What to do with 31 weeks off a year!

On a holidays included shift pattern you can look forward to up to 31 weeks of holiday every year. This is on a standard full time contract. So if you are working 12-hour shifts on 37-42 hour working week, then you could turn your 5.6 weeks into 10-31 weeks off every year.


What a holidays included shift pattern does is take your rest days and combine them with your holidays to give you the best possible time off. That means regular time off in blocks of 7-12 days. Then during the summer the breaks are extended to give you 17-21 days off. Then you can have a nice two week break in the summer every year.


There are lots of holidays included shift patterns available. They can meet any workload, working contracts, SLAs, etc. The most popular are the 232, 554, 3on and 4on. The 232 and 554 work around the week. The 3on and 4on do not work around a week, instead they are based on ensuring that you only work two or three shifts with a break.

So what can you do with 31 weeks off? Strangely enough when people have experienced a holidays included shift pattern, one complaint is about reducing the number of weeks off because people find it too much. 31 weeks is a lot of time off. So here are a few ideas about what to do with it.

Relax with the family!

Set sail and see the world!

Take up a new hobby!

Work on the garden!

Soak up some culture!

If you would like to fine out more about holidays included shift patterns, please contact us on alec@visualrota.co.uk or phone us on 01636 816466

Performance Criteria

When evaluating any change in operations there are five key performance indicators to measure how well your new operation is working. These are;

• Quality
• Speed
• Dependability
• Flexibility
• Cost

So once you implement a new way of working you can evaluate its performance against these criteria.

A new way of working that is very popular is Holidays Included Shift Patterns. Once people are on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern they never want to come off it. But from a business perspective how would a Holidays Included Shift Pattern improve performance? If we look at each of the criteria in turn, we can evaluate how an operation will work under the old and the new way of working.

The quality of the operation will normally improve. This is because when creating a Holidays Included Shift Pattern the first step is to assess what would the ideal make-up of a shift be? Then you set up the Holidays Included Shift Pattern so that on every shift you have the best collection of skills possible. This means that on every shift you would have the “ideal” team working. So having the “ideal” team on every shift compared to a random assortment of people will inevitably produce a better quality product. How much the quality improves will depend on how the present operation is running.

The speed of the operation will normally improve as well. Under a Holidays Excluded Shift Pattern, there will inevitably be shifts where key personnel are missing. When this happens the production must either stop or be reduced to cope with the skills loss. This may be only intermittent or may occur on nearly every shift. However, on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern if a skill is needed on a shift then the skill will be there. So over the year you would see an increase in the operation's speed.

The dependability of the operation relies on many different factors. One of which could be ensuring that an engineer is on every shift, or a Tech Services person. This will depend greatly on the operation itself. Most Holidays Included Shift Patterns are set up for key skills like Tech Services and engineers to ensure that they are always available in case of a break down. So a Holidays Included Shift Pattern could help improve the dependability of the operation. What’s more if you are looking at it from the dependability on delivering products to a given deadline then a Holidays Included Shift Pattern will definitely help you plan your workload better. What’s more the ability to know in advance what skills and personnel you have on every shift, means that you can plan your work better. So where as before you could estimate when products would be completed, on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern you can predict when products will be completed.

Flexibility is more about the products you are making, and whether you are on Holidays Included Shift Pattern or Holidays Excluded Shift Pattern, your flexibility remains firmly in your own hands. So whether you can switch between products is based on how you have set up operations. What you can do on Holidays Included Shift Patterns is plan your work. Then if things change such as product A is no longer in demand, you can work out how much of Products B and C you can make to meet their sales target.

What happens to your costs on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern is very interesting! Normally a Holidays Included Shift Pattern is a cheaper operation than Holidays Excluded Shift Patterns. This is because you can now plan your operation better so can forecast supplies etc. So your overall costs can reduce due to lack of wastage and taking advantage of bulk orders. Then there is overtime. On a Holidays Included Shift Pattern overtime is minimized. In many cases it is completely eradicated. But the advantage is that you can budget for it. On Holidays Excluded Shift Pattern, your overtime expenditure is something you find out about at the end of the year. On Holidays Included Shift Pattern you can estimate it in advance. So you can get a realistic estimate of your costs up front for the whole year.

