Of all the schedules I've worked, the 4-10 was my favorite. Sure, I enjoyed 3 and 4 day weekends when we worked a rotating 3 or 4 day week with 12 hour shifts. I did that for 20 years. But a couple of times over the past three decades, I managed to get a 4-10 deal for as long as 2 years. I must say, that was a good balance, and it was great having a third day off while not having the days be 12 long hours.

Of course if constant, draining overtime is going to continue to be a factor, I'm not sure you'd get to enjoy the extra day off very often....

We worked four 10's with a volunteer list for Friday overtime work . The problem with that was the Supervisor said that if guys were working on Friday then there had to be a Foreman working as well . I hated being forced to work on what should have been my day off . Sorry , I just had to bitch ...

quote:

Originally posted by TXJIM:
Hats off to you guys that do shift work. I couldn't do it.

Well, they don't call it "shift" work for nothing.

Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s, Coast Guard HQ at Buzzards Point in Wash DC went to a mandatory Monday-Thursday, 10 hr/4 day week for the entire building, in order to shut down the building for 3 days in a row to save energy. Some folks loved it, others hated it, but everyone, military and civilian employees, had to do it.

Studies show that, for a number of reasons, 10 hrs/4 days is better than an 8 hrs/5 days (The Police Foundation, National Institute of Justice, and this consulting company).

Here’s a link to a free online shift schedule planner that may be useful in figuring some things out.

Here is shift insanity:
6 days of 8 hour day shift.
2 days off.
6 days of 8 hour evening shift.
2 days off.
6 days of midnights.
After a couple of months of this, citizen complaints (and thumping) skyrocketed.
That ended it.

If your whole life is your job it's awesome but if you like to do things outside of work like keeping a healthy family life it's terrible.

The department worked four 10's and also a 2-2-2 and 80 schedule.

Thank you all for your input. I put this in our suggestion program box at work on Monday. They have a weekly meeting on Wednesdays. It usually takes a little while for them to get back with a response. The suggestions go to the proper people and can take months with a yes or no decision.

I did not propose a rotating schedule as most people would not like that, myself included.

Our weekend shift personnel earn $6 or $9, I don't remember, more an hour on Saturday and Sunday as long as they work their other two days. There is no lack of pay for the four hours they are short. It could be adjusted as well. I don't have that information or power to decide.

Our schedulers can and do adjust the amount of common carriers that come in to be loaded. They can schedule as light or as heavy as needed, so long as we have orders to be loaded. The four hours of dead time can be scheduled accordingly.

If staffed properly, we would not need to have anyone come in on their days off unless they volunteered to do so. We don't have enough equipment or room to have an entire shift come in while another is working so any overlapping of shifts is not feasible.

So far, all of the people I work with seem to like the idea. We are all fed up with having to work 6 days a week, as it has been going on for years now with no end in sight. No one has any other ideas of lessening the overtime.

I have worked this schedule;
Start on Wednesday and work 7 day shifts then you have the next Wednesday off and return on Thursday and work 7 afternoon shifts, return Friday nite and work 7 midnite shifts. Now you have 5 days off returning on Wednesday to start the cycle over again. 28 day cycle. Weekends are covered with the only overtime being on Sundays and one other shift in the second week.
Crazy but everyone shares the weekend work.