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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:
Day shiftDay off
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.
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
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.
Scan to install — or hold it up for the officer next to you.
