4 Day week Sunday inside roster

[Kirkk007]

This was a prospective roster that I done looking at everyone’s ideas and also incorporating quality time off, there are a few issues people have pointed out one above being if weeks A/L falls on week 7 and also the other weeks as to your allocation I think I’m my head if our A/L was 5 weeks (4days) then that’s 20 days so would just subtract them from your running total, and also some people were against the idea of working 7 in a row, for me personally I see the gain in getting almost a fortnight off every so often, I see the roster as a very balanced one and could be appealing to the company also. The thing I am trying to avoid is the company saying you can have roster AorB and both not ideal so rather have an option of C that we would prefer....

 

[Tomnick]

Can’t believe how much negativity has been put into this thread by a couple of people, as has been said if you look at my original post I’m asking for possibilities for rostering when Sunday’s are introduced, at no point have I said that I do not want Sunday as part of the week so why bring in the negative comments,
my mother always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say nothing at all.
For everyone else who has given good positive information I have taken all the comments on board and came up with a few different rostering ideas all with some sort of flaw but nothing too major.
I have a question for this who work the roster that gets a week off every so often after ‘banking’ days, what happens if your weeks A/L is on that week of R/D?

Before I was on a true 4 day week (it averaged just under 4.5 days, with some weeks being 5 days), our annual leave weeks were taken out of the total allocation as individual days in the same way as ad-hoc days being taken, rather than (e.g.) a standard figure of 20 days being subtracted to equal five weeks. You’d need to do this anyway, surely, with a mix of 4 and 5 day weeks in the proposed roster? If a week’s AL fell on a week of rest days, presumably you’d either take it but have no days taken off your allocation, or swap it for a different week?

Personally I wouldn’t be in favour of a week of rest days in addition to the fixed pattern, as it’d throw it out of sync with friends on the same pattern every few weeks. Quite a few at our depot have chosen a particular line on that basis. Each to their own though!

 

[Rocketboots]

This was a prospective roster that I done looking at everyone’s ideas and also incorporating quality time off, there are a few issues people have pointed out one above being if weeks A/L falls on week 7 and also the other weeks as to your allocation I think I’m my head if our A/L was 5 weeks (4days) then that’s 20 days so would just subtract them from your running total, and also some people were against the idea of working 7 in a row, for me personally I see the gain in getting almost a fortnight off every so often, I see the roster as a very balanced one and could be appealing to the company also. The thing I am trying to avoid is the company saying you can have roster AorB and both not ideal so rather have an option of C that we would prefer....

Here’s E* roster.

 

[FlashingYellows]

This was a prospective roster that I done looking at everyone’s ideas and also incorporating quality time off, there are a few issues people have pointed out one above being if weeks A/L falls on week 7 and also the other weeks as to your allocation I think I’m my head if our A/L was 5 weeks (4days) then that’s 20 days so would just subtract them from your running total, and also some people were against the idea of working 7 in a row, for me personally I see the gain in getting almost a fortnight off every so often, I see the roster as a very balanced one and could be appealing to the company also. The thing I am trying to avoid is the company saying you can have roster AorB and both not ideal so rather have an option of C that we would prefer....

I personally wouldn't like to work 7 days running so often. The long weekend would be cheapened knowing it's 7 days continuous coming up to it and then 7 days after. I think I'd prefer the link posted above this reply to that. Only 1 in 2 Saturday's as opposed to 2 in 3, so that's some compensation for the loss of Sunday.

 

[whoosh]

This was a prospective roster that I done looking at everyone’s ideas and also incorporating quality time off, there are a few issues people have pointed out one above being if weeks A/L falls on week 7 and also the other weeks as to your allocation I think I’m my head if our A/L was 5 weeks (4days) then that’s 20 days so would just subtract them from your running total, and also some people were against the idea of working 7 in a row, for me personally I see the gain in getting almost a fortnight off every so often, I see the roster as a very balanced one and could be appealing to the company also. The thing I am trying to avoid is the company saying you can have roster AorB and both not ideal so rather have an option of C that we would prefer....

I think you've got a lot of Sundays at work there, 4 in 7, which is a rostered 29 or 30 per year, which I don't think would go down too well.

