Shift patterns explained: 4 on 4 off, continental and the rest
A shift pattern is a repeating cycle that covers the week without anyone having to redesign the rota every Monday. Choosing one is mostly a question of which trade-off your team will accept — longer days, or more of them.
Summarise with AI
Key takeaways
- 4 on 4 off runs on a 16-day cycle and needs four teams for 24/7 cover — two on, two off, every day
- Continental (2-2-3, or Pitman) runs on a 14-day cycle and gives every team every other weekend off
- Panama is 2-2-3 on 12-hour shifts; DuPont is a 28-day cycle that includes a full seven-day break
- The constraint that breaks most patterns is not the hours — it is the 11-hour daily rest rule at the changeover
- On 12-hour shifts it is almost always cleaner to track holiday in hours rather than days
The patterns compared
| Pattern | Cycle | Teams for 24/7 | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 on 4 off | 16 days | 4 | Simplest to explain and to swap within; weekends off move around the calendar |
| Continental (2-2-3) | 14 days | 4 | Every other weekend off, at the cost of a more broken-up week |
| Panama | 14 days | 4 | 2-2-3 on 12-hour shifts — same weekends, longer days |
| DuPont | 28 days | 4 | A full seven days off in the cycle, paid for with an intense run beforehand |
| Three-shift (8 hours) | Varies | 5+ | Shorter days for work that cannot be done safely for twelve hours; needs more people |
How 4 on 4 off actually works
The name describes a personal experience — four shifts, four days off — but the mechanism is a 16-day cycle: four day shifts, four off, four night shifts, four off. Four teams run the same cycle, each starting four days apart.
| Team | Days 1–4 | Days 5–8 | Days 9–12 | Days 13–16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Days | Off | Nights | Off |
| B | Off | Days | Off | Nights |
| C | Nights | Off | Days | Off |
| D | Off | Nights | Off | Days |
Read any column and you get one day team, one night team and two teams off — continuous cover with no gaps and no doubling up. Our free rolling rota template has this laid out across four weeks with a live formula counting the cover, so you can see it hold as you change things.
Continental, Panama and DuPont
Continental (2-2-3) runs on 14 days: two on, two off, three on, then the mirror. The week is choppier than 4 on 4 off, but the pay-off is real — every team gets every other weekend off, which for staff with families is often worth more than a shorter working day.
Panama is the same rotation on 12-hour shifts. DuPont is a 28-day cycle whose selling point is a full seven consecutive days off, bought with a demanding run of shifts immediately before it. Neither is inherently better; they suit different tolerances.
The rule that breaks patterns
It is rarely the hours. A well-designed 12-hour pattern averages comfortably under the 48-hour weekly limit. What breaks is the 11-hour daily rest requirement, and it usually breaks at a swap rather than in the design.
Where it goes wrong
A night shift finishing at 07:00 followed by a day shift starting at 07:00 the next morning leaves 24 hours — fine. The same person agreeing to cover an evening shift starting at 15:00 that same day leaves 8 hours — a breach.
Nobody is acting in bad faith. The pattern was compliant; the favour was not. This is exactly the check worth automating, and our rota laws guide covers the rest of the working time rules.
Holiday on a shift pattern
Entitlement is 5.6 weeks regardless of pattern, but "a week" means something different on 12-hour shifts than on a five-day office week. Tracking holiday in hours rather than days avoids the argument about whether a booked day off is worth 8 hours or 12 — see our holiday entitlement guide, and the irregular hours guide if hours vary.
Running one in practice
The pattern is the easy part — it repeats forever once designed. What takes the time is everything that interrupts it: sickness, holiday, swaps and cover. Re-cutting a 16-day cycle by hand every time somebody calls in is where the hours actually go.
Rota software holds the pattern and handles the exceptions against it, and shift swaps let staff trade within the pattern without a manager rebuilding the grid. If you are still on a spreadsheet, start from the free UK rota templates. Once a pattern is running, changing a rota covers the notice a change needs, and overtime and unsocial hours pay explains why there is no statutory night premium behind the ones most employers pay.
Related guides
- Rota laws in the UK — the 48-hour week, breaks and the 11-hour rest rule
- Employment Rights Act shift rights — notice of shifts and guaranteed hours
- Bank holiday entitlement — how bank holidays land on a rotating pattern
- Free rolling rota template — both patterns worked out in Excel
Hold the pattern, handle the exceptions
Set the cycle once, then let swaps, leave and cover work against it — without rebuilding the grid every time.
This guide describes common shift patterns and summarises the working time rules that apply to them. It is not legal advice, and pattern names are used differently in different industries. Check GOV.UK, and the specific contracts involved, before changing a shift pattern. It does not constitute legal, HR, or professional advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice specific to your business, workforce, or circumstances.
Shift pattern questions
- Four shifts worked, then four days off, repeating. For continuous cover it runs as a 16-day cycle — four days, four off, four nights, four off — with four teams each offset by four days, so on any given day one team is on days, one on nights, and two are off. On 12-hour shifts it averages 42 hours a week.
- Also called 2-2-3 or Pitman: a 14-day cycle of two on, two off, three on, then the mirror image. Its defining feature is that every team gets every other weekend off — genuinely rare in 24/7 operations, and often the strongest retention argument for adopting it.
- Panama is 2-2-3 worked on 12-hour shifts. The rotation is the same as continental; the name usually signals the shift length. It gives the same every-other-weekend-off benefit with a longer working day and fewer working days.
- A 28-day cycle on 12-hour shifts with four teams, built around a run of four night shifts, three off, three days, one off, three nights, three off, four days, then a full seven consecutive days off. The long break is the attraction; the compressed run of shifts before it is the cost.
- The traditional 8-hour split — mornings roughly 06:00–14:00, afternoons 14:00–22:00, nights 22:00–06:00 — with teams rotating between them. It needs more staff than 12-hour patterns for the same cover, but the shorter days suit work that cannot safely be done for twelve hours at a stretch.