Panama vs Pitman

The only real difference

Both work two on, two off, three on, two off, two on, three off. Both are twelve-hour shifts. Both run a fourteen-day cycle that lands on the same weekdays every time, and both give every other weekend off.

Under Panama, crews rotate between day and night tours — most often after a full twenty-eight day block. Under Pitman, a crew is assigned to days or to nights and stays there. The on-off rhythm rotates; the time of day does not.

Which is better depends on one question

Do you want to stop working nights, or do you want to be good at working them?

Panama shares the burden. Nobody is stuck on permanent midnights, and every crew takes a turn. The cost is the changeover: the week you flip is the hardest week of the month, and it comes round every month.

Pitman lets a night crew build a sleep schedule and actually keep it, which is the single biggest thing you can do for your health on shift work. The cost is that if you draw nights and hate them, you are there until the next bid.

What officers say in practice

People who have worked both usually prefer whichever one matches their household. If someone at home keeps normal hours, a fixed tour is easier to live around because the pattern never moves. If you are on your own or your partner also works shifts, the rotation matters less and the fairness of Panama looks better.

One practical note: agencies are loose with the names. Plenty of departments call their schedule Panama when crews never rotate, which makes it a Pitman. Read your bid, not the label.

Full detail on each pattern: Panama schedule · Pitman schedule