Which shift pattern would you like?

[CI300]

The ezy 12 crewing post got me thinking about my situation. i.e. 8.5 hrs 6 days on, 3 off. Some in our office want to go to 12hrs 4/4 others again want to go back to 8hrs -5 days on, 2 off. What are the pros and cons.

[Little Blue]

In my oh-so-humble opinion, 12 hr 4 on 4 off is vastly preferable
to me, having tried the 6 on 3 off rosta. We adopted the Lufthansa style-rosta for about a year (Up until last years round of redundancies) and, apart from the drop in shift pay, I just seemed to be constantly at work. 2E 2L and 2N, 1 rest day 2 off and then back again. Not much scope for o/t, unless you really wanted to spend every minute at Donington Hall (Nice though it is..!!)
12hr shift pay is the big plus for us again and of course the other bonus is that you only have to take 4 days leave to get 12 days off !
Ok, some may balk at the thought of spending 12 hrs at work, but the pros outweigh the cons for me !
.....
........
Now 12 hrs on the slot desk ????.....I'll reserve judgement on that, thank you Bob ! :p

[ETOPS MAN]

CI300,

When was the last time you ever worked 8.5 hrs?

If you worked 12 hour shifts you would get a whole 4 days drinking Guinness!!

Oh........yes now I'm with you now!!

Yep........12 hours for me too, sounds good.

Must be your round?:D :D :D

[VIKING9]

what about 12hr shifts as follows:

2 days + 2 nights then 5 off
2 days + 3 nights then 4 off
3 days + 2 nights then 5 off

:D

[crewingb]

I currently work the 8hr day, well it's actually 9hrs when you count
the lunch break you "don't get" seems to be the norm across ops/crewing jobs. My last job was crew control on a 2days 2nights
4 off and while it's great having the weekends off I do miss shift work, because of the lve, I mean on shift you take 4 days lve and effectively you nearly have 2 weeks off. I take 4 days lve now and I don't even get 1 week off. 4 on 4 off would be my choice.

[PaddyOpants]

V9 I’m with you guaranteed 2 weekends off a month very easy to plan your life around...

[VIKING9]

paddy yep, but all I need now is a job that has A roster.....;) Anyone ??????

[ops_bored]

got to be 12 hours, 4 on 4 off for me!

[canberra]

ive done various shifts over the years both in the raf and civvy st. one big prob with 12 hour shifts is it turns in to a v long day, up at o god oo back late evening, driving home in morning fighting to stay awake. one statistic i was given was that working shifts takes 10 years off you life! now i do 9-5 monday to friday, the only problem is ive got to do things like mots and such at weekends, but at least i get to see pne play!! im actually suprised that the health and safety people allow 12hour shifts.

[Thunder Child]

Currently doing 1800Z-0600Z, 4 days a week.

Suits me down to the ground.

Finish 7am Friday morn, back in 7pm Monday eve........

[blackbox]

In my old job I worked on 4 (2xD / 2xN) and loved it..

In my current role I have lost night shifts (horay) but do 8.0hrs 4 on 2 off (2xL's / 2xE's) in return!!!!...

[VIKING9]

blackbox where have you been? Only 4 posts :D You certainly enjoyed those nights with a glorious crewing blonde who shall remain nameless.......but she was luuuuurrrrrrvvvvvllllllyyyyy :cool:

[GOBWX]

aye
i two have the delight for 2d 2n 4 off....
would not swop it for anything....
anyway when you go shopping on a monday morning the shops are empty.... bliss:D :D :D :D

[Jelly Baby Freak]

Having worked 6/3 type rosters that usually meant 7 days on to cover overtime, I moved companies to a 4/4 2d 2n 4 off roster, 12 hour shifts. Less wearing on the nerves/car/wallet!
Gotta be the best!:p

[Uncle Cracker]

Heard that next year airlines may be included in new European legislation which would mean it will no longer be possible to work longer than an eight hour shift! :mad: Anyone else know more?

