shift plan shift plan the shift plan, rota or roster (esp. british) is the central component of a shift schedule in shift work. the schedule includes considerations of shift overlap, shift change times and alignment with the clock, vacation, training, shift differentials, holidays, etc. the shift plan determines the sequence of work (w) and free (f) days within a shift system. notation a notation used often identifies day (d), swing (s) and night (n) shifts for the w days and o (off) for rest days. wwork days dday shift, 1st shift, early shift this shift often occurs from either 06:00 or 07:00 to either 14:00 or 15:00 for eight-hour shifts, and from 06:00 to 18:00 for twelve-hour shifts. sswing shift, 2nd shift, late shift, afternoon shift this shift often occurs from either 14:00 or 15:00 to either 22:00 or 23:00 for eight-hour shifts, and is not used with twelve-hour shifts. nnight shift, 3rd shift, graveyard shift this shift often occurs from either 22:00 or 23:00 to either 06:00 or 07:00 for eight-hour shifts, and from 18:00 to 06:00 for twelve-hour shifts. ffree days odays off this is defined as a day on which a shift does not begin. a~fwork teams (starts from a as first team) note that a worker transitioning from n to o works for the first six or seven hours of the first day "off". thus, when days off follow night shifts, the first one or more days "off" are, in fact, days of recovery from lack of nighttime sleep. this daily notation refers to the start of a shift. if a shift starts at 23:00, then this is a w day even though only one hour is worked. the day after this shift is an f day if no shift starts on this day, though many hours have been worked from midnight on. one shift system may allow many shift plans. for example, the twelve-hour, 2nw:2nf system with n = 1 allows twelve different plans in three serially-identical sets. within a set, dono has the same sequence as nodo. dnoo is the preferred sequence because days off follow night work and there are two consecutive days off. 3-day shift plans prior to 2014, the u.s. navy used a three shift system with an 18-hour day instead of a 24-hour day. the 24-hour period was divided into four shifts: 00:00-06:00, 06:00-12:00, 12:00-18:00, and 18:00-00:00. a sailor stood watch on their shift. during the off shift there is time to perform maintenance, study for qualifications, and handle collateral duties. during off time the sailor has time to sleep, relax, and perform personal tasks, such as laundry. with sufficient personnel, a given watchstation may benefit from a fourth man (the midnight cowboy or "balls-to-6"). he would stand the same 6-hour watch in a given 24-hour period, usually from midnight to 06:00 (hence the midnight portion of the name, often shortened to cowboy) and the normal watchstander would then be free. this gave rise to a schedule of six on, twelve off, six on, thirty off, six on, twelve off. beginning in 2014, the submarine force began shifting to a 24-hour day, with watches split into 8 hours on, 16 hours off. this does have the side effect of sailors assigned to a certain shift having the same meals every day, and so the shifts are periodically rotated in order to provide variety. the surface fleet began its shift in 2017, transitioning from their "five and dimes" approach of 5 hours on, 10 hours off. this does not apply to the attached air wing, which will work a 12 on, 12 off schedule 7 days a week. navy three-shift example time montuewedthufrisatsun onwatchoffaw onwatchoffaw onwatchoffaw onwatchoffaw onwatchoffaw onwatchoffaw onwatchoffaw 06:00–12:00 cabd bcad abcd cabd bcad abcd cabd 12:00–18:00 bcae abce cabe bcae abce cabe bcae 18:00–06:00 abce cabe bcae abce cabe bcae abce plan run 1run 2run 3 4-day shift plans in the 12/24/12/48 or 12/24 plan, employees work in shifts of 12 hours; first a "daily shift" (e.g. 06:00 to 18:00), followed by 24 hours' rest, then a "nightly shift" (18:00 to 06:00), finishing with 48 hours' rest. this plan needs four teams for full coverage, and makes an average 42-hour workweek. the pattern repeats in a 4-week cycle, i.e. over 28 days, and has 14 shifts per employee therein. 