Free shift calendar
Southern Swing shift calendar 2026
The Southern Swing is a 28 day rotation of 8 hour shifts, run by four crews: seven day shifts, two off, seven swing (afternoon) shifts, two off, seven night shifts, then three off. It is a classic of Southern US manufacturing, and plants elsewhere run the same wheel under other names.
Covering the clock with 8 hour shifts takes more working days than 12 hour patterns need, so the January 1 crew clocks 274 shifts in 2026. The trade is a swing through all three shift times every month, and off blocks that rarely reach a weekend.
Southern Swing 8h rotating, 2026
The grid shows a crew whose cycle starts January 1, 2026; 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 2026 numbers
Full weekends off
13
Jan 1 crew; all crews: 5.6 on average (0 to 13)
Night shifts
91
183 day shifts
Recovery days
13
first day off after nights
Longest stretch
7
consecutive shifts
How many hours is Southern Swing in 2026?
Worked in full, Southern Swing in 2026 comes to 274 shifts of 8 hours: 2,192 hours, an average of 42 hours a week across the whole year. 33.2% of those hours are night work: 728 hours that cross midnight. These figures assume every scheduled shift is worked: no overtime, no swaps, no sick days, no leave.
Put Southern Swing 2026 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 3pm, night shifts 7pm into the next morning (3am). Edit the times after import if your site runs different hours. The middle week of each cycle is swing shifts; they import as day type events at the default time, so move those blocks to your site's swing hours after import.
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
What is the Southern Swing schedule?
A 28 day cycle of 8 hour shifts: 7 days, 2 off, 7 swings, 2 off, 7 nights, 3 off. Four crews stagger it by a week each so a plant runs continuously.
How many weekends off does Southern Swing give you?
Averaged across crews, 5.6 a year, ranging from 0 to 13. The 28 day cycle repeats exactly on the weekday grid, so your crew's weekends are fixed for the whole year. The January 1 crew gets 13 in 2026.
How many hours a year is Southern Swing?
2,192 hours in 2026: 274 shifts of 8 hours, averaging 42 a week. About a third is night work, 728 hours across 91 night shifts.
Why does the grid show swing shifts as day shifts?
A swing shift starts and ends on the same calendar day, so the math treats it like a day shift. Only the night weeks cross midnight, which is what creates the 13 recovery days and costs the Friday night weekends.
Do I ever get a long break on Southern Swing?
The longest off block is three days, right after the night week; the others are two. There is no week long break. DuPont covers the clock on the same 28 day cycle but banks seven straight days off instead.