Another example here is a Trans Pennine Express roster from a few years ago. It's an average 4.17 day week. I understand they now have an average 4 day week so would have an extra 6 rest days placed in it now if this roster stayed at 34 lines:


I did have another roster which I also believe was from New Cross Gate in addition to the one I posted earlier, but i can't seem to find it now.
Unlike the previously posted 'average 4 day week' where there was a week of rest days every few weeks, this one was a 'true 4 day week' with four working days every week. There wasn't much of a fixed pattern to it but I mention it as it implies that drivers at this depot have a choice as to which roster they want to be in.

I posted Farnham's roster earlier. The drivers had a vote administered by their local reps on which pattern to adopt when they went on to a 4 day week (from an average 4.25 day one), although they were all broadly similar, I'll include it here for you:

 

[Kirkk007]

There are a few people who wouldn’t like the 7 perhaps not so good a roster after all...I understand what you are saying about the Sunday’s and a post from before about negotiating for only ‘x’ amount of Sunday’s I have taken copies of all the others posted too I quite like the one from south west trains Farnham as keeps it easy with 3 r/d each week however they are split, I think getting to my original post of consecutive rest days each week and not including too many sundays is a big ask but I can only take your ideas to a higher level where they can be fine tuned

 

[Kirkk007]

I think Farnham have it sussed tried and tested method! Will certainly take them further thanks whoosh

 

[Rocketboots]

I think Farnham have it sussed tried and tested method! Will certainly take them further thanks whoosh

I think the golden rule is to try and get as many consecutive weekends together. The whole 7 days in a row is so old hat in my opinion. It was designed for the working man post war time Britain where most blue collar workers were working a 6 day week. Whilst revolutionary at the time is now very outdated and not in keeping with the modern working world.

 

[Kirkk007]

I think the golden rule is to try and get as many consecutive weekends together. The whole 7 days in a row is so old hat in my opinion. It was designed for the working man post war time Britain where most blue collar workers were working a 6 day week. Whilst revolutionary at the time is now very outdated and not in keeping with the modern working world.

touché

 

[Mintona]

Can’t believe how much negativity has been put into this thread by a couple of people, as has been said if you look at my original post I’m asking for possibilities for rostering when Sunday’s are introduced, at no point have I said that I do not want Sunday as part of the week so why bring in the negative comments,
my mother always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say nothing at all.
For everyone else who has given good positive information I have taken all the comments on board and came up with a few different rostering ideas all with some sort of flaw but nothing too major.
I have a question for this who work the roster that gets a week off every so often after ‘banking’ days, what happens if your weeks A/L is on that week of R/D?

This year three of my annual leave weeks fell on a week of rest days, so I got an extra 15 days ad hoc to use. I really like it that way, with our delicate childcare arrangements having more floating days to use is an absolute godsend.

 

[Tomnick]

There are a few people who wouldn’t like the 7 perhaps not so good a roster after all...

Don’t worry too much about what people on here think of the various options. We won’t have to work to the roster that you come up with! Take the examples given, along with the pros and cons, and put them to the rest of the depot to see which they prefer?

 

[craigybagel]

And always remember one of the golden rules about working on the railway. Whatever you come up with, someone will moan about it.

 

[whoosh]

Just an observation on Aivilo's roster (post #18)
An advantage of putting Sundays into the working week is that because it seeks to eliminate institutionalised overtime (from the union's perspective) by employing more drivers to bring Sundays inside, that the Saturdays worked are spread across more people - theoretically giving more Saturdays off.

Whilst I do understand that there was a desire to not change things too much from what went before, the advantage of giving more Saturdays off hasn't been taken with this roster, with an abundance of 'spare' cover for the mere three running turns on a Saturday. Not only that but as there is no spare cover on Sundays, institutionalised overtime must still exist by having to have people volunteer to work on a Sunday in the middle of a long weekend when one of the Sunday running turns is uncovered.
I just can't help but look at it and think there could've been better weekends off by working more Sundays and less Saturdays, with the Sundays off then being quality ones, not shoehorned in between lates and earlies.
Also, is it the same lucky driver on week 13 every Christmas?

I do understand that it was trying to limit change to what drivers were comfortable with, and also Tomnick's roster and what I posted above in an earlier post show there can and should be an element of choice or say locally, but I'm just voicing my thoughts for Kirkk007 or anyone else who is starting from scratch with a clean sheet of paper.

And always remember one of the golden rules about working on the railway. Whatever you come up with, someone will moan about it.

Very true! (I'm not moaning!)