Shift Fatigue Risk Recovery Authority — Airport Ground Operations

The mandate

Published rosters satisfy daily and weekly limits, but swaps, overtime, split duties, transport time and second jobs create cumulative fatigue that is visible only after shifts close. Disruption managers extend people based on local availability, and self-reports are feared as career-limiting. A ramp incident review found no single owner could reproduce the worker’s preceding duty and rest history.

The nine-month assignment starts within ten days and covers roster reconstruction, peak travel, one major disruption season, three risk reviews and permanent-leader induction. A swap, extension, callout, delayed flight, transport failure, second assignment, fatigue report or heat alert becomes a controlled deployment event. Six weeks are reserved for handover; no extension will cover general workforce scheduling.

Exit requires one duty-and-rest history, risk-tiered patterns, controlled swaps, cumulative indicators, non-punitive reporting, transport and heat factors, supervisor stop-work routes and three cycles within tolerance. The successor must command an unseen weather disruption involving cascading extensions and scarce equipment qualifications before receiving fatigue-risk authority.

The interim may prohibit unsafe rosters, stop individual deployment pending authorised assessment, freeze unrecorded swaps, require duty attestations, redirect QAR 65 million of approved recovery resources and change temporary planning leads. Operations retains service decisions; authorised health professionals decide fitness; Safety investigates events; employee relations handles individual consequences; executives approve exceptional risk acceptance.

Pay design, collective bargaining, medical diagnosis, incident investigation, airport slot decisions, workforce reduction and replacement of scheduling technology are outside scope. The leader may enforce approved fatigue rules but cannot interpret health conditions or discipline employees. Service recovery will not justify hidden overtime, retrospective roster edits or pressure against good-faith fatigue reporting.

Why this seat is open

Formal roster compliance obscured actual duty histories and local disruption decisions, and the incident exposed weak cumulative risk ownership. Temporary authority must protect peak operations, rebuild trustworthy reporting and prove a successor can balance safety and service during an unfamiliar cascading disruption without relying on personal intervention.

What you will own

• Reconstruct duty, rest, overtime, swap, callout, travel and concurrent-assignment histories at worker level.
• Define fatigue indicators across circadian timing, consecutive duties, heat, task demand, commute and recovery opportunity.
• Govern roster creation, swaps, disruption extensions, exception approval, expiry, recording and post-event review.
• Establish confidential reporting, supervisor response, stop-work, authorised assessment and non-retaliation pathways.
• Connect fatigue risk with qualification, team composition, safety events, absence and operational demand.
• Command heat alert, weather diversion, transport delay, cascading absence and equipment-skill shortage scenarios.
• Transfer three controlled risk-review cycles and an unseen peak-disruption event to the permanent operational fatigue leader.

Candidate qualifications

• Held fatigue-risk or workforce-safety authority in aviation, transport, logistics or another continuous operation.
• Reconstructed actual duty and rest across roster changes, overtime, travel, callouts and secondary assignments.
• Governed cumulative risk, confidential reporting, supervisor intervention and exceptional disruption decisions.
• Integrated task qualification, heat, commute and team composition without making medical diagnoses.
• Preserved boundaries among Operations, Safety, Occupational Health, employee relations and workforce planning.
• Handed recovered fatigue controls to permanent leadership through repeated peak seasons, direct night-shift observation and complex multi-station disruption simulations.

Non-negotiables

• Available within ten days for full-time Doha leadership and six day-and-night shift residencies.
• Direct fatigue-risk recovery in continuous operations is required; ordinary roster optimisation is insufficient.
• Will disclose scheduling vendors, transport providers, labour suppliers, insurers and safety advisers.
• Will stop unsafe deployment despite service pressure and will not diagnose, investigate or discipline individuals.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a compliant roster whose actual duty history created unacceptable fatigue risk.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you protect fatigue reporting from informal career consequences?
3. 49 words maximum. Which disruption event must the permanent leader command before handover?