Schedule stability¶
Schedule stability settings keep a person's week recognisable instead of letting the scheduler mix mornings, afternoons and nights across the same few days. Three independent rules do it, and each one answers a different complaint:
| Setting | What it holds steady | Typical wording from the team |
|---|---|---|
| Shift variation within a week | One kind of shift for the whole week | "I never know when I work" |
| Shift rotation between weeks | Moves people between kinds after N weeks | "I have had mornings since spring" |
| Work variation within a week | One kind of work for the whole week | "I keep switching between complaints and contracts" |
All three are soft rules that Smart Schedule applies while it builds the plan. It works hard to satisfy them, but coverage always wins: where a need cannot be met any other way, the rule gives.
Where the settings live¶
Each rule can be set at three levels, and a more specific level overrides a less specific one:
| Level | Where |
|---|---|
| Workplace | Settings > Workplaces - open a workplace |
| Contract | People > Contracts - open a contract |
| Employee | People > Users - open a person, Shift limits tab |
On the contract and the employee, each field also offers From the workplace / From the contract, which is the default: the setting is inherited rather than overridden.
Shift variation within a week¶
This rule keeps one person on one kind of shift for the week. "Kind" means the start time only - a 6-hour and an 8-hour shift that both start at 15:00 are the same kind, and shift length does not enter into it.
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Different shifts allowed | Off. The scheduler may mix kinds freely. |
| Working week (Mon-Fri) | One kind Monday to Friday; the weekend is judged separately. |
| Whole week (Mon-Sun) | One kind for all seven days. |
Choose Working week where the weekend is run by a different crew or a different rhythm - it leaves Saturday and Sunday out of the rule instead of forcing them into the week's kind.
Note
A uniform week means the same kind of shift on every working day. If the same person also has a consecutive shift limit (see Consecutive shift limits) lower than the number of working days, the two cannot both hold. The plan says so rather than silently picking one - see Warnings you may see below.
Shift rotation between weeks¶
Uniformity alone is satisfied perfectly by mornings every week, forever. This rule is what actually moves people:
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| No rotation | Off. |
| Rotate every week | At most one week in a row on the same kind. |
| Rotate every two weeks | At most two weeks in a row on the same kind. |
Warning
This rule needs Shift variation within a week to be set on the same person. Without it a "week on mornings" has no meaning - somebody working Monday mornings and Tuesday to Friday afternoons would trip the morning limit while plainly being an afternoon person. Where the uniformity is off, the field is not offered.
The offer stops at two weeks on purpose. A monthly plan is about four weeks long, so a limit of three or more has almost nothing left to act on.
Work variation within a week¶
The same idea on a different axis: keep somebody on one kind of work for the week, so the person handling complaints keeps handling them rather than being moved to contract changes on Wednesday. The options are the same three as for shift variation, and the two settings are independent - you can use either, both, or neither.
This rule needs one more thing to be filled in. A kind of work is defined by the Work type field on a skill (Settings > Skills). Skills sharing a work type count as the same kind of work; skills with the field empty take part in nothing.
Info
A shift that requires two different kinds of work at once deliberately carries no work type at all, and the rule leaves it alone. That is not an oversight: the person who does complaints all week and picks up one shared shift should not be the one penalised. A workplace running mostly on combined shifts therefore has little for this rule to hold, and the plan tells you so.
Warnings you may see¶
These settings can be switched on and still do nothing, which looks exactly like working correctly. The plan therefore reports it:
| Warning | What it means |
|---|---|
| Work variation ... only N of M shifts have a work type | The rule reaches only a minority of the plan. Fill in Work type on the skills that represent a kind of work. |
| Work variation ... every shift that has a work type has the SAME one | There are not two kinds of work in the plan to alternate between, so the rule cannot act however well it is configured. Check whether the demand for the other kinds is being merged into combined shifts. |
| Employee has both a weekly shift uniformity and a limit of N same shifts in a row | The two contradict each other. Raise the limit to at least the number of working days, or drop it and limit the week by hours instead. |
What these settings do not do¶
- They do not prescribe anybody's roster. If you need a fixed personal rota - "three mornings, two days off, repeat" - that is a rotation pattern, which is a different mechanism.
- They do not carry across a plan boundary on their own beyond one week: the plan before this one is consulted for the immediately preceding week, and anything older is invisible.
- They do not override holidays, leave, rest periods or contract hours. Those are checked first and always win.