Asked from the worker's side, a 2-2-3 work schedule is a question about your own calendar: which days am I in, when is my weekend, when do I switch to nights. Asked from the manager's side, a 2-2-3 rotating schedule is a question about coverage and hours. This page answers the first and then the second: what a 2-2-3 work schedule looks like month by month for one person, how the rotation between days and nights works and what it does to sleep, and what a manager has to fix before publishing it so that the crew's calendar and the plant's coverage are the same document.
Your month on a 2-2-3
Week one: work Monday and Tuesday, off Wednesday and Thursday, work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Week two: off Monday and Tuesday, work Wednesday and Thursday, off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then it repeats. Over four weeks you work fourteen 12-hour shifts, have two full weekends off and work two, and never work more than three days in a row. The three-day weekend every other week is the reason people choose it; the three 12-hour days in a row on the working weekend is the reason some leave it.
How days and nights rotate
In the rotating version, a crew works its 2-2-3 on days for a block, commonly two weeks or four, then works the same 2-2-3 on nights for the next block. The change usually happens across a stretch of days off, so that a crew finishes its last day shift, has its three days off, and starts nights. Some workplaces rotate faster, swapping within the fortnight, which is harder on sleep; some do not rotate at all and keep fixed day and night crews on the same shape. The published schedule has to say which, cycle by cycle, because the rotation is the thing a crew plans its life around.
What the manager fixes before publishing
Four crews, because the shape does not work with three. The workweek start, because the 2-2-3 alternates 36-hour and 48-hour weeks and federal overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act is counted week by week. The rotation block and the direction of the swap. The holiday rule, since a fixed pattern lands some crews on every holiday unless it is adjusted. The rotating schedule generator on this site returns the hours and the crews from the pattern's two numbers, and the published schedule with a date is what turns the pattern into each person's calendar.
Questions people ask about 2-2-3 work schedule
How many days off do you get on a 2-2-3 work schedule?
Seven of every fourteen, including a full weekend every other week. Over a year that is about 182 days off, against 104 weekends and a few holidays on a Monday-to-Friday job.
Do you always work weekends on a 2-2-3?
Every other weekend, all three days. The other weekend is entirely free. Which weekends are which is fixed by the cycle, so you know a year ahead.
How often do you switch between days and nights?
Every two to four weeks in most rotating versions, with the switch made across a stretch of days off. Fixed-shift versions never switch.