ZJX Traffic Management Controller reported not being able to use the word 'staffing' when filling out the daily log for issues at the facility.

Narrative

This report is the culmination of months and months of struggling as a TMC to find ways to make the volume and lack of staffing work with no help from upper management or the ATCSCC. ZJX has seen unprecedented volume and low staffing over the past year and it is simply no longer sustainable. TMC's don't have the training or the tools to make traffic manageable when there is insufficient staffing in one and sometimes multiple areas at the same time. We find ourselves with our hands tied due to lack of support from outside of the building and the fact that the tools we could use to slow or move traffic volume are denied to us. All TMC's and STMC's at ZJX are forced to cite 'volume' as the reason for restrictions we request because upper management will not allow us to admit to continuous staffing issues. Many times the ATCSCC forces us to rescind restrictions because they don't see that the volume justifies it; however what we are not allowed to share is the fact that these controllers are routinely working positions for 3 hours at time or more and many are working up to 60 hours per week every week. The sectors can't be split nor can D-sides or trackers be assigned because there is no one available to staff them. They are written up if they call in sick due to fatigue. We are seeing controllers taken out in ambulances and we have had more than one resign. We are putting the controllers in an unsafe situation each and every day. Furthermore they are being asked to work extremely busy traffic that we are not allowed to slow sufficiently. We are told not to use the word 'staffing' until the exact start time of a staffing trigger even though many of these TMI's need to be in place 30 minutes to an hour before the staffing (which is already severely reduced on a daily basis) drops to what management determines to too low; usually 4 or 5 on a shift. Every area in our building has a minimum of 6 sectors. This is simply unacceptable. TMC's are being threatened with termination by the ATM if we do use the word staffing; even inadvertently. Tensions are running high; controllers; TMC's and front line managers/STMC's are overloaded and exhausted; both mentally and physically. All of us at ZJX need to and could file reports on a daily basis due to the unsafe conditions but there is no duty time allowed to do so and after working 60 hours nobody wants to take the little time they have at home to login and file a report. ZJX is constantly imposed upon to reroute and space aircraft; work around rocket launches; reduce or cancel miles in trail restrictions and anything else to prevent delays out of PBI and N90 but we get little or no support. Every time we call the ATCSCC to request an Airspace Flow Program or playbooks to reroute traffic we are denied and told we don't have enough volume. Our sectors are regularly well over MAP [Monitor Alert Parameters] numbers and our areas are short staffed but the tools we could use to make it somewhat manageable are denied. I have never seen the morale so low or the workforce so defeated; disgruntled and exhausted at any point in my X year career. Something needs to change soon because safety is compromised every single day. I am at home writing this report on my own time because I know that there will be no duty time available tomorrow and I already know that I will walk into understaffed areas; including TMU; no support and a large military exercise in ZMA that requires much support from ZJX. We do not have sufficient staffing in TMU either; which renders us incapable of splitting positions. We are already splitting our attention between 2-4 positions at any given time and we are being asked to do a job that really isn't ours. The ATCSCC should be slowing traffic into our facility; however all the TMC's spend their shifts doing is trying to find creative ways to mask a staffing issue and still control volume. I cannot in good conscience continue to be silent about this.ATCSCC; ZJX and Southern regionleadership needs to recognize that ZJX is now the second busiest ARTCC in the NAS and one of the most understaffed and provide support accordingly. Our current situation is not sustainable. TMU staff; STMC's; front line managers and controllers are being forced into being complicit in the cover up of staffing shortages at ZJX and this should not be allowed to continue. Furthermore; TMU needs to increase the number of TMC's we are allotted because we don't have enough TMC's to open our positions to sufficiently monitor sectors.