Like the title says, pros and cons of 12 hr shifts?

I worked rotating 12’s for about a decade.

Pros; more days off.

Cons; 2 shifts in a row aren’t too bad, 3 in a row get to you, especially if 12 hr nights.

There’s a lot of 12 hr shift schedules out there. Some are OK, some are terrible.

We were on a 2 week pay period. Worked 7-12’s in 14 days, so there’s 4 hrs OT built into your schedule before you work any add’l OT due to open shifts, last minute sick call-ins, etc.

Edit; it also depends how physical the work is, for your stamina. I was working in an oil refinery. When process units are running good, not too bad, but if process unit is in upset conditions, it can be bad.

Weather conditions…….is the work indoors or outdoors?

Patrol for a s.o. mixed rural and urban.

We've been on permanent 8s for a few years, rotating 8s before that.
we're switching to permanent 12s next year.
we're at 80+% for it.  Yeah, the 3rd 12hr shift will suck but we're going to enjoy the every other weekend off instead of weekends off every 3rd month.

In the past six years on patrol, my agency has worked 8s, 10s and 12s due to staffing issues. We are currently on 12s and its working out great. I like the 12s enough that its actually keeping me from going to CID and being stuck on 8s again. Only working half of the month and having instant OT scheduled is a fantastic element to the 12s.

12s can be pretty taxing at times and I run between 20-25 calls a shift with four to six reports a shift. After working all three variations of schedules, I will NEVER go back to 8s on patrol.

Its a great schedule, IMO. Working a 2 week pay period, you're off duty for half of it. I had a Panama schedule and loved it. I had one 3 day work 'week' and like previously mentioned, 4 hours OT built in to the schedule. An easy cheat is to flex out 4 of those hours on your 3 day work week so you only do an 8 and 2 12's, or keep the OT if you can. I hated moving to CID and going to 5/8's, I felt like I was at work more (days of the week I was), but accomplishing less per day before my shift was over.

Thanks gents.

It all depends on the schedule. Rotating day and nights will destroy you on 12 hour tours. Unless its like a month long rotation or something, but switching every week or every two weeks will kill you over time.

Years ago as a medic for a PD, I worked steady non rotating 12 hour tours with a 3-on/4-off x 3 weeks and the 4th week was 3-on/3-off… and you had 4 kelly shifts a year to fill in.
By the third day you were starting to drag ass. If you worked an OT shift on your 4th day you were a zombie by the end of your shift.

Years after I left that job, they went to a 2-on/3-off/3-on/4-off schedule and the guys I spoke to said it was much better.

The best LE shift work I ever did was no rotating 10 hour tours, 4-on/4-off. That  rotation rocked. Even if you got held over at the end of your tour, it wasn’t bad. And your days off rotated every week by one day.

Back when, five eights were the "standard". Unless you got on a "relief" shift. Two 2300-0700, two 1500-2300 and one 0700-1500. In that order. Worked tens, twelves and then...thirteen point fives LOL. Most of us got way more than forty. Can't imagine why. The shifts were built with specific overlaps between shifts, two cars per shift were "late cars" starting an hour after the rest. If you were a late car you got all the late calls. Most of the squads worked three in a row. My favorite "squad" was #1 nights, skip a day, #2, #3. If the first shift started Sunday night at 1630, I got off at 0600 Monday morning. Off until 0430 Tuesday then same on Wednesday. Off at 1700 until Sunday night. Depending on the calls for service, it can get grueling. But the week flies by.

We do 12’s where you get every other Fri Sat Sun off.  Rotate days/nights every 4 weeks.

Essentially in two weeks the first week you work 5 days and the second week you work 2 days.  Rinse/Repeat

The Fri Sat Sun you work do suck if you’re a high volume dept. (we are).

Overall I like 12’s and would much rather work them than 8’s.

At my former department, we had eight hour shifts, seven days on in a row and during your off days, it was either two, three, or four days off. Right before I left we did a pilot program for 10 hour shifts as well as 12 hour shifts. The 10s were your typical 4-10s and the 12 hour shifts were two on, three off, three on, two off. It was overwhelmingly decided that the 10 hour shifts were the best. Of course management said fuck it all and just kept us on eight hour shifts.

The biggest issue with the 12 hour shift scheme was picking up a late shift DUI, etc which virtually guaranteed you’d be stuck for a couple of hours on overtime processing them. That got old very quickly.

Won't work 8s ever again. 12s are nice to get every other weekend off. After 3 days you do start to drag, but you get used to it.

Switching from days to nights repeatedly is pants-on-head retarded though. Why agencies do that I have no idea.

Worked 12's for about a year.  2 week schedule, worked Wed/Thurs first week, off Wed/Thurs 2nd week.  Rinse, lather, repeat.  Not rotating, you you knew exactly when you'd be on.