Polar Plot showing improvement in performance criteria

If you would like to know how a Holidays Included Shift Pattern is great for your employees too then click here.

If you would like to operate a Holidays IncludedShift Pattern then our e-book is available from Amazon or contact C-Desk Technology on alec@visualrota.co.uk or (+44) 01636 816466 

Would you work five consecutive 12-hour shifts for a week off?

A very popular shift pattern is one we have christened "554". On this one you would work two or three day shifts, then have a 24-hour break and work two or three nights shifts. So that is five consecutive shifts but there is a 24-hour break in the middle. Then you would have a four or five day break. Which is very similar to working continental shifts but with the advantage that this shift pattern is designed around the week. So it maximises your weekends off.

You would end up working (on average) about 183 shifts per year before holidays and have 26 5-day breaks and 13 4-day breaks per year. That’s a lot of time off. Then you take your holidays.

Most companies use a holidays excluded shift arrangement. Which means that you select your holidays in accordance with a set of rules. You know the sort; “first come first served” and “a maximum of two off on any shift” are popular rules. However on this type of arrangement everyone is disadvantaged.

• Firstly you are restricted by everyone else. So if you want to have your holidays during school holidays because that’s when you can go away with the children, you have to be the first one to request those dates. So you have to be organised, no last minute breaks for you. And if someone else has booked a single day off in the middle of your ideal holiday, it will be refused.
• Secondly the system is unfair. Someone who has been with the company for years can look ahead and block book their holidays. Any one new to the group is at the back of the queue for booking holidays because they will not be the “first to come and request a holiday”.
• Thirdly you will end up working more weekends. If everyone gets to select their holidays and up to two people are allowed off on every shift, what happens when no one books a holiday? You end up working a shift which you didn’t have to. These shifts could be at night, at weekends or on a Bank Holiday.
• Fourthly it is more stressful. Have you ever gone to work and wondered if you will be over worked again because you’re understaffed? It’s so stressful working when the operation is understaffed. No one has a proper job, because you are all doing your own job and a bit of someone else’s. From the moment you get to work, you are behind and by the end you are just exhausted. Sometimes it can be exciting and exhilarating, knowing that you are managing a crisis, but wouldn’t your life be better without the stress?
• Fifthly you could end up standing around doing nothing. If no one books a holiday on a shift, then you end up with more people in than there is work. So what does the extra person do? Stand in the corner? Not very nice for anyone. They feel undervalued and bored. Being bored is so exhausting, especially for 12 hours! And what about everyone else on that shift? If you’re working and someone else isn’t, it feels vastly unfair.

Now there is an alternative to a holidays excluded shift pattern. That is a holidays included shift pattern. On a holidays included shift pattern everyone gets all of their holidays included in the shift pattern at the start of the year.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “That doesn’t sound very fair. What if I don’t like the time I have off, or I need the first week in August because I have a time share?”

Well on a holidays included shift pattern, the holidays are rostered in a very fair manner. Everyone is rostered off in turn. They are designed with you in mind. So if you want your time off in blocks of a week, that’s what you get. You want a two week break in the Summer, that’s what you get. Most shift workers once they experience a holidays included shift pattern love it.

There are three main reasons for a holidays included shift pattern, firstly there’s the privacy, then you get better quality time off and lastly it minimises stress and fatigue.

