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3 on 3 off schedule
Three twelve-hour shifts, three days off, repeating — the simplest 12-hour pattern after 4 on 4 off, and a favourite of smaller departments.
- Shift length
- 12 hours
- Cycle
- 6 or 12 days
- Average week
- 42 hours
- Squads
- 4
What the 3 on 3 off schedule is
Three twelve-hour shifts, then three days off, over and over. Six days from start to repeat if your tour never changes, twelve if you flip between days and nights halfway through.
It is popular with smaller agencies because officers can hold it in their head. Three on, three off. Nobody needs a chart to know whether they are working tomorrow — though they do need one to know which Saturday they lose.
Departments often wrap it in a longer six-week rotation so squads move through day and night tours and the weekends land differently each block.
How the cycle runs
The twelve-day version, three days then three nights:
Set a start day, set the length to 12 days, and paint each one. This pattern walks, so each time round it lands on different weekdays — which the app works out for you.
Start day: 1 September 2026Days: 12
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 12 days, which does not divide by seven — so it drifts through the week and every squad gets much the same share. Around 16 to 18 full weekends a year, wherever you sit in it.
A year on this rotation: 18 full weekends off, spread through the calendar. 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 three-day break
Three consecutive days off after every three shifts is the strongest thing about this pattern. It is enough time to sleep off a run of nights, take a trip, or work a block of off-duty jobs without cutting into recovery.
The cost is that six does not divide into seven. Your days off walk through the week, so a standing Tuesday commitment will be worked about half the time.
Hours and overtime
Three twelve-hour shifts every six days averages forty-two hours a week — the same as Panama, Pitman and 4 on 4 off.
That two hours over forty is where the overtime argument lives, and how your agency handles it depends on your work period and your contract.
Who works it
The pattern shows up wherever a post needs continuous cover and the roster is not huge:
- Municipal police departments
- Sheriff's offices
- Dispatch centres
- Corrections
- Hospital security
- Industrial and site security
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.
- Martin County Sheriff's Office, FL — The Sheriff will continue to maintain the following work schedules which will not be altered without giving at least sixty (60) days' notice:….
The trade-off
What works
- Three days off after every three shifts
- Easy to remember and easy to plan around
- Fewer consecutive shifts than 4 on 4 off
- Long enough breaks to recover from nights
What hurts
- Days off drift through the week
- Weekends are worked about half the time
- Twelve-hour shifts are long when calls stack up
- Forty-two hour average weeks
Put it on your calendar
Three on, three off runs on a six-day cycle, so your days off move by one every week and never settle.
Save it once and the moving pattern is drawn out for you, months ahead and months back.
Common questions
How many hours a week is a 3 on 3 off schedule?
About forty-two on average — three twelve-hour shifts every six days.
Is 3 on 3 off better than 4 on 4 off?
It trades longer breaks for shorter ones. Four on four off gives you four days off at a time but asks for four shifts in a row; three on three off keeps the runs shorter in both directions.
Do you get every other weekend off?
No. A six-day cycle does not line up with a seven-day week, so weekends move through the pattern rather than alternating.
Put the 3 on 3 off schedule on your calendar
Save the 3 on 3 off 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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