2 shift system
Also called 2x8 or early and late shifts
A 2 shift system covers 16 hours a day with two crews: an early shift from 6 AM to 2 PM and a late shift from 2 PM to 10 PM, Monday to Friday. The crews swap every week, so everyone gets the same number of early and late weeks. Each crew works 40 hours a week and nobody works nights.
One cycle
| Crew | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew A | E Early shift | E Early shift | E Early shift | E Early shift | E Early shift | · Off | · Off | L Late shift | L Late shift | L Late shift | L Late shift | L Late shift | · Off | · Off |
| Crew B | L Late shift | L Late shift | L Late shift | L Late shift | L Late shift | · Off | · Off | E Early shift | E Early shift | E Early shift | E Early shift | E Early shift | · Off | · Off |
- Week 1: crew A on early shifts, crew B on late shifts
- Week 2: crew A on late shifts, crew B on early shifts
- Crews
- 2
- Shift length
- 8 hours
- Cycle
- 2 weeks
- Hours a week
- 40
- Longest stretch
- 5 shifts in a row
- Nights
- None
Make it your team's
- Rename the crews to your people, in the list on the left (the menu button at the top left on a phone). Or open a shift and add more people to a crew.
- Change a shift's hours or first day: every shift of that series moves with it.
- Click Share and send the link, or print a month per page. It saves in your browser as soon as you change something, no sign up.
Why weekly
Swapping every week keeps a person on the same hours for five days, so their sleep and their evenings follow one rhythm at a time. Some teams swap every two weeks instead: change each shift's cycle to 28 days and give each crew two weeks of each.
Other hours
Many sites start at 5 AM or 7 AM, or leave half an hour of overlap for the handover. Open a shift and change its hours: every shift of that series follows.
Questions
- What is the difference with a 3 shift system?
- A 3 shift system adds a night shift and a third crew, to cover all 24 hours. With two shifts the site is closed at night.
- How many people do I need?
- Two crews for each seat you need filled, one on each shift. One person per shift means two people, three per shift means six.
Other shift patterns
- 2-2-3 schedule
- Pitman schedule
- DuPont schedule
- 4 on 4 off schedule
- Kelly schedule
- 9/80 schedule
- 3 shift system
- 4 crew 8 hour schedule
Reminders in Slack
TurnShift is this calendar for teams on Slack: each person gets a message before their shift, and books their own shifts from there.