Date: 201909
Local time of day: 0001-0600
Location: ZLC.ARTCC, UT
Aircraft: Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Airspace: Class B SLC
ATC / advisory: Tower SLC
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Local
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Fatigue; Situational Awareness; Workload
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Company Policy; Staffing
Primary problem: Staffing

Narrative: Due to four Controllers being pulled from the operation to attend recurrent training and insufficient additional Controllers being staffed to accommodate that training; I was required to work a Local Control position for 2 hours and 18 minutes. The training left us with only five Controllers in the operation; staffing what should have been a minimum of 6 positions. Even with the lack of Controllers; the Supervisor could have somewhat mitigated this if he had felt he was able to staff positions as he saw fit. Instead; due to directions from above; the Supervisors are not allowed the flexibility to mitigate staffing shortages.  During this span of time; I worked 2 major banks; a departure arrival mix; and a departure bank. In between those two banks was a period of time approximately 45 minutes where I had little to no traffic. That break in traffic is a scheduled break in traffic that is well known and predictable that could have been used to get me a break by combining that position to another local control that had a similar let down in traffic. But due to guidance put out to our Supervisors from above them; they are not allowed to combine that position. During that break in traffic I became very bored and very easily distracted. I found myself showing signs of fatigue (zoning out; yawning; and other symptoms). In an attempt to mitigate that fatigue while on position I found myself inserting myself in to other people conversations; walking around and not paying attention to what little traffic I did have; and being a general distraction in the Tower cab. At the end of the second bank; I definitely noticed a decrease in my mental acuity; so I had to focus much harder on routine tasks and kept second guessing myself. I am certainly glad I didn't have to deal with anything out of the ordinary. During the position relief briefing I had a hard time following the checklist and skipped all over the place and could not remember what I had covered and not covered; that was the point I fully realized just how fatigued I had truly become. Managements lack of foresight; lack of safety culture; and their concern more about the overtime budget then properly staffing the facility directly led to this. Staff the facility appropriately. Don't over schedule training. Allow the Supervisors to run their shift as they deem appropriate and don't micro-manage the operation.




Synopsis: Tower Controller reported the facility was not staffed sufficiently resulting in the Controller having to work a sector longer than the mandated time on position.