[Harvey SM]

Ok, so am no longer in the industry anymore - but still like to keep an interest. I've got to say that the 4 on 4 off is imho the best shift. I've done some bizarre and very irregular shifts in my first ops job, but then again it was for a bizarre and irregular operated company:rolleyes: I then moved to Chippy Fryer, where I did lates and earlys, 4 on 2 off the only down point being we did lates to earlys, and that mucked up the sleep pattern a tad.:o My final ops role was with Virgin, and that's where I worked the 2days 2nights (12hours) followed by 4 days off..... By far the best shift pattern, had loads of time off and still earnt a decent wage:p Now starting with MET Police (training commences in Januray 2003), their shift patterns keep changing all the time, but atleast i've had experience of similar patterns, and can hopefully contend with anything they throw at me:D

[SAIIP]

Yeah... 4 on 4 off is the best, is hard but it is well off.
We have ours to 8 hours, it just getting worst and worst..
We have no pattern at all, don't know how to plan my holiday...just go with the flow...I guess..

[routechecker]

Oh well,
I will just chip in the one I work and believe me, it is comfortable;
NN O LL EE OOO

N-Night 2100-0700
O-Off
L-1300-2100
E-0700-1400

With the overlap on the last early you can acctually get off at 1300, that give you a full afternoon off, then 3 days Off, and you start at 2100 on the fourth day.
Not at all bad considering.

Cheers

[AOG007]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Do we have nothing better to talk about than what shift's we would like to work?

Come on, I'm sure that between us we can come up with some good threads!

AOG007

[Fiction]

AOG007,

Well come on then start an interesting thread !!!! Like er, how many different types of Russian built aircraft can you see on the ramp today.

Yesterday, I saw Tu134, 154, AN12, IL18, IL86, Yakolav 40. Most of them belonging to mystery operators who only fly at night !!!

:cool: :cool: :cool:

[Buggs Bunny]

European Working Directive to come in to ground transport workers sometime in 2003. I believe this includes:
Max 10 hr shifts.
Min 10 hours between shifts
Can work no more than 6 consec days.

This applies to rostered shifts only and not any O/T.

We applied this last year and work various 8 / 10 hrs shifts on 4on 2 off basis. Got initial complaints but everyone alot brighter which means a safer working enviorment.

Can't beat 2D2N 4OFF...basically work two days, get inconvience for two nights then 4 days on golf course! Thanks Europe...for nothing?

Brgds

[You splitter]

Did hear that you could get round the European Directive by simply signing a waiver when putting pen to paper on your T&C's.
Not sure if it's true.

The only other way is to work 10 hours and then get the extra 2 as overtime. now what a shame that would be! :D

4 on 4 off it has to be.

[AOG007]

Now It's Slightly More Interesting!

You splitter

I also was aware of this possiblity, but can anyone in an HR position, clarify the exact standing of companies who are about to be hit with this new legislation, and comfirm if the waiver is allowed?

AOG007

[bcp7]

I am currently working at a US based airline, Continental Micronesia, flying solely scheduled international ops. US FAR 121 limits us to a max scheduled workday of 10 hours, with 8 hrs rest rqd before returning to work. There are 5 of us, with 1 person on duty 24/7/365. We work day 0600-1400L, swing 1400-2200L and graveyard shifts 2200-0600L on the following rotation-
4 graveyard shifts with 2 days off, 4 swing shifts with 2 days off and 4 day shifts with 4 days off. This was the shift schedule for the wide-body desk at Hawaiian Airlines when our Director worked there.

If you work in the US at a FAR 121 Supplemental airline, primarily freight operations but also charter pax ops, the 10 hour limitation does not apply. At a previous employer who operated under 121 Supplemental, our initial sked was 4 on 3 off 3 on 4 off with 12 hour shifts. As we did very little work on the week-ends, I was eventually able to get my coworkers to go 7 on 7 off. By US work rules, we did not get paid ot unless we worked extra shifts for vacation, sick call, etc.

At another previous employer, World Airways, we worked 4 on 4 off 8 hour days under our contract. We had 1 person for each of 3 shifts and a vac/relief person, on each side of the week.

[VIKING9]

Anyone know a web link to get the right information? I work now for another transport sector and my shift patterns are cr@p and I'm sure are not legal. Any help is appreciated. Cheers