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3-4 4-3 schedule
Three on, four off, four on, three off — twelve-hour shifts on a two-week cycle, with every other weekend free by design.
- Shift length
- 12 hours
- Cycle
- 14 days
- Average week
- 42 hours
- Crews
- 4
What the 3-4 4-3 schedule is
Three twelve-hour shifts, four days off, four shifts, three days off. Fourteen days from start to repeat.
Because the cycle is exactly two weeks long, it lands on the same days of the week every time — which is the point. Set it up so the four-day break covers a weekend and you have every other weekend off, permanently, without anyone having to arrange it.
It reaches the same forty-two hour average as Panama and 4 on 4 off, but arranges the blocks differently: shorter runs, and a four-day break in the middle of each cycle.
How the cycle runs
One fourteen-day cycle:
Set a start day, set the length to 14 days, and paint each one. Only the first cycle is painted — the app repeats it from there.
Start day: 30 August 2026Days: 14
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 14 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 →
Why people bid for it
Three shifts in a row is an easy run. Four is manageable. Neither block is long enough for fatigue to pile up the way it does on six or seven in a row.
And the four-day break every fortnight is the kind of time that is actually usable — long enough to travel, take a course, or work a solid block of off-duty jobs.
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.
Hours and overtime
Seven twelve-hour shifts every fourteen days averages forty-two hours a week, arriving as thirty-six one week and forty-eight the next.
That uneven split is worth knowing about, because the forty-eight-hour week is where overtime rules tend to bite depending on how your work period is defined.
Who works it
Anywhere twelve-hour coverage meets a preference for predictable weekends:
- Municipal police departments
- Sheriff's offices
- Dispatch centres
- Hospitals and nursing units
- Corrections
- Industrial 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.
- Alliance Police Department, NE — Alliance says its patrol officers work four days on and three days off, with two scheduled 10-hour shifts, and scheduling set so each officer has….
- Blaine County Sheriff's Office, ID — Full-time positions with 12-hour rotating shifts (4/3).
- Bonner County Sheriff's Office, ID — Patrol Deputies work 12 hour shifts with three days off one week and 4 days off the next week.
- Denton Police Department, TX — Denton's patrol division works four twelve-hour shifts split north and south of Interstate 35E, each shift under a lieutenant and two sergeants.
- Flower Mound Police Department, TX — Flower Mound answers it in its own recruiting FAQ: “Our patrol officers work 12-hour shifts.
- Freeport Police Department, ME — Freeport advertises a 4-on/3-off working week, which the town presents as a work-life balance benefit alongside embedded mental health liaisons.
- Heyburn Police Department, ID — With two alternating patrol teams working rotating shifts: One team works 4 days on with 3 days off followed by 3 days on with 4 days off.
- Hollister Police Department, CA — The cycle is in the City's agreement with the Hollister Police Officers Association, in force 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, Article 13.I.2.a:….
- San Diego County Sheriff's Office, CA — The Sheriff's own recruiting site states it plainly: "As a Law Enforcement Deputy Sheriff, your patrol schedule will likely involve 12.5 hour….
- Westbrook Police Department, ME — Westbrook officers work a four days on, three days off schedule of ten-hour shifts.
The trade-off
What works
- Every other weekend off, by design
- Same weekdays every cycle
- A four-day break every fortnight
- Never more than four shifts in a row
What hurts
- Forty-eight hour weeks alternate with thirty-six
- Twelve-hour shifts are long
- Half your weekends are always worked
- Uneven weeks complicate overtime
Put it on your calendar
Three on, four off, four on, three off — the same fourteen days as Panama, arranged so the long break comes twice.
Save it once and both breaks show up on the calendar as far ahead as you want to look.
Common questions
How many hours a week is a 3-4 4-3 schedule?
Forty-two on average — thirty-six one week, forty-eight the next.
Do you really get every other weekend off?
Yes, if the cycle is set up so the four-day break lands on a weekend. Because the cycle is exactly fourteen days, it stays there permanently.
How is it different from Panama?
Same hours, different blocks. Panama is 2-2-3; this is 3-4-4-3, which trades the three-shift run for a four-day break in the middle.
Put the 3-4 4-3 schedule on your calendar
Save the 3-4 4-3 schedule once, tell BlueShifts the day your cycle starts, and the rest of the year draws itself. Leave, court and the work you take on your own time go in around it.
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