DuPont schedule

What the DuPont schedule is

DuPont is a four-team, twelve-hour rotation on a twenty-eight day cycle, developed by the chemical company whose name it carries to keep plants running continuously.

The sequence runs four nights, three off, three days, one off, three nights, three off, four days, then seven days off. That last week is the whole point of the pattern.

It is a demanding schedule with a generous reward at the end, and people tend to have strong opinions about it in one direction or the other.

How the cycle runs

The full twenty-eight days:

Day shiftNight shiftDay off

The seven-day break

One full week off every four weeks changes what is possible outside work. Real travel, a second job worked in a block, a proper stretch of family time — none of which fit into a two-day weekend.

The cost is the middle of the cycle, where a single day off sits between three day shifts and three night shifts. That turnaround is the hardest twenty-four hours in any common rotation.

Hours and overtime

Fourteen twelve-hour shifts across twenty-eight days — one hundred and sixty-eight hours, averaging forty-two a week.

The distribution is severe: some weeks run well past forty-eight hours, one runs to zero. Where your agency's work period boundaries fall makes a large difference to what gets paid as overtime.

Who works it

DuPont is more common in industry than in policing, but it turns up in both:

• Chemical and refining plants
• Manufacturing and process operations
• Power generation and utilities
• Some police and corrections agencies
• Security operations
• Mining and heavy industry

The trade-off

Put it on your calendar

Four weeks, four night shifts in a row, and a full seven days off at the end that you plan a year around.

Save the twenty-eight days once and that week off is on the calendar months before you need to book anything against it.

Common questions

What is the DuPont schedule sequence?

Four nights, three days off, three day shifts, one day off, three nights, three days off, four day shifts, then seven days off.

How many hours a week is the DuPont schedule?

Forty-two on average across the twenty-eight day cycle, though individual weeks vary widely.

Why does it end in a full week off?

The pattern concentrates the work into the first three weeks of the cycle so the fourth can be left clear — the trade that defines the schedule.