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A shift calendar for firefighters

Twenty-four hour tours on a nine-day cycle, or 24/48, or 48/96, with a Kelly day inserted to keep the average honest. These are the patterns hardest to hold in your head and easiest to save once.

The tours

Three platoons on 24-hour tours average fifty-six hours a week. A scheduled day off inside the cycle — the Kelly day — brings that down without changing the shape of the rotation. Whichever version your department runs, saving the cycle once puts every tour and every Kelly day in place for the year.

Trades

Shift trades are part of the job in fire, and they are one-off changes rather than a change to the pattern. They go on top of the saved rotation as events, so the cycle underneath stays intact and you can still see what the year actually looked like.

The second job

A run of days off after a tour is why a great many firefighters work a second job. Each one goes in under the employer who hired you, with the hours, the rate and whether you have been paid — which is the part that gets lost when the work comes from several places.

What to switch off

The app was built for police, so it opens with a Court category and a directory built around courts and jails. Rename them, hide them, or delete the ones you do not need, and what is left is a tour calendar.

The rotations this usually means

Whichever of these your employer runs, the cycle is drawn out day by day so you can check it against your own roster before you save it.

Kelly

Nine days, 24-hour tours, and the Kelly day that keeps the average down.

See it drawn day by day

24/48 and 48/96

One on, two off — or two on and four off.

See it drawn day by day

California Swing

24-hour tours on a nine-day cycle.

See it drawn day by day

Built for police. Works for any rotation.

The law-enforcement side switches off. The rotation engine and the record of what you earned do not care what you do for a living.

Scan to install — or hold it up for the officer next to you.

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