Home › Compare schedules › 7 on 7 off vs 4 on 4 off
7 on 7 off vs 4 on 4 off
Both average forty-two hours. One delivers it as eighty-four hours and then nothing; the other spreads it evenly across every week.
7 on 7 off
Day shiftNight shift24-hour tourDay off
4 on 4 off
Day shiftNight shift24-hour tourDay off
| 7 on 7 off | vs | 4 on 4 off |
|---|---|---|
| The cycle | ||
| 12 hours | Shift length | 12 hours |
| 14 days | Cycle length | 8 or 16 days |
| 42 hours | Average week | 42 hours |
| 84 | Hours in the working week | 42 to 48 |
| 7 | Most shifts in a row | 4 |
| Your week | ||
| Yes | A full week off, every other week | No |
| YesA 14-day cycle repeats | Days off land on the same weekdays | No |
| No | Anything is possible during the working week | YesFour days off after each block |
| Fatigue | ||
| Yes | Seven twelve-hour shifts in a row | No |
| Yes | Fatigue peaks at the end of the block | YesBut four shifts, not seven |
| YesSeven days | Full recovery between blocks | YesFour days |
Concentrated against spread
Seven on seven off is the most concentrated common pattern there is. Eighty-four hours in the working week, then nothing at all. Four on four off spreads the same average across every week of the year.
The working week is gone
That is the honest cost of seven on seven off. During the on block you work, sleep and work again, and very little else happens. On nights it is harder still, because there is no reset until the block ends.
The compensation is a full week, every fortnight, that belongs entirely to you.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Whichever of the two your agency runs, save it once and the calendar keeps track of it for you.
Where each one is used
Seven on seven off is standard in EMS, hospitals and remote sites, and turns up in dispatch and corrections. Four on four off is more common in patrol, where an eight-day cycle spreads weekends fairly across crews.
Full detail on each pattern: 7 on 7 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 7 on 7 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
Save whichever one your agency runs and a police shift calendar built by an officer fills the rest of the year in. Everything stays on your phone unless you choose to share it.
Scan to install
