

Ohh yea, I work for a supp. carrier, so all those cushy FARS about not working over 8 hours and over 6 days don't apply.

Welcome to the real world.

We can work up to 10 hours, and over 6 days, the reg continues on and says "or the equivalent thereof in a calendar month"

You must be thinking pilots, which would be nice.