RE: Work schedule

I have always liked a 12 hour shift, if the union and local laws allow it. Consider 7 am to 7 pm shifts, with a schedule of Mon, Tue, Fri, Sat, Sun, Wed, Thu, as one sections days on while the other has it off.

While it is 84 hours every two weeks, which means most officers will see a slight boost in pay (and similar cost to the city), the absences seem to go down somewhat to make up for it. Every officer has every other weekend off, so there is also an increase in morale also.

There will be some adjustment time for the officers to get used to the new longer shifts, especially the night shift guys. Make sure the management understands this and is a little more lenient the first couple weeks.

From what you were saying about your shift schedule, I think this might also bring about a change in the rank allotments. You would need 4 sergeants as road supervisors, but one lieutenant could handle the administrative tasks and ultimate supervision for both shifts on his workdays, especially if he comes in a little later, say 8 to 8 so he sees both shifts somewhat.

Hope that helps a little.

RE: Work schedule

I work for a state police agency . We went to the 12hr schedule years ago after it was piloted in a few troops (areas) and afterwards voted on. The shifts are like Steve said 7a-7p and 7p-7a. I work strictly 7p-7a. The only draw backs I have found are w/in our contract. We are given 40 personal leave hours a year. Thats 5 days on the old 8 hr schedule. With the 12 hr schedule, we never got 5 days which would now be 60 hrs. Dont forget that when you take a sick day, its 12 hrs. too. Base that against your accrual rate. One week is nice. You only work Wed/Thurs. But the next week your working Mon, Tues, Fri, Sat, and Sunday. By monday night you really feel like crap. We tend to hammer it on Friday and Saturday and leave Sunday for paperwork and a bit of down time between 2a-5a when its usually quiet. Also the holiday schedule sucks if your on the wrong wheel which I unfortunately am. I worked last Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day of 2007 and now I'm on for Easter 2008 too. It just works out that if the holiday falls on your work day, sucks for you. If your dept. is seriously looking in to this 12 hr day thing, I can give you some contacts w/in mine who have some research/data on the issue that was done prior to our aquiring the shift.
Hope this helps!
SK

RE: Work schedule

I haven't been on the site for a while but thought I would throw my 2cents in on this. We work 12's in the same rotation that Steve described but work 6a to 6p because it gets us in before the traffic. We do not get overtime for the extra 4hrs every two weeks but get a squad day off every six weeks. It gives us an extra 8 days off a year so it is pretty nice. For years we had the problem of only having 40 hrs personal time a year but finally got our contract changed to 48.
Some guys like the shift, some don't. I do because I like the extra time off and the fact you only need to use 24 hours time to get a full week vacation on your short week.
Before I came back on the street, 2 years ago I was in detectives for 10 years. I was promoted to Sgt and had to go back to patrol. It was a change going from 8hr days/evenings to 12 hr days/nights but only took a little bit of time to get used to it.
Good luck.

Last edited @ 3/27/2008 7:01 PM

RE: Work schedule

wow, some of those hours look good to me. i work 6 days 8hrs and two days off... if the 6th day falls on a weekend, we get an extra day.... only thing is, when the command thinks crime is too high, we have to works 6 days 12hrs.... i wouldn't mind the schedule above.