Free shift calendar
5-5-4 shift calendar 2027
The 5-5-4 schedule is a 28 day cycle of 12 hour shifts: 4 on, 5 off, 5 on, 4 off, 5 on, 5 off, then it repeats. Half the days are worked, the same as 4 on 4 off, but in blocks of four and five with breaks of four and five. Four crews cover the clock, two on days and two on nights, or rotating between the two. The name counts the blocks of shifts; you will also see it written 4-5-5 or 4/5/5/4/5/5, which is how a Canadian maltings wrote it into its union agreement.
This page lays out the whole of 2027 for a crew whose first block starts January 1: every shift, every break, and the weekends that survive. There is a days grid, stats for the days and nights variants, and a calendar file you can import in one tap.
Suits plants that want four crews on 12 hour shifts without the DuPont run of four nights into three days: the longest block is five shifts and every break is at least four days. The catch is the calendar. The cycle is four weeks long, so your weekends are fixed for the year.
Quick facts
- Cycle length
- 28 days
- Shifts per cycle
- 14 on, 14 off
- Shift length
- 12 hours
- Hours a week
- 42.1 on average
- Crews for 24/7 cover
- 4
- Full weekends off in 2027
- 13
5-5-4, days, 2027
The grid shows a crew whose cycle starts January 1, 2027; other crews run the same rotation offset by a few days. The 28 day cycle divides evenly into weeks, so the rotation never drifts: whatever weekdays a crew works in January, it works in December. Crews on other phases can see very different weekends. To line the pattern up with your real start date, use the interactive shift pattern visualizer.
The 2027 numbers
Days
Full weekends off
13
Jan 1 crew; all crews: 20.4 on average (13 to 26)
Night shifts
0
183 day shifts
Recovery days
0
no night shifts to sleep off
Longest stretch
5
consecutive shifts
Nights
Full weekends off
13
Jan 1 crew; all crews: 14.9 on average (13 to 26)
Night shifts
183
0 day shifts
Recovery days
39
first day off after nights
Longest stretch
5
consecutive shifts
How many hours is 5-5-4 in 2027?
Worked in full, 5-5-4 in 2027 comes to 183 shifts of 12 hours: 2,196 hours, an average of 42.1 hours a week across the whole year. The nights variant works the same dates and the same 2,196 hours; the difference is that every one of them runs overnight. These figures assume every scheduled shift is worked: no overtime, no swaps, no sick days, no leave.
Put 5-5-4 2027 in your calendar
One file, every shift of the year, ready for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Shifts import with default times: day shifts 7am to 7pm, night shifts 7pm into the next morning (7am). 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 does the 5-5-4 schedule work?
Four 12 hour shifts, five days off, five shifts, four days off, five shifts, five days off. The cycle is 28 days, exactly four weeks, so it lands on the same weekdays every time round: a crew that works Monday to Thursday in week one works Monday to Thursday in week five.
How many days off does 5-5-4 give per year?
Half the year: 182 days off on paper in 2027, the same as 4 on 4 off. What changes is the shape. The breaks run five, four and five days instead of a flat four, and the longest run of shifts is five instead of four.
How many full weekends off does 5-5-4 give?
Because the cycle is four weeks, each crew's weekends are fixed for the year, and the weekday the cycle started on decides whether one or two of the three breaks cover a full weekend. A crew starting January 1 gets 13 in 2027; other start days give anywhere from 13 to 26. Nights average 14.9, because a Friday night shift runs into Saturday morning.
How many hours a year is 5-5-4?
2,196 hours in 2027: 183 shifts of 12 hours, averaging 42.1 a week. Inside the cycle it swings: a four-shift week is 48 hours and a five-shift week is 60, which is why 5-5-4 agreements spell out where overtime starts.
How is 5-5-4 different from DuPont?
Same 28 day cycle, same 12 hour shifts, same 14 shifts a cycle. DuPont bunches the rest into one seven day break and pays for it with four nights straight into three days; 5-5-4 spreads it into breaks of five, four and five and never works more than five in a row. On nights the first day of each break is a recovery day: 39 of them in 2027, leaving 143 usable days off.
How many days will you work on 5-5-4 in 2027?
183 shifts, which comes to 2,196 hours at 12 hours each. That leaves 182 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 5-5-4 need to cover 24 hours a day?
4. The cycle runs 28 days with 14 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.