If you ask a group of shiftworkers to describe their ideal shift schedule, you may hear statements like these:
- "Monday through Friday with 8-hour day shifts."
- "Monday through Thursday with 10-hour day shifts."
- "Thursdays only -- to pick up my check."
- "I'll stay home and you can mail me the check!"
These statements illustrate how much value shiftworkers place on their time-off. In fact, if compensation is unaffected, time-off is the shift worker's primary consideration when comparing alternative shift schedules. Having adequate time-off allows them to have a life outside of work, i.e. the ability to balance their lives at work with their lives away from work.
There are four types of time-off that employees consider when evaluating a shift schedule: (1) weekends off, (2) total days off, (3) daily time off, and (4) consecutive days off. We will examine the schedule attributes that drive these four different types of time-off, supplementing this discussion with statistics from our database of over 20,000 shiftworker surveys.
Weekends Off
Of the four types of time off, the number of weekends off is the usually the most important. The desire to increase the number of weekends off is a common reason for adopting longer shifts. The graph below shows the maximum number of full weekends off (Saturday and Sunday together) per year with 8-hour and 12-hour shifts (13 versus 26 weekends off).
 |
| The maximum possible number of full weekends off per year with 8-hour shifts and 12-hour shifts on schedules with level 24/7 coverage and work weeks that average 42 hours. |
Of course, the
actual number of full weekends off depends on more than just shift length. Other factors include the number of days worked in a row, the pattern of on-off work days, the amount of overtime, and the day the pay week begins. But, as a general rule, longer shifts will enable workers to get more full weekends off.
A key consideration with weekends off is predictability. Most shift workers (82% in the survey database) are willing to work their fair share of weekends. They simply want sufficient advance notice and no last-minute changes. This allows them to make plans for the weekend and not have to worry about getting an unexpected weekend assignment.
Total Days Off
View article on one page