Can anyone work out this maths/rota rotation

[twist26]

If you had two people that cover seven days and had agreed to do four shifts one week and three the next so I'll do
Week 1- 4 nights
Week 2- 3 nights
Week 3- 4 nights
Week 4- 3 nights then repeat

What would be the best rotation to make it easier for planning in advance and also make the weekends fair?

I'm sure there is a simple formula. We also can't do more than 4 shifts in a row. Anyone? 😊

It can't work, consecutively, because 4 and 3 add up to 7, so every fortnight you'd start again.

So if Person A does M Tu W Th
Person B Fri Sa Su M
(Week 2) A does Tu W Th
Person B does Fri Sat Sun

and you are back to week one again, because of the 2 shits adding up to 7 days.

So you'd have to start mucking about splitting the shifts, which would just play havoc with people's sleep.

2-2-3 but makes it super hard for going from night time living to day time living. Unless it is a sleep in care job?

You can do variations of 4-4-4-3-3-4 etc. so you are constantly moving the first day of your working week.

Would

first person - Sun/Mon/ Tues every week
second person -Wed/ Thur/Fri every week

then alternate Saturdays work?
The Saturday would obviously be consecutive to their other working days so not jumping around.

Both do four days straight, no three day stints. So you'd have a 7 week cycle. That's the only fair way of doing it to give both equal weekend working and consecutive days off.

It's just night shifts? 4+3 doesn't work except over really long rotations - it always stuffs the same person for weekends. But, if you work 3-on, 3-off and repeat on a 6-day cycle things even out much more quickly.

And I suggest 3-on, 3-off rather than 4-on, 4-off because it gives a little leeway for an emergency cover shift without breaking the 4 consecutive shift rule.