My employer is attempting to move us from a 4 team 12 hour shift rota, 4 on 4 off, 12 and a 20 day break with floating hours. equates to a42.2 hour week
They propose a 6 on 2 off 8 hour shift pattern with 5 teams, with fixed breaks, BUT we owe 23 shifts back AAARRGGHHH

What are you working

Mon-Thu, 9ish till 17.30ish if I’m in the office. Longer hours (can be 13/14 hour days) if I have to go to site, but always Mon-Thu.

I did all kinds of shifts during 15 years or so in manufacturing and mostly hated it. I’m never working a fixed shift pattern of any description ever again. Ever.

Ever. 😀

The though of paying back all those shifts means the fixed breaks wont be breaks at all!!!

It was 4 on 4 off, days then nights. Now 2 days, 2 nights, 4 off. Both were plus 24 days holiday. No bank holidays or Xmas. Xmas shutdown though.

Best shift pattern I’ve worked. I’ve done quite a few different ones too. I finished this morning at 7am. Not back until 2nd September. Not bad for 8 days holiday.

Also did 3 on 3 off, fixed 9 and 18 day breaks. Only had to owe 3 to 5 days though.

I work –

Sun – thu Nightshift 11-7
Mon – fri backshift 3-11
Mon – fri earlyshift 7-3
Then that sat 7-5, sun 1-11 (pm)
Then a week off.

I have been doing it for 15 years next month. A week off a month is awesome, works out 34.5 hrs a week. I effectively work one weekend in 4 and get the next week off.

Although ATM I’m doing a 16 week training on mon – fri 8-4, and it’s a drag. Can’t wait to get back on shift in 4 weeks!.

Used to do 4 on 4 off. **** awful.

Days 1/2: 9am – 9am: 24 hours.
Day 3: 9am – 8pm: 11 hours.
Days 4/5 – off!

And repeat…….

Two twelve hour days, two twelve hour nights (six to six), then four off. ten week cycle with weeks nine & ten being flexi (seven twelve hour shifts, any (practical) combination).

Love it! Take a block of four shifts off and you got a twelve day break!

I find weekends highly over rated, I’d rather earn and then enjoy the quiet trails on weekdays!

Four 9 hour nightshifts, monday thru thursday the a 3 day weekend every week. Best shift I have ever done!!

2x 14 hour shifts and a 7.5 or a 3rd 14 hour shift a week

4 days off a week

Used to be 4 on (2 x 12hr days, 2 x 12hr nights) and 4 off with 18 days off every 8 weeks. No time owed back, only bank holiday off was Christmas but paid an extra allowance if your shift was on a bank holiday. I nearly reduced a Norbert Dentressangle driver to tears when I described the pattern to him. 20 years was enough mind.

Meeting tonight to see whats intended, supposedly finishing on nights so will lose good part of 1st day off

Suck it it up chucklenuts

I’m contracted between 16-40 hours per week
We work 24/7
My shifts can be anything during this time as long as have 11 hours rest between
I don’t know what shift I’m working for the coming week until 6 days in advance and then it’s only for that week.
Days off are rarely together. Our hours are reduced to 16hours pw at the moment
I’m paid £7.50 ph this rises to £9.50 ph between 23:00 – 07:00 and all day Sunday
Often my days off or my last days holiday require a 00:00 start that night
Trying to book leave is ridiculous
Trying to plan anything is impossible
Social life??

Stop yer whinging 😛 😡 😐

14 x 12 hour shifts, either straight days or straight nights, then 21 days off. No clawback, no holidays. It’s like semi-retirement 😀

Previous job was 2 x 8 hour – start at 6am, 2 x 8 hour – start at 2 pm, then 2 x 8 hour – start at 10pm, then 2 days off. There was no Saturday night shift and no Sunday day shift, so when your rota fell on those times it was a Brucie Bonus. It was expected that you stayed over your 8 hours pretty much every shift, and especially on the 2-10pm one, but that was the nature of the job (prisoner transfer).