12/24/12/48 shift example time week 1week 2week 3week 4 montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun daily06:00–18:00 acdb acdb acdb acdb acdb acdb acdb nightly18:00–06:00 bacd bacd bacd bacd bacd bacd bacd plan run 1run 2run 3run 4run 5run 6run 7 5-day shift plans in four on, one off the employee only gets one day off after a work streak of four days. there are 28 shifts per employee in a five-week cycle (i.e. 35 days). this adds up to an average of 42 hours worked per week with 7½-hour shifts. this plan is mainly adopted by industries in which companies prefers to work for all days of the week, often with four (overlapping) shifts per day, and where laws do not let employees work for 12 hours a day for several days. five groups of employees are needed to cover a specific shift on all days, where each group gets a different day off. two on, one off example with 8-hour shift time week 1week 2week 3week 4week 5 montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun 08:00–15:30 aaaaoff aaaaoff aaaaoff aaaaoff aaaaoff aaaaoff aaaaoff bbboffb bbboffb bbboffb bbboffb bbboffb bbboffb bbboffb ccoffcc ccoffcc ccoffcc ccoffcc ccoffcc ccoffcc ccoffcc doffddd doffddd doffddd doffddd doffddd doffddd doffddd offeeee offeeee offeeee offeeee offeeee offeeee offeeee plan run 1run 2run 3run 4run 5run 6run 7 6-day shift plans in four on, two off the employee gets two days off. there are 28 shifts per employee in a six-week cycle (i.e. 42 days), this adds up to an average of 56 hours worked per week with 12-hour shifts, or 37+1⁄3 hours per week with 8-hour shifts. three groups are needed for each time span, i.e. to cover the whole day and week a company needs 6 groups for 12-hour shifts or 9 groups for 8-hour shifts. this plan is mainly adopted by industries in which employees do not engage in much physical activity. four on, two off example with one 8-hour shift per day shift week 1week 2week 3week 4week 5week 6 montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun montuewedthufrisatsun 07:00–19:00 aaaaoffoff aaaaoffoff aaaaoffoff aaaaoffoff aaaaoffoff aaaaoffoff aaaaoffoff bboffoffbb bboffoffbb bboffoffbb bboffoffbb bboffoffbb bboffoffbb bboffoffbb offoffcccc offoffcccc offoffcccc offoffcccc offoffcccc offoffcccc offoffcccc plan run 1run 2run 3run 4run 5run 6run 7 week shift plans three-shifts the three-shift system is the most common plan for five 24-hour days per week. the "first shift" often runs from 06:00 to 14:00, "second shift" or "swing shift" from 14:00 to 22:00 and a "third shift" or "night shift" from 22:00 to 06:00, but shifts may also have different length to accommodate for workload, e.g. 7, 8 and 9 or 6, 8 and 10 hours. to provide coverage 24/7, employees have their days off ("weekends") on different days. all of the shifts have desirable and less desirable qualities. first shift has very early starts, so time in the evening before is heavily cut short. the second shift occupies the times during which many people finish work and socialize. the third shift creates a situation in which the employee must sleep during the day. three-shift example time montuewedthufrisatsun 07:30–14:30 aaaaaoffoff 14:30–22:30 bbbbboffoff 22:30–07:30 cccccoffoff to provide an overlap in shifts, some employers may require one of the shifts to work four 10-hour shifts per week (as opposed to five 8-hour shifts, both are 40 hours per week). in that scenario, the night shift might extend from 21:00 to 07:00, but the night- shift would have nearly four days off (86 hours) between work weeks. this change, along with first shift moving a half-hour later, or second moving a half-hour earlier, ensures at least a half-hour overlap between shifts, which might be desirable if the business is open to the public to ensure that customers continue to be served during a shift change. some u.s. states, such as california, accommodate this arrangement by allowing the employee to be paid at their regular rate (as opposed to time-and-a-half, or an overtime rate, that would normally be required for any time past 8 hours) for the 10-hour shift, calling this an "alternative workweek". four on, three off in four on, three off, each employee works four days and gets a three-day weekend. for some types of manufacturing, this is a win-win arrangement. for example, a paint company had been making 3 batches of paint per day, monday through friday (3 × 5 = 15). they changed to making 4 batches of paint, monday through thursday (4 × 4 = 16). total worker hours remained the same, but profits increased. in exchange for two additional hours of work per day, over 4 days, workers got an additional day off every week.