Free shift calendar
3 on 3 off shift calendar 2028
3 on 3 off runs three 12 hour shifts, then three days off, on a 6 day cycle. Casinos, hospitals, care facilities, and continuous production lines use it when they want short blocks: nobody works more than three in a row, and no break is shorter than three days.
Because 6 does not divide into 7, the pattern walks backward through the week, one weekday per cycle. That drift keeps things fair: every crew lands near 17.7 full weekends a year, inside a tight 17 to 18 band.
Suits people who never want more than three shifts in a row and can live with days off that drift. It gives very few full weekends, because the cycle keeps sliding.
Quick facts
- Cycle length
- 6 days
- Shifts per cycle
- 3 on, 3 off
- Shift length
- 12 hours
- Hours a week
- 42.1 on average
- Crews for 24/7 cover
- 4
- Full weekends off in 2028
- 18
3 on 3 off, days, 2028
The grid shows a crew whose cycle starts January 1, 2028; other crews run the same rotation offset by a few days. The 6 day cycle does not divide evenly into weeks, so the rotation drifts through the weekdays. Other crews get a similar year, just shifted. To line the pattern up with your real start date, use the interactive shift pattern visualizer.
The 2028 numbers
Full weekends off
18
Jan 1 crew; all crews: 17.7 on average (17 to 18)
Night shifts
0
183 day shifts
Recovery days
0
no night shifts to sleep off
Longest stretch
3
consecutive shifts
How many hours is 3 on 3 off in 2028?
Worked in full, 3 on 3 off in 2028 comes to 183 shifts of 12 hours: 2,196 hours, an average of 42.1 hours a week across the whole year. These figures assume every scheduled shift is worked: no overtime, no swaps, no sick days, no leave.
Put 3 on 3 off 2028 in your calendar
One file, every shift of the year, ready for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Shifts import with a default time of 7am to 7pm. Edit the times after import if your site runs different hours.
That file is the textbook rotation. Your real roster has swaps, overtime and cover shifts that no pattern predicts, so photograph it with Lumical and every shift lands in Apple Calendar. We make Lumical, so read this with that in mind.
Get Lumical on the App StorePaste this into your page. The credit line sits outside the frame on purpose, so it stays a real link.
A perfect rotation fits in a calendar file. A real roster does not.
Swaps, overtime, and holiday cover break the pattern. Reading a real roster is what the Lumical app does: photograph it and every shift lands in your calendar, overnights included. We make it, so weigh the recommendation accordingly.
Common questions
How many weekends off does 3 on 3 off give you?
17.7 on average in 2028, with crews spread only from 17 to 18. The 6 day cycle drifts through the week, so nobody is stuck with the bad weekends permanently. The January 1 crew gets 18.
How many hours a year is 3 on 3 off?
2,196 hours: 183 shifts of 12 hours, averaging 42.1 hours a week across 2028.
Does 3 on 3 off rotate through the week?
Yes, backward: each new block starts one weekday earlier than the last. After seven cycles, 42 days, it has visited every weekday and the whole thing repeats.
What does 3 on 3 off look like in practice?
Half the year off, in three day pieces. In 2028 that is 183 days off against 183 shifts, and the longest run of work is 3 shifts.
Is there a nights version of 3 on 3 off?
Plenty of sites run the same dates on nights. The calendar is unchanged, but the Friday night rule takes some weekends (a Friday night shift ends Saturday morning) and the first off day of each block becomes a recovery day. The interactive visualizer on this site can draw that variant for your exact start date.
How many days will you work on 3 on 3 off in 2028?
183 shifts, which comes to 2,196 hours at 12 hours each. That leaves 183 days off. The count moves by a shift or two depending on where your crew sits in the cycle on January 1.
How many crews does 3 on 3 off need to cover 24 hours a day?
4. The cycle runs 6 days with 3 of them worked, so keeping one position filled every day takes 2 crews, and a 12 hours shift needs 2 positions to fill the day.
How do I get this calendar into Apple Calendar?
Download the .ics file on this page and open it on your iPhone or Mac. Apple Calendar offers to add the whole year in one go. That covers the textbook rotation. A real roster has swaps, overtime and cover shifts, and for that we make Lumical: photograph the roster and every shift lands in Apple Calendar. We make it, so read that with the obvious bias in mind.