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3 on 3 off vs 4 on 4 off
The same forty-two hours, cut into different sized pieces. Three and three, or four and four.
3 on 3 off
Day shiftNight shift24-hour tourDay off
4 on 4 off
Day shiftNight shift24-hour tourDay off
| 3 on 3 off | vs | 4 on 4 off |
|---|---|---|
| The cycle | ||
| 12 hours | Shift length | 12 hours |
| 6 or 12 days | Cycle length | 8 or 16 days |
| 42 hours | Average week | 42 hours |
| 3 | Most shifts in a row | 4 |
| 3 days | Longest break | 4 days |
| Fatigue | ||
| No | Four nights in a row | Yes |
| YesThree days | Enough recovery after a night block | YesFour days |
| Yes | Easier on older officers | No |
| Your week | ||
| No | Days off land on the same weekdays | No |
| No | Every other weekend off | No |
| Yes | Simple to remember | Yes |
Neither one settles
Start with what they share, because it decides more than the difference does: six days and eight days both fail to divide into seven. On either pattern your days off walk through the week, weekends move, and nothing weekly survives.
Three in a row against four
The fourth shift is where these part company. Four consecutive twelve-hour nights is a hard run and it is the reason some crews vote it out. Three is manageable for most people, most of the time.
In exchange, four on four off gives you a four-day break rather than three — enough for a trip rather than a long weekend.
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Who picks which
Smaller agencies often run three on three off because it is easy to staff and easy to explain. Officers further into their careers tend to prefer it too, because the shorter runs are kinder.
Four on four off suits people who want blocks of time and can absorb the longer runs to get them.
Full detail on each pattern: 3 on 3 off schedule · 4 on 4 off schedule
In Canada this is a bargaining question
Everything above holds either side of the border — the cycles are the cycles. What changes here is who decides, and what the two cost.
A Canadian service does not simply adopt a rotation. The schedule sits in the collective agreement as a compressed work week article, and the Toronto Police Association and OPP agreements both carry one. In the OPP's case the terms of a compressed work week agreement are themselves subject to the grievance procedure. So moving from 3 on 3 off to 4 on 4 off is not a decision a new inspector makes — it is bargained, and it stays until it is bargained again.
It also does not follow that a whole service runs one of them. The Toronto Police Association agreement carries a Shift Schedules schedule in the plural, so which one you work can depend on where you are posted. The answer is in the agreement.
What the province still decides
Both of these run the same shift length, so provincial overtime rules treat them alike — but the rules themselves differ. Ontario triggers overtime after 44 hours in a week and has no daily trigger. British Columbia triggers after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, with double time past 12. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador calculate it at 1.5 times the minimum wage rather than your own rate. Where the cycle does not fit a calendar week, hours can be averaged over two to four weeks by written agreement — and in a unionised service, your union makes that agreement.
Checked 7 August 2026. Provincial rules are quoted from the Employment Standards Act of the province named and, for Quebec, from the CNESST; federal provisions from the Treasury Board agreements. Employment standards are amended and collective agreements are renegotiated — check the current text before relying on a threshold or a figure.
The shift schedule you actually work
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