Went to 8s for about a year.  HATED it.  With 12s by the time you start to drag on that 3rd day...you're done.  You have at least 2 days off.  With 8s by the time you're tired of dealing with the bullshit...you have 2 more days to go.  

To me, working 12 or working 8 doesn't -feel- a whole lot different.  However I love having some days off during the week to get shit done, and the 3 day weekends are nice.  Given the choice I'd never go back to 8s.

What do places that work 12 hour shifts do when there's a shortage?  Call someone in on their day off or make people work 18 hour shifts?

If it's somewhere busy, that 12 hour shift will routinely be a 14 hour shift.

I did it for about 5 years total. Your life will go by about 3x times as fast. It sounds weird but true. You will feel like shit for eternity and never actually adjust despite what people say. You get time off during the week to do normal shit like banking which is nice though.

Do what you can and try to promote up to 8-5 days.

I worked 14-16s from about 2000-2003. Every fucking day there was something. Every fucking day. Sgts were worthless as fuck. I often go to lunch with a retired one and still tell him how fucking worthless he was. He agrees and I try to make him pay.

After that I did detectives which ended up an 11 year assignment that was nearly 24/7 and is the reason I'm 48 with a 6 year old kid. I did nothing but run 24/7 with crazy surveillance, DEA, black bag surveillance assignments and middle of the night warrants. It was all the exciting crazy shit like at one point being deputised as a special United Stated Marshal but it wears on you and before you know it you look in the mirror and you are old.

I got tired of making Sgt decisions for officer (detective) pay and decided to promote. I then got tired of that bullshit and decided to promoted to command staff.

My only suggestion is to suck it up work your way up and promote or get the fuck out. Nobody cares about your feelings. It's not unlike the military. Nobody gives a fuck and you are number, look out for yourself but don't be a buddy fucker and help your co-workers out, carry your share and then some. Gain trust and respect, don't delay shit to try to ditch calls. Take what is yours and offer to help others. If you gain the respect of your co-workers the command will see that despite what the fucksticks at the bottom say. I know, I've been both bottom and top. Despite what they say at roll call we at the command staff do see it.

The department that I retired from has been on 12s every since I started in 92 (retired in may) and for the longest time we worked 3 on 3 off but rarely was that the case because of various reasons. At one point briefly we tried 8s and that lasted about a month then we went to 10s, 4 on 3 off with set days. I loved that because I knew when I was working and also we had an overlap so I was always home on time.

Then we went back to 12s after about a year of 10s, I hated it because a 12 hour shift can quickly turn into 16 hours. Being on nights I often had court during the day and many days I was a zombie because lack of sleep. If you’re in a slow area then it may not be too bad but I really don’t like them.

We got every other weekend off and on your short week you could burn 20 hours of vacation and get the week off, that was only good thing about that schedule.

My retirement gig is trying to go to the same schedule I just left and for here it will work out because there isn’t a lot that goes on and I won’t have to deal with waking up In the middle of my sleep to go to court.


ETA mancow post is spot on

When we were running at 60% strength in Patrol, at the start of the pay period we would look and see what the opposite shift looked like and days that they were at minimum staffing we would have someone on standby for any last minute call-offs.

Guys would pick the days that they could do it and we'd add them to the schedule. I always picked a Saturday so that the guys would get at least two days off in a row to try and keep morale up.

Worked 5 years at an agency that worked 8.5hr shifts with a horrible 6 on 3 off rotation.

Been with my current agency for 6 years. 12hr shift 4 on 4 off… best patrol schedule ever. I would never willingly go back to 8’s.  We had a cap’ed shift max of 16hrs which was nice. Recently contractually agreed to move the shift cap to 18hrs because we have a lot of guys chasing top three years for retirement.

We have a dedicated shift picked by seniority so no rotating between nights and days. Shift is 5 to 5.  

OP - do you have any significant commute time?

12s with (at least) an hour commute each way sucked ass.

Very true. It also means that work days are basically just work—when you get home, you crash, eat dinner and maybe relax for a while and then go to bed. Not much time for other activities. But more days off are definitely nice!

We did 12s and I ended up pulling 13s, 6 pm- 7 am,  7 days a week for 3 months. An hour's commute both ways and I hit the lotto for random drug testing every two weeks which happened anytime between 9 am and 5 pm. Needless to say, it didn't take long to burn out.

12 hour shifts are better.  More time off and away from work.  Work half a year.  Scope out the beats.  Heck on a quiet beat might make that 12 hour shift an 8 hour shift with a nap on the clock LOL

If we were just short a body or two we would double up zones for the day.  We had a mid shift that would usually cover that zone if they were out.

If we were down at minimum manning for the shift, someone was getting called in on their day off.