Pitman schedule

What a Pitman schedule is

A Pitman schedule uses 12-hour shifts on a 14-day rhythm: 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off. Four crews keep a workplace staffed day and night. It is popular with police departments and with plants and warehouses that run all week, because no one works more than three shifts in a row and, when the 3-day blocks fall on Friday to Sunday, every crew has every other weekend off.

It is the same rhythm as the 2-2-3 (Panama) schedule. What differs between workplaces is whether crews keep the same shift:

• Fixed Pitman: two crews always on days and two always on nights. This is what most scheduling sites call the Pitman schedule.
• Rotating Pitman: each crew works two weeks of days, then two weeks of nights, a 28-day cycle. Some sources call this one Pitman and the fixed form Panama.

Is it Pitman or Panama?

Both names are used for both forms, and Wikipedia’s shift plan article doesn’t list “Pitman” at all. The safest way to set up the calculator is to ignore the name: type the date your crew starts a 2-day block, choose fixed or rotating, and check the strip of the first two weeks against your schedule. If you work nights for two weeks and then days, you are on the rotating form.

A common “modified” version keeps the same days but changes the shift times, for example 6 AM to 6 PM and 6 PM to 6 AM, or adds a short overlap shift. Change the times under Shift times to match yours.

Hours and overtime, including police work periods

Each crew works 7 shifts every 14 days: 84 hours, 42 hours a week on average, about 2,190 hours a year. Under the usual US rule (overtime after 40 hours in a workweek), the uneven weeks mean overtime every other week; the calculator shows the yearly total for each workweek start day.

Police and fire departments can use a different rule. Under section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a public employer can set a work period of 7 to 28 days; for law enforcement, overtime is then due after 171 hours in a 28-day period (or the same proportion of a shorter one) (US Department of Labor Fact Sheet 8). A 28-day period on a Pitman schedule has 14 twelve-hour shifts, 168 hours, so it stays under 171: no overtime for scheduled shifts. Your department’s policy or contract decides which applies.

Pros and cons

• For: short blocks of work; a 3-day weekend every other week; on fixed shifts, a steady sleep schedule.
• Against: long shifts; different weekdays each week; on fixed nights, permanent night work.

Add your shifts to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook

Press Add to calendar (.ics). It saves one file with every shift of the year for your crew, made on this device. Then:

• Google Calendar: on a computer, open Google Calendar, go to Settings, then Import & export, choose the file and the calendar to add it to. (The phone app can’t import files, but shows the shifts once they are imported.)
• iPhone or iPad: open the file from the Files app or an email and tap Add All. On a Mac, open it in Calendar or use File, Import.
• Outlook: in Outlook on the web choose Add calendar, Upload from file; in Outlook for Windows, File, Open & Export, Import/Export.

Tip: make a new, empty calendar called “Shifts” and import into that. If the rotation changes, delete that calendar and import a new file. Shift times are saved without a time zone, so a 7 AM shift shows at 7 AM on your phone wherever it is set, including across daylight-saving changes.