A double shift is one person working two consecutive shifts, most often a 16 hour shift made of two eights, and occasionally a 14 hour shift where a ten runs into part of the next. It is rarely scheduled and almost always the result of a call-out nobody else could cover, which is why it appears on the timesheet and not on the published schedule. Working 16 hour shifts occasionally is a fact of shift work; working them regularly is a sign the schedule is short a crew. This page sets out what a double shift is, what it does to overtime and to the rest before the next shift, and how the schedule is written so that the double is the exception it is meant to be.
What a double is and where it comes from
On an eight-hour three-shift day, a double is the person on days staying for afternoons, or the person on afternoons staying for nights: 16 hours in a row. On a twelve-hour pattern a double is 24 hours and nobody plans it. Doubles happen when a shift is short and the only person available is the one already there, and they happen most on the shifts that are hardest to fill, afternoons and weekends. A schedule that produces a double every week has a coverage gap the pattern is hiding, and the rotating schedule generator on this site shows it as crews needed exceeding crews entered.
What it costs and what it does to rest
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act the hours of a double count toward the forty in the workweek, and a full-time worker who takes one is into overtime for the rest of the week. Some states add daily overtime: California pays time and a half over eight hours in a day and double time over twelve, so the last four hours of a 16 hour shift there are at double the rate. The rest problem is the other cost: a person who finishes a double at 11 at night and is due back at 7 has eight hours to travel, eat and sleep, and the shift they come back to is the one where mistakes happen. Where an agreement or a state rule sets a minimum rest between shifts, the double is what breaks it.
Keeping the double the exception
Three things. A published schedule with a relief crew or a float pool marked on it, so that a call-out has an answer other than the person already on. A recorded swap process, so that a cover is arranged between two people with both names on the shift rather than by the manager asking whoever is nearest. And a limit written into the policy: how many doubles a person may work in a period, and a minimum rest after one. The published schedule with its swaps recorded is the document that shows whether the limit was kept, which is what Rotazo Pro is for.
Questions people ask about double shift
Is a 16 hour shift legal?
Federal law sets no maximum shift length for adults; it requires overtime on hours over forty in the workweek. Some states add daily overtime and some sectors, such as healthcare and transport, have their own limits.
How much rest should follow a double shift?
Federal law sets none. Union agreements and some state rules set a minimum, commonly eight to eleven hours between shifts, and a schedule that plans for a double should give more than that.
Why do doubles keep happening?
Because the schedule has fewer crews than the pattern needs and every call-out lands on the person already on. The worksheet on this site shows the crews the pattern needs; if you have fewer, the doubles are the difference.