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Rotation tools

Where the rotation gives you no break

Every rotation has a worst point. Usually it is the switch from days to nights, and on some patterns there is no day off in it at all.

Knowing where the hard turnaround falls is one thing. Seeing it on next month's calendar is another.

Why the average week tells you nothing about this

Two rotations can both average forty-two hours and feel entirely different, because the average says nothing about where the work sits. One gives you four days off between a run of nights and a run of days. Another sends you from a day shift straight into a night shift with nothing in between.

When people compare rotations they compare hours. The turnaround is the thing they actually remember.

This counts days, not hours

Your agency sets what time shifts start and end, so the real gap in hours depends on your agency, not on the pattern. What is shown here is the shape: how many days of work in a row, how many days off between them, and where the tour changes without a proper break.

What to look for

Read any rotation as blocks: so many days on, a break, so many nights on, a break. The number that matters is the break between two blocks of different shift types. Four days is a proper turnaround. One day is not. No days at all — going from a day shift straight into a night shift — is the hardest arrangement in common use.

Every pattern on this site is drawn out day by day on its own page, so the blocks are visible there too.

The other tools

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