• A holidays included shift pattern is very private. Have you ever felt that you had to tell your boss your entire life story to explain why you need a holiday? Well that is no more. On a holidays included shift pattern you don’t have to tell anyone anything. You just go. Your time off is you own.
• You get better quality time off on a holidays included shift pattern. Your time off is designed to be long enough to recover from your previous shifts and still have time to get away, do the garden or just spend a few days in the beach with a book.
• You get more holidays on a holidays included shift pattern. I know that sounds strange. How can you get more holiday? Have you ever studied your shift pattern and seen that some shifts will give you more time off? Well that’s what happens on a holidays included shift pattern, the holidays are put with your rostered days off to give you more time off for less.
• You get better Summer holidays on a holidays included. During the Summer everyone wants that two week break. The weather and school terms make it a prime holiday season. Fitting in everyone's holiday, so that they can get a two week break is hard work, when people can select their own holidays. The only way it works is if everyone gets together and negotiates their time off. Not something you want to do every year. But on a holidays included shift pattern it is a normal part of the shift pattern. Everyone can have that two week break.
• However the main reason for a holidays included shift patterns is that it is so relaxing. Everyone knows who will be on each shift. This means that you never have to dread going into work and finding that half the shift failed to turn up. On a holidays included everyone who should be in will be in. So every shift; no one gets left out, no one has to be stressed. Your manager can ensure that every one is in with the right skills, and then match the work to the people. Something that is impossible on a holidays excluded shift pattern because no one knows from one shift to the next who will turn up.

And if you were wondering what the best holidays included shift pattern looks like, then it’s the 554. On the 554 holidays included you can work four or five shifts and have a week off. Here is an example of the 554 holidays included. This is a typical shift pattern that you would work as a full time equivalent on 12-hour shifts.

On this version you get about 29 weeks off. In the summer the shifts have been changed so you give up two normal weeks off and get an 18-day break.

Oh and if you don’t like your weeks off, then you can swap shifts, so that you can tailor your shift pattern to your own life style.

If you want to introduce a holidays included shift pattern to your department, tell your manager about C-Desk Technology and direct them to our website at www.oranalysts.com or email at alec@oranalysts.com or our book explaining a holidays included shift pattern is available on Amazon

UK Amazon

US Amazon

Ada Lovelace Day

I celebrated Ada Lovelace day by working on a difficult logic problem. If someone is on a holiday’s included shift pattern for part of the year and then moves off internally to a holidays excluded pattern, how much holiday do they have left to take?

It may sound easy but the logic was quite daunting. The shift pattern accounted for their hours and basic holiday. Then they could take additional holiday while on shift if they were entitled to more than their basic. Plus they could swap shifts and training was in addition. Oh and they also did overtime too. So all in all a very typical shift operation designed for ideal circumstances and then continually adapted to fit the changing environment.

So pro rata estimates were invalid because the shift pattern did not remain continuous for the whole year. Hence I had to take the recorded hours they had worked, then the holiday they had taken into account plus the hours they were due to be scheduled on when they moved off the shift pattern. So a lot of maths later I had a logically sound answer.

So how much holiday would you give a person who is on a 37.5 hour week, and is due to be moved off the rota on 1^st December? He is entitled to 30 days of holiday plus Bank Holidays. The rota accounted for only 30 days during the year. He has worked 1580 hours (or scheduled to work including sickness) up until 1^st December. Then he moves onto an office shift pattern. He has also had 37.5 hours of training and taken 24 hours of holiday in addition to the holidays included shift pattern.

So what’s the answer?

Well first we need to know how many hours he will be scheduled to work on an office shift pattern. There are four weeks and three days in December. So that would be 172.5 hours.

Then we work out how many hours he should have been scheduled for during the year. 1,955.25 hours.

He has worked 1,641.5 up until 1st December.

So the holiday that was included in the rota was 1,955.25-1,641.5-172.5=141.25 hours

So he was entitled to 285 hours of holiday during the year. He has taken 24 hours and been scheduled for 141.25 hours of holiday. Therefore logically he is entitled to 119.75 hours of holiday in December. There are two Bank Holidays in December so that takes care of 15 hours of holiday (two days of 7.5-hours). But that still leaves 104.75 hours or 11 days.

That is half of December!

So your options are,

• Force him to take holiday before moving to the new post
• Schedule him to be off on some shifts before December
• Pay overtime
• Carry over holiday
• Buy back the holiday

You may be asking how the answer could be so high. Well it’s a holiday included shift pattern. So while over the year he would have worked the correct number of hours, you have to allow for him being rostered off for more time during part of the year. So because he is being removed mid cycle his hours do not represent an average amount.

So swapping people on and off a holidays included shift pattern mid cycle could leave you with high overtime bills!

If you need help working out staffing costs or shift pattern drop us an email at alec@visualrota.co.uk or call on +44 (0) 1636 816466