Question about Starfleet duty shifts

[Redshirt214]

Aboard my USS Hood, NCC-2541, there were 4 watches, each six hours long. Crews had two watches a day, and could spend the other two recreating. The characters in question aboard Hood were Cadets, so they covered the "Night Shift" on the bridge and also had a shift during the day doing their "normal" jobs. I imagine they never got more than 6 hrs of sleep a day, especially with all the trouble they got into. That would probably tire a lot of people out after a while, but then again I don't really get much more than 6 hrs of sleep, all over the place, and I'm not dead yet so whatever.

I think I imagined their schedule would be like this:

Watch 1: Early Morning
Free Time

Watch 2: Morning to Noon
Departmental Work

Watch 3: Noon to Night
Free Time

Watch 4: Night
Bridge Duty

If they weren't so low ranking, or didn't have bridge duty, I imagine they'd be working the more regular hours of Watch 2 & 3. I want to say on an actual ship, you'd basically be working 3 watches a day with only one off. But then this is Starfleet, so you get the luxury of 12 hours off. I am not so sure that I'd want a three watch rotation, I'd rather have someone who's well rested rather than some poor guy who's been up for sixteen hours straight at the helm.

Some of the systems with even more, shorter watches might be even better, more akin to taking classes at school than working a job. It might disorder one's schedule a bit if you got a haphazard set of assignments, but at least you'd never get stuck working any more than, say four hours, at a time on any one thing.

 

[Sgt_G]

You might recall Captain Edward Jellico ordering Will Riker to take the Enterprise from a 3-shift rotation to a 4-shift rotation (more appropriate for a war footing as the crew is generally well rested and ready to respond to General Quarters.) The 3-shift rotation is more appropriate for a science vessel, allowing each department to be more fully staffed and giving crew members more contiguous time to work on projects.

Jellico wasn't getting extra crewmen. Hell, he lost one. 700 crew divided by 3 shifts, is 233 crewmen to run the ship. 700 crew divided by 4 shifts is 175 crewmen. Unless Jellico was wanting to figure out how to run a shift with 58 less crewmen, most of the crew was pulling 2 x 6 hour shifts to cover the shortfall in man power. Of course some of the crew were already taking 2 x 8 hours shifts, maybe Aliens who need less sleep, so those were the few who got more holodeck time under Jellico.

Jellico was going to work them harder by imposing 4 shifts unless he picked up another 200 crew from a star base.

Copy/paste of what I wrote in the "Jellico/Shelby" thread back on 18 OCT 2018---

Jellico initially said he wanted the switch to happen "starting tonight", giving personnel a 12+ hour lead-time. Trust me, that's plