Dispatcher Stress Level
- Thread starter Doolittle
- Start date
womanpilot73
Well-Known Member
Doolittle said:
This depends on so many factors... Staffing, workload, weather, ATC, maintenance issues, inflight issues, etc.... The list goes on.
Some days are uneventful. Some days your hair is on fire the entire shift.
Welcome to the jungle. Have alcohol stocked at home. ;-)
Luigi
Well-Known Member
The things you miss being a dispatcher in the state of UT
womanpilot73
Well-Known Member
Luigi said:
I'll send you a care package.
Haha. Are you at SkyWest? I am in Salt Lake going to school and I'm hoping to get my foot in the dispatching door with them.
manniax
Well-met in the Ka-tet
Hey, that's what the state run liquor stores are for.
Luigi
Well-Known Member
That would be great...if they were open
outside of the hours I work....
manniax
Well-met in the Ka-tet
As @womanpilot73 said, it depends on a ton of factors. Airline, weather that day, what part of the country/world your flights are operating in, etc. etc. I will say, from what I have seen crew schedulers tend to have a more stressful time of things than dispatchers. At any rate, the really bad days are pretty rare...they do happen, but I've never had multiple bad days in a row.
manniax
Well-met in the Ka-tet
Ah, but this is why you stock up in advance on your days off, or grab some for after work on your way in.
McCrosky
Well-Known Member
I keep 6 bottles of bourbon for just that emergency situation.
manniax
Well-met in the Ka-tet
Brett Spurgeon
Well-Known Member
I may need to come investigate this, bad day or not!@McCrosky's pantry:
DispatcherSam
Well-Known Member
It can go from dull and boring to chaotic in seconds and then back to dull and boring just a couple minutes later. You could have a week of zero excitement, or it could be balls to the wall crazy. You never know what to expect, and anything can happen on any given day.
F9DXER
Well-Known Member
This is what makes this career so much fun. One day you are playing Angry Birds on your mobile device and the next minute/hour/day you become the Angry Bird.
The biggest thing I have learned from all the bad days is it made me realize when I was getting to the point of actually losing it. (As in the big picture) I know at that point I need to take a break, even if only for 1 minute. Yes your co-workers will step in but you have to ask as they don't know what your stress level is.
The biggest thing I have learned from all the bad days is it made me realize when I was getting to the point of actually losing it. (As in the big picture) I know at that point I need to take a break, even if only for 1 minute. Yes your co-workers will step in but you have to ask as they don't know what your stress level is.
I'll send you a care package.
regardless of what my stock level currently is i'll never turn down a care package.....especially if it includes real kentucky bourbon
McCrosky
Well-Known Member
The stress level can also be dependent on the individual. Some days I can come in and it be a good weather day, don't deal much with ATC, no real aviation related problems, but then some there's some email from management or a request from our version of operations control that is just so aggravating that the blood pressure shoots up. I can deal with things out of my control (weather, ATC, etc...) a lot better than stupidity in policies and planning of others.
@McCrosky's pantry:
Haha very funny... I know that's not mine.. I'd never keep anything as pedestrian as Jim Beam White Label. I, sir, have standards!
I do wonder sometimes what percentage of the dispatch community fall into classification of "functioning alcoholics" and/or "regular binge drinkers"?
I currently dispatch for a cargo air carrier and I can tell you it is hardly stressful. It may get busy but not enough to pull your hair out or start drinking. I only work up about 13 flights a night with most of them being domestic. 95% of the time I am so bored. However I am going to school and when school is in session it is a great job because I can spend the down time in study.
So it depends on who you work for, your personality and your mindset.
So it depends on who you work for, your personality and your mindset.
pljenkins
Resident Knucklehead
pljenkins
Resident Knucklehead
Stress in the airline dispatch business is largely in the eye of the beholder. I will start with my all to often gone to line; "proper planning prevent piss poor performance". Dispatcher stress is about 80% a failure to properly plan for situations or cutting corners gambling that things will work out. Lack of knowledge also falls into this area. 15% of it is getting hosed by the person you relieved, and 5% is from legitimately getting blindsided by situations you could not possibly anticipate. Management doing "things that make you go 'hmm'" fall into this. Another factor is that dispatcher stress has an inherent relief valve, in that when things get so horribly bad any competent airline will slow or stop the operation to keep the situation manageable, or you can in some ways take it upon yourself to control the situation if need be. What I'm getting at it, unlike things like police work, if you are primarily in reactionary mode you've probably created that problem yourself.
You'd think from the outside looking in that the most stressful things we dispatchers have to handle are things like in-flight emergencies. These are cake simple, especially if they are REALLY bad things. Land. Boom, done. Many times if things go SERIOUSLY pear shaped you are not the first to know, you are not a part of the decision process (captain exercises emergency authority) and you find yourself in the role of now coordinating resources to deal with the problem (management, airport assets, impact to other flights in your purview). By far the most stressful things I've run into are sudden, unexpected changes to your previously 10 and clear airport, like when some knucklehead gear's up on the only open runway and you are below 10,000 feet heading in on min+reserve. Better be quick and correct on your choice of bug-out airports!
So really, I find that in my experience being an aircraft dispatcher is relatively stress free, and what stress I do have is very manageable. Of course, I also spent 6 years as a metropolitan police and fire dispatcher so my definition of stress might be a little skewed.
You'd think from the outside looking in that the most stressful things we dispatchers have to handle are things like in-flight emergencies. These are cake simple, especially if they are REALLY bad things. Land. Boom, done. Many times if things go SERIOUSLY pear shaped you are not the first to know, you are not a part of the decision process (captain exercises emergency authority) and you find yourself in the role of now coordinating resources to deal with the problem (management, airport assets, impact to other flights in your purview). By far the most stressful things I've run into are sudden, unexpected changes to your previously 10 and clear airport, like when some knucklehead gear's up on the only open runway and you are below 10,000 feet heading in on min+reserve. Better be quick and correct on your choice of bug-out airports!
So really, I find that in my experience being an aircraft dispatcher is relatively stress free, and what stress I do have is very manageable. Of course, I also spent 6 years as a metropolitan police and fire dispatcher so my definition of stress might be a little skewed.