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It's not just minimum time between shifts. People fall apart from jet lag if the shifts happen randomly. This increases workplace accidents and lowers productiv

by burfog 11y ago

It's not just minimum time between shifts. People fall apart from jet lag if the shifts happen randomly. This increases workplace accidents and lowers productivity. Some places require by law that there are 11 hours between shifts. To avoid jet lag, add the requirement that 11 hours of downtime happen at the same time every day, in UTC or otherwise ignoring daylight saving time. This applies even on days when employees do not work. For example, a Monday-to-Friday daytime worker needs the 11 hour downtime scheduled on Saturday night even though he works neither Saturday nor Sunday. To move that 11-hour downtime to some other part of the day, there are two approaches. One approach is adjust by half an hour each day. The downtime becomes 11.5 hours (a half hour is added on one side or the other) and then back to 11 hours (a half hour is removed from the other side). The other approach is a brutal sudden shift, but giving several days off for recovery.

philip1209 11y ago
We're always working to improve how our systems work, and when we have more users operating 24/7 I think that we will be improving the "time of day" consistency. Letting users set their preferences - e.g. "mornings" or "afternoons" - does actually create consistency. Managers can also set "working hours" for workers - which, for a 24/7 business, can turn the hours they are eligible to work into a hard constraint.
- burfog 11y ago
  Note that this isn't time-of-day consistency for working hours. That's nice, but what you really need is consistency for off hours. It's not terrible if the worker's scheduled hours jump all over within a 13-hour window as long as the worker knows that the remaining hours are usable for consistent sleep. The employee ought to be informed of their down time. For example, suppose the worker gets 6-hour shifts. It's fine to start at 3 AM on some days and at 9 AM on other days. That leaves a consistent 3 PM to 3 AM that they get for sleeping. Some days they work right after they wake up, and other days they start later.
  - philip1209 11y ago
    I agree - and with working hours a manager could block out ~8 hours at the same time every day, employee by employee, to guarantee consistent rest hours.

by burfog 11y ago

philip1209 11y ago

We're always working to improve how our systems work, and when we have more users operating 24/7 I think that we will be improving the "time of day" consistency. Letting users set their preferences - e.g. "mornings" or "afternoons" - does actually create consistency. Managers can also set "working hours" for workers - which, for a 24/7 business, can turn the hours they are eligible to work into a hard constraint.

burfog 11y ago
Note that this isn't time-of-day consistency for working hours. That's nice, but what you really need is consistency for off hours. It's not terrible if the worker's scheduled hours jump all over within a 13-hour window as long as the worker knows that the remaining hours are usable for consistent sleep. The employee ought to be informed of their down time. For example, suppose the worker gets 6-hour shifts. It's fine to start at 3 AM on some days and at 9 AM on other days. That leaves a consistent 3 PM to 3 AM that they get for sleeping. Some days they work right after they wake up, and other days they start later.
- philip1209 11y ago
  I agree - and with working hours a manager could block out ~8 hours at the same time every day, employee by employee, to guarantee consistent rest hours.