To not understand the point of "rotating shifts"

[ForagingForFaerieGold]

My DD has just started a new job. The shifts are 6am to 2pm and 2pm to 10pm. Rotating.

So one week she does the early shift and the next the late. I don't understand the reasoning behind this.

She (and the other staff of course) just get used to one cycle and then it's changed the following week. Why?

Why not have the staff stay on the same shifts each week?

Is there some benefit to this pattern that I am just not seeing? It seems ridiculous and pointless to me. Not to mention inefficient.

Does anyone know why? And would you consent to enlighten me if you do?
Maybe I'm just missing something obvious.

That sounds a bit more finger waggy than I meant too.

Very true though Lostwith. Such stress in these jobs. I wouldn’t want to be newly qualified in today’s NHS. It was bad enough, back then.

IME if anyone wanted permanent lates they only had to ask. Everyone wanted earlier.

A flexible workforce is valuable. Sometimes the work done at night is different from the jobs done in the morning. Supermarket night work is more replenishing stock and less customer work. Vice versa during the day. Night shift in a hospital is different again from day time work - fewer admissions, more emergencies maybe, possibly more admin work. A company wants a versatile workforce that they can move around. No good if Joe goes sick and Jill can't do XX type of work so can't switch over.

Also people tend to take less time off for appointments. If they get afternoon shifts all the dental/doc appointments can be done in the morning.

Our shifts rotate on a daily basis, plus aren't regular, so you can do anything from two to ten hours, starting anywhere from 6am to 8pm. It's fine for me, I live alone so can be flexible, but they do have trouble recruiting, and wonder why!

I'd find rotating shifts a pain. I work PT and at my place the PT shifts are 10am-2pm and then 3pm-7pm. We don't rotate, everyone either does mornings or afternoons. The morning shift is good for those who have DC/school runs to do and the afternoon shifts are taken up by a lot of students who have college or uni in the mornings. It works well.

When I was a student nurse, our shifts were 7.45am - 4.15pm, 1pm - 9.30pm - that was a full early shift and a full late shift. We also did half days - usually 8am-1pm.

Our shift pattern had no pattern at all - we could work a string of earlies, or a couple of earlies, a late, and a half day - as long as we did the right number of hours, and the ward had the right levels of cover at all grades. They tried to give you a half day, finishing at 1pm before your days off, and a late afterwards - but that wasn't guaranteed.

Basically you never got used to a shift pattern, because there was none.

It may be that the OP's dd's work are trying to make sure they have the right grades of staff available throughout the work day, and are rotating it so that no-one ends up doing a shift they hate all the time.

They rotate so that nobody gets extra for anti social hours

Not necessarily. We get extra shift allowances for working nights and some weekends

I love shift work. I could never go back to set shifts let alone 9 to 5. Rotating is the most common type I'd imagine. It's fairest and still let's you have plenty time for other commitments

If it was set shifts then some poor bugger would end up working every weekend

That would have suited me just nicely, back in my student days.

I also did 16:30/17:00 to 21:00 shifts doing back office admin for a bank during my student days.

Absolutely perfect. No complaints. Those shifts will suit a certain demographic (not just students).

I'm with you OP, I think these rotating shifts are uncivilised and not conducive to workers having any kind of life.

When I worked Mon to Fri 8.15am till 5.15pn it was the worst hours ever.

I needed 28 days notice for holidays so couldn't get appointments etc as they didn't like last minute ones unless it was a hospital letter etc.

I was due to get my Windows etc replaced so my dp had to turn down work to let them in to do it as I couldn't get the time off. If he wasn't there I would've needed to lose a days wage as they told us the night before that they were going in.

However by that point I was on mat leave.

I used to work one day 3pm-11pm then the next day 7am-3pm so on. Every second day I slept in and was late (was 18 and irresponsible). That was a pointless shift pattern

Employment law is that there should be at least 11 hours between shifts.
www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1373

I think these rotating shifts are uncivilised and not conducive to workers having any kind of life

Totally disagree I have far more free time than any of my friends who work 9 to 5

No rush hour traffic. No weekend shopping. Time every day to myself. No hassle getting appointments for things. I'm always in for deliveries. Rotating shifts work great 😊

redglitter - they might give you lots of free time, but you c ant take on other regular commitments because week by week your free time changes. You can't say, sign up for a club or course on a set evening or morning, as while some weeks you'll be able to make it, the next you won't. It had the disadvantage of not being able to anything else regularly.

Childcare must be a nightmare if you don't have free care from family.

That works fine though because I have absolutely zero interest in joining clubs or courses 😊

I've worked rotating shifts for over 20 years now and wouldn't work any other way

I don't have any free childcare from family, I use a childminder and work shifts. Yes, there are weeks that my kids aren't there very much and I have to pay for their space but that's just one of those things. If I worked all day shifts then I would be spending it anyway.

Shift work isn't for everyone. If you want to do clubs, hobbies on certain days then don't work rotating shifts. But it has its bonuses also.

I used to love rotating shifts but had to give them up when I had children as I couldn't make the childcare work.

I loved the variety of it. Even now I don't enjoy working Monday to Friday 9-5.

I work shifts, a pattern of 3 shifts over the 24 hour period and we do random rosters of the 2 day shifts with the odd week of nights thrown in.

In my experience, most people favour the early shifts, so given the choice, no one would want to work lots of lates. Its not good for staff retention if someone gets rostered all the shitty shifts.

When my dc were younger I did nights for childcare reasons and was able to negotiate fixed shifts. Now my dc are older it doesn't matter and I work across all shifts.

I do acknowledge that changing rosters make childcare very difficult, no way around that completely I don't think though. Most people with young dc don't want lots of late shifts but most childless people don't either!

I like a mix of shifts, I'd hate doing the same every day.

I do like the variety of my shifts, not really bothered about when I work, but, like a PP said, I can never commit to anything, from teaching classes to watching a TV programme, because I might be working. The only thing I can do is book hours 'off' (so say I am unavailable) to attend something, which I can do as long as I do so with 3 week's notice.

This is a HUGE improvement on when I worked in a school, when I couldn't attend anything at all unless it happened during the holidays.