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3/12 schedule
Three twelve-hour shifts, four days off, and the same days every week — the shortest full-time week on a twelve-hour tour.
Also called: 3 on 4 off, three twelves, 3x12
- Shift length
- 12 hours
- Cycle
- 7 days
- Average week
- 36 hours
- Teams
- 4 or more
What the 3/12 schedule is
Three twelve-hour shifts, then four days off. The cycle is exactly seven days, so it repeats on the same weekdays for as long as you hold the assignment.
That fixed weekly shape is the whole appeal. On most twelve-hour patterns your days off move around the calendar; on a 3/12 they do not move at all, and everyone around you learns them.
Thirty-six hours is under a full week, so agencies that run it usually attach something to make up the difference — a longer tour, a regular fourth shift, or a training day.
How the cycle runs
One week, and every week after it looks the same:
Set a start day, set the length to 7 days, and paint each one. Only the first cycle is painted — the app repeats it from there.
Start day: 30 August 2026Days: 7
Day shiftNight shift24-hour tourDay off
Set the template once. Your days show up on every month after it.
September 2026
Print this rotation (PDF) One page — the cycle above, and a blank grid for your own dates.
Weekends off on this rotation
This cycle is 7 days, which divides by seven — so it lands on the same weekdays for ever and never drifts. Which weekends you get is decided by your squad, not by the pattern. Across the squads the answer runs from 0 weekends a year to 52.
A squad that does well on this rotation: 52 full weekends across a year. A weekend counts only when both the Saturday and the Sunday are free. All 21 rotations compared →
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save this pattern once and the year fills itself in — forward as far as you want, and back over the months you have already worked.
The trade for the four-day break
Four days off every single week is more time clear than any other twelve-hour pattern gives you week in, week out. Nothing else on this site repeats that often.
What you give up is hours. Three shifts is thirty-six, and on a pattern like Panama or 4 on 4 off you would be averaging forty-two. Whether that matters depends entirely on how your agency makes up the difference.
Hours and the work period
Three twelve-hour shifts is thirty-six hours a week, every week, with no long-and-short alternation to average out.
Because the cycle is seven days, the work period and the pay period line up without arithmetic — which is unusual on twelve-hour patterns and worth something at the end of the month.
Who works it
Agencies that want twelve-hour cover and a fixed weekly shape:
- Municipal police patrol
- Sheriff's patrol divisions
- Smaller agencies with fixed team assignments
- Dispatch centres
- Campus and hospital police
- Security operations
Departments that publish this rotation
Every one of these is taken from the employer's own document — a recruitment page, a class specification or a collective agreement — not from a survey or a job board. The link goes to what that agency pays.
- Hawthorne Police Department, CA — The Patrol Division works a "3/12.5 work schedule for the term of this Memorandum of Understanding unless the Chief of Police determines the need….
- Martinez Police Department, CA — Patrol officers work a 3/12 shift plan in a variety of patrol assignments.
- Redondo Beach Police Department, CA — Patrol works "three (3) consecutive work days of 12.5 hours each", with four consecutive days off each week, plus one 10-hour "payback" day in….
- Sausalito Police Department, CA — Sergeants and Officers are assigned on four patrol teams working a 3/12 schedule.
The trade-off
What works
- Four days off every week, permanently
- Same days off every week — easy for everyone else to learn
- Cycle and pay period line up
- Only three shift starts a week
What hurts
- Thirty-six hours means less base pay than a forty-two hour pattern
- Agencies often add a fourth shift to make up hours
- Three twelve-hour shifts in a row still runs thirty-six hours in three days
- Weekend cover depends entirely on which three days you hold
Put it on your calendar
Working it out by hand is where the mistakes happen.
Save the pattern once and BlueShifts fills the calendar in, forward and back.
Common questions
How many hours a week is a 3/12 schedule?
Thirty-six — three twelve-hour shifts, every week.
Is 3/12 the same as 3 on 4 off?
Yes. The pattern is three shifts on and four days off across a seven-day cycle; agencies write it either way.
Do the days off move?
No. The cycle is exactly seven days, so it lands on the same weekdays every week.
Put the 3/12 schedule on your calendar
Save the 3/12 schedule once, tell BlueShifts the day your cycle starts, and the rest of the year draws itself. Court, training and the details you pick up sit on the same grid.
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