Shift work glossary
The words that come up when you schedule hourly staff, explained the way a manager would explain them — short, specific, and without the consultancy padding.
Clopening
also: close-open, back-to-back shift
A clopening is when the same person closes a venue at night and opens it again the next morning. The gap between…
Split shift
also: broken shift
A split shift is one working day divided into two or more blocks with a long unpaid gap in between — typically…
Shift swap
also: shift trade, shift cover
A shift swap is when two employees exchange assigned shifts, or one hands a shift to another, normally with the manager approving…
Open shift
also: unassigned shift, up-for-grabs shift
An open shift is a shift that needs covering but has nobody assigned to it yet. It is posted to the team…
Rota
also: roster, work schedule, shift schedule
A rota is the published plan of who works which shift over a given period, usually a week. Rota is the standard…
Employee availability
also: availability, working preferences
Availability is the record of when each person can and cannot work — study days, second jobs, childcare, standing commitments. It is…
Rotating shift
also: rotating roster, shift rotation
A rotating shift pattern moves people between different shift types on a fixed cycle — a week of earlies, then a week…
Shift differential
also: night differential, unsocial hours premium
A shift differential is extra pay for working hours that are harder to fill — nights, weekends, public holidays. It is normally…
Tip pooling
also: tip sharing, tronc
Tip pooling is collecting tips into a shared pot and dividing them among staff by an agreed rule, instead of each person…
No-show
also: no call no show
A no-show is a scheduled employee who neither turns up nor tells anyone. It is distinct from calling in sick, which is…
Overtime
also: OT, extra hours
Overtime is time worked beyond a defined threshold — commonly a set number of hours in a week, sometimes in a day…
Fair workweek
also: predictive scheduling, secure scheduling
Fair workweek is the name given to laws that require employers to publish schedules a set time in advance and to compensate…
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Most of these terms have a tool behind them — a rota builder, a holiday rotation splitter, eight calculators.
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