People working 4 day work weeks

darkamulets

Senior member
Feb 21, 2002
784
0
76
Hey everyone, at the office I work at we work 3 shifts: 6am - 3pm, 2pm - 11pm, 10pm - 7am to cover the center 24/7. We have 2 people on per shift working sunday-thursday & tuesday-saturday so we end up with Fri/Sat & Sun/Mon off.

As of late a lot of us have been thinking about 4 day work weeks and we're debating on what hours exactly we would need to work to accomplish 24 hour coverage. Anyone out there currently working alternative work schedules or 4 days on and 10 hour days could you give us a sample schedule? We're interested to see what the hours would look like.

I've tried searching on google quite a bit but I suppose I'm not using the correct wording as I keep finding articles on how awesome the setup is but no actual mention of shift schedules.
 

jlee

Lifer
Sep 12, 2001
48,511
219
106
First shift- 0630-1430
Second shift- 1400-2200
Third shift- 2100-0700

Midnights run 4 days...the rest have 8hr shifts / 5 day weeks.
 

darkamulets

Senior member
Feb 21, 2002
784
0
76
Mind you what I noted up there includes the extra hour of overlap for lunch. We're looking for everyone on 4 day work weeks.
 

FelixDeCat

Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
29,181
2,042
126
This works best for companies that are only open for 8 hours a day. The way it works is to add an additional 2 hours to the schedule so 40 hours are put in over 4 days (10 hours x 4). And since those companies usually have to be open 5 days a week, they usually rotate who has Mondays or Fridays off.

Since you cant add more hours to a 24 hour day, one shift will have to be part time only. In other words, the first two shifts move to 10 hour days and the last shift is 4 hours only (that shift gets the shaft). The fist two shifts will also have to rotate Mondays and Fridays off if you have to be open 5 days a week.

If you found this advice useful, please feel free to paypal me $500 in consulting fees. :)
 

Farang

Lifer
Jul 7, 2003
10,914
3
0
Be careful, the workers did that where I'm at and now there are less total hours to go around. We went from 45 scheduled man hours per day to 40 scheduled hours per day. We also lost one of our paid lunches per week. They did this when I was in another department and I tried to tell their dumb asses what would happen but everyone got on the bandwagon and did it anyway, with management laughing all the way to the bank.

Its hard physical labor too, so now we get to make up for those 5 missing hours every day by busting our asses even harder.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,387
8,154
126
Heh. Management came to my boss and asked if he thought we'd go for 4 x 10's.

His response: "I already get 10 hours a day out of them and that's 5 days a week. I'd be losing 10 hours of productivity a week that way."

Doh!
 

BrownTown

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
5,314
1
0
Well when we do 24/7 coverage it is on 6x12s rotating the days off. IT would be harder only working 10 hours though. Wouldn't it just be easier to do 4x12s one week and 3x12s the next week?
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,141
138
106
When I was a contractor in WV I worked 4 10hr days a week. The shifts were from 9pm to 7am. Usually had a half-hour paid lunch, sometimes we got an hour paid lunch.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
The place I worked at did 24/7 coverage with 4 shifts. Shift 1 would work 7 AM to 7 PM Sunday through Wednesday, Shift 2 would work 7 PM to 7 AM Sunday through Wednesday, Shift 3 would work 7 AM to 7 PM Thursday through Saturday, and Shift 4 would work 7 PM to 7 AM Thursday through Saturday. Every three months, the day and night shifts would switch from Sunday through Wednesday to Thursday through Saturday.
 

darkamulets

Senior member
Feb 21, 2002
784
0
76
Well when we do 24/7 coverage it is on 6x12s rotating the days off. IT would be harder only working 10 hours though. Wouldn't it just be easier to do 4x12s one week and 3x12s the next week?

This looks interesting so what times did you start shifts on? 7pm/7am? Have a sample hour chart?
 

microAmp

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2000
5,996
114
106
This looks interesting so what times did you start shifts on? 7pm/7am? Have a sample hour chart?

I've worked compressed shift at two different companies, typically it's 6 to 6 shift. When Motorola was going to compressed in 1999 or 2000 in the fabs, they let us vote on 4 to 4, 5 to 5, or 6 to 6. 6 to 6 won out easily.

12 hours makes it for a very long day but the days off are nice, especially when taking vacation on those 3 days, 10 days off then.
 

Analog

Lifer
Jan 7, 2002
12,755
3
0
4/10s can ‹^› ‹(•¿•)› ‹^›
 

Reel

Diamond Member
Jul 14, 2001
4,484
0
76
We have 24/7 coverage with lots of overlap to aid in the turnover between shifts. We have 2 half-weeks each with 3 shifts. We have Sun - Wed and Wed - Sat. Wed is a double-staffed day for meetings and training as needed. Also, a lot of the extra work that needs to get done but can't due to focusing on the coverage happens on Wed. The three shift schedules are 7am - 5pm. 2pm - midnight. 9pm - 7am. I believe the actual hours are 30 minutes later but most people opt to eat lunch at their desk instead of taking a lunch break. This schedule is called 4/10s.

We also have a 9/80 that is for the engineers that is every day is 9 hours except Fridays - one is off and one is 8 hours. We have some people who work the opposite schedule and some who work standard work weeks.
 

Adrenaline

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2005
5,320
8
81
This looks interesting so what times did you start shifts on? 7pm/7am? Have a sample hour chart?

My work schedule:

Work 2 weeks on days then 2 weeks on nights, 12 hour shifts, every other weekend off. 6 AM - 6 PM or 6 PM - 6 AM (We work 5-5 though and it works out fine). The week is Monday through Sunday, but the schedule format is done Tuesday through Monday. 36 hours one week and 48 hours the next.

Work days

Tuesday On
Wednesday On
Thursday Off
Friday Off
Saturday On
Sunday On
Monday On
Tuesday Off
Wednesday Off
Thursday On
Friday On
Saturday Off
Sunday Off
Monday Off

Swap to nights

Tuesday On
Wednesday On
Thursday Off
Friday Off
Saturday On
Sunday On
Monday On
Tuesday Off
Wednesday Off
Thursday On
Friday On
Saturday Off
Sunday Off
Monday Off

Swap to days and so on.
 
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krunchykrome

Lifer
Dec 28, 2003
13,413
1
0
I use a flex schedule at work. Basically, I work 9 hour days for the first 2.5 weeks of the month. During the last two weeks of the month, I can take off 1 day each week (paid and excluded from PTO, Vacation, etc). So I end up taking the last two Fridays of every month off.

It works out well, because priot to utilizing this flex schedule, I was working 9 hours anyways.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,403
12,142
126
www.anyf.ca
When I was in high school I had a summer job that was 4x10, was freaken awesome. I would kill to have a shift like that now. 3 day weekends every time FTW and still regular 40 hour weeks.