4 on 2 off schedule

What the 4 on 2 off schedule is

Four eight-hour shifts, then two days off, over and over. Six days from start to repeat on a fixed tour, twelve if you flip between days and nights halfway through.

Three squads cover the clock — days, swings and nights — and most agencies wrap the pattern in a six-week rotation so each squad takes a turn on every watch.

It has been in service longer than almost any other police rotation, and it survives because it is simple to staff and leaves nobody working more than four shifts in a row.

How the cycle runs

The twelve-day version, four days then four nights:

Print this rotation (PDF) One page — the cycle above, and a blank grid for your own dates.

The two-day break is the weak point

Two days off after four shifts is enough to catch up on sleep and not much else. On a night tour it is barely enough for that, because the first day back is mostly spent resetting.

The other cost is drift. A six-day cycle never lines up with a seven-day week, so your days off walk through it and a standing Thursday commitment gets worked most of the time.

Hours and overtime

Four eight-hour shifts every six days averages about thirty-seven hours a week — under a standard forty, which is unusual and one reason agencies like it.

In practice the gap gets filled with overtime, court and details, so the hours you actually work and the hours on the roster are rarely the same number.

Who works it

The pattern belongs to eight-hour operations with three watches to fill:

• Municipal police departments
• Sheriff's offices
• Dispatch centres
• Corrections
• Campus and transit 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.

• Chicago Police Department, IL — The Department's own directive D20-02, issued 26 December 2025 and effective 8 January 2026, states that the tour of duty "will remain the 9.0….
• Fairfield Police Department, CT — Article XXIX of the Town's contract with the Fairfield Police Union sets patrol on four consecutive days of work followed by two consecutive days….
• Germantown Police Department, WI — Germantown officers work a 4-2 rotation on 8.5-hour shifts — four days on, two days off.

The trade-off

Put it on your calendar

Four on, two off is a six-day cycle laid over a seven-day week, so your days off drift by one every time round.

Save the pattern once and the drift takes care of itself — forward for planning, back over the months already worked.

Common questions

How many hours a week is 4 on 2 off?

About thirty-seven on average — four eight-hour shifts every six days.

Do you get weekends off on a 4 on 2 off schedule?

Only when the cycle lands there. Six days does not divide into seven, so the days off move through the week.

How many squads does it need?

Three for eight-hour coverage — one on days, one on swings, one on nights — usually rotating through all three over a longer cycle.