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