Week on, week off.
12 1/2 hour days…

4 on 4 off, 4 on 4 off, 5 on 3 off continuous, covering the whole 96hrs (or 120hrs) at a time, away from home 🙁

I’m always amazed at the weird combinations employers come up with for providing cover. I’m sure sometimes they just pluck figures out of a hat…

Day or night? (drumroll….) Day!
Hours on? (drumroll….) 12!
Days in a row? (drumroll….) 6!
Days off? (drumroll….) 5!
Next shifts? (drumroll….) Nights!

Congratulations! You’re doing 6 12hr day shifts with a 5 day break before returning to 6 night shifts. The rota will be up shortly but will change midway through cycle 3.

2 PM shifts 2 until 9-30
2 AM shifts 7 until 2-30
2 days off.
Then repeat until I retire.
Done them for 23 years so just about used to them now!

All 12hrs….
Mon to thurs days, 7 days off
Fri-mon nights (finish Tuesday morning)
Fri -sun days
Tues to thurs nights (finish fri mornin)
Repeat the above and then 2ws of relief before starting again

my shifts vary between 0500-1254 and 1512-2332.
in a 25 week rota i only do the same shift twice in a given week,
a typical week would be (something like)1437-2328 then 1251-2016 then 0553-1417, rest day, 0542-1437 then 0710-1829 and a rest day.
its shit.
the reason for doing the different shifts every day, is that in the past employees were caught stealing the reason they almost all gave was ‘the opportunity presented itself’
wears you down, no social life, ive put on 8 stone since i started, feel suicidal regularly.
any attempt at communication regarding the shifts is met with ‘they are legal’ and/or if you dont like it then leave.
if i could find something else, i would.

I used to do 4 on 2 off and it was awful. Big deciding factor in leaving that job tbh. Messes up your social life completely, having only one weekend off every 6 weeks or so makes for an unhappy person! Where I work now, theres no set shift pattern and we’re just rostered on monthly with a total number of hours we need to fill. Makes it harder to plan stuff but I typically only work 3 days in a row before at least one off, and tend to get every other weekend off 🙂 not sure if I’d be happy going to a 9-5 now, I’ve just had 5 shifts in a row and was flagging towards the end of day 4 and most of the 5th. I do a mix of 8, 10 & 12 hour shifts with the odd 13.5er.

Used to do (desk bound now for a good reason).

35 days – 12on / 12off (offshore vessels)
7 days rest
12 days onshore days
2 days off
12 days onshore nights
2 days off

And repeat….

6 on, 2 off ad infinitum can’t work. There must be some other breaks!

Eight hours, 5 on, 2 off three times then 7 off for me. We have spare shifts to do aswell but also get holidays…

houns is pw3ed by the man.

Some employers have a funny view of ‘shifts’ – some of the shifts outlined above are somewhat complicated!!

Hydrographic surveyor offshore:

5 weeks on – 12 hour shifts (06:00 – 18:00 or 18:00 – 06:00) 7 days a week. Although we are currently alongside doing, er, not much at the mo! 😀

5 weeks off.

Repeat.

We get our vessel rota a year in advance so makes planning a bit more straightforward.

Sweet. Plenty of time for riding.

It’d be interesting to hear what those of you with crazy / evil shift patterns do for a living. Especially Houns – that sounds mental!

I work 6 days on and 4 days off.

My 6 days consist of:

2 x early shifts (7.30am – 4.30pm)
2 x late shifts (3pm to midnight midweek or 4pm to 2am Fri and Sat)
2 x night shifts (11pm to 8am midweek or 8pm to 8am Fri and Sat)

My first day off is always straight off a night shift, so I suppose its more like 3 and a bit days off.

The nature of my work however means that I can often get kept on and / or have a quick turnaround.

Last week for example I started work at 7.30am on Wednesday and then finally finished at 1am the following day on Thursday. I was then back in at 7.30am on that same day.

It’s also common to have your shifts changed or hours increased due to ‘operational demands.’

Not complaining though as I enjoy my job 8)

Mon to Fri 35hrs one week, 40 the next with a weekday on call of 1:3 at best (currently doing a 1:2).
Weekends as on call, 1:3 at best but currently a 1:2.

I worked 68hrs last week on my 35hr week due to on call work.

Feeling it this week. Thankfully it’s not those hours every week.

40 week shift pattern with 14 (fourteen) different shifts, can’t live without a diary but at least I know what my shifts are for the foreseeable future.
Until they re-profile & we start all over again with different shifts (which happens every couple of years or less)
So short staffed that ad hoc leave is nigh on impossible.
Night shifts are seven X 11 hrs on the trot with six rest days after.
Prison service.

Don’t join.

12 hours with 45 mins unpaid break, 3 on 3 off, days only, 9 day break every 9 weeks, lovin it! no riding during on days though, can’t manage it

Prison service.

Don’t join.

I thought you’re all being outsourced to G4S / Serco?

Two 12 hour days (07:30 – 19:30) 24 hr break two 12 hour nights (19:30 – 07:30) five days off (6 if you count the day you finished nights).
Works for me. 🙂

Tend to work 5 days out of 7, shifts from 7-6 or 11-8 or 1-11 no real pattern, except i have sunday as a day off most weeks, if i do work sunday its classed as overtime.

This week im Monday 10-8, tues d/o, wed 1-11, thurs 7-6, fri 1-11, sat 9-6ish and sun off, contracted to 36hrs per week but as you can see scheduled more but no pay for those additional hours, its all a bit crap.

We don’t do shifts, I normaly start at 6am and finish after 7pm Monday to Friday, no breaks, just work.

Supposed to be on a 40 hour contract, Ha!

amplebrew, everyone in my force who has worked that pattern thinks it the best one they’ve ever used, even sleeping into a rest day.

I work 7 days on, 3 or 4 off
7 x 0700-1500

4×1400-2300
3×2200-0700

3×1400-2300
4×2200-0700

and a week of random “days” usually rostered as 10-1800 but the idea is we provide resilience (cover for sickness/leave etc) so usually get these changed. We sleep into days off too off the sets of nights.

And despite this week supposedly being my week of earlies I am working 4 nights 🙄 , and just been warned I am working Christmas Day and Boxing day, despite them actually landing on what should be rest days (ie. days off) anyway 🙄 Still, I’ll be getting double time (as they are bank holidays) AND 2 rest days back (as I was supposed to have them off even if it wasnt a BH) so they must be desperate as I’m not coming cheap!

Houns, what do you do if you don’t mind me asking (I am babylon/five oh/da feds if it wasn’t obvious)?

Complicated 5 week rota that sucks!
WEek 1 (this week) Mon 14-22, Tues 14-22, WEd 16-00, Thu-Sun 22-0700
Week 2 Mon RD, Tues RD, Wed RD, Thurs RD, Fri 08-16, Sat 07-17, Sun 07-17
Week 3 Mon 07-15, Tues 07-15, Wed RD, Thurs RD, Fri RD, Sat 17-04, Sun 78-02
Week 4 Mon 22-07, Tues 22-07, Wed 22-7, Thus 18-02, Fri 18-04, Sat RD, Sun RD
Week 5 Mon RD, Tues RD, WEd 07-16, Thurs 07-18, Fri 07-18, Sat RD , Sun RD

As you can it is hideous!!!

EDIT: Amplebrew I want your shift back! I did that when I started .. not operational resilient enough so given the gubbins we have above and it’s changing on 1st Sept not by much but to something just as shizzle and hideous!

Prison service.
Don’t join.

I thought you’re all being outsourced to G4S / Serco?

Ah yes, those robbing gits.
I don’t care, I’m gone in 2 1/2 yrs.

Worst rota I’ve yet worked was 12 days on 2 off. A&E Doc in Swansea.

5 8 hour shifts (9-5,4-12,8-4), followed by 2 12 hour shifts (9-9, 12-12, 2-2) followed by another 5 8 hour shifts. I did that for four months, it gets broken up slightly by night shifts but thats basically it – I struggle to understand how its legal but apparently it is.

@ crashtestmonkey & Munqe-chick

The 4 days off is really great as I can get a few days away without actually needing to take any leave.