Kinda harsh, but it looks like technology has turned both our professions into button-pushing, all in the name of productivity.
The workload is over the top in a lot of dispatch offices and the level of detail and care suffers as management insists more releases are done per dispatcher per shift.
Let's say a dispatcher does 60 releases per 10 hour shift, that's 6 per hour or one every 10 minutes. Doesn't leave much time for the phone calls, much less a diversion recovery or reroutes. Some releases have to be redone multiple times due to A/C changes, MX, delays or flow.
Now let's assume that a dispatcher makes $30/hr (round numbers, and high at that). That means the company pays a grand total of $5/per flight for your flight planning and safety. More is spent on cocktail napkins for the sector! You OK with that?
So, JB Capt., your beef is not with the dispatchers, it is with management that impose these insane workloads. Most of us are doing the best we can with what we are given. We have certificates that can be yanked too if we eff-up!
Expecting much more than the bare minimum required by law is folly in most LCC's and regionals.
I totally agree with you. JetBlue management do everything to the bare ass minimum. We are actually scaling back on some routes at the moment because we don't have the staff to fly the airplanes. I don't have any beef with the dispatchers. Experience with JetBlue has simply showed me their limitations. Pay new york wages and shift the dispatch operation to somewhere more cost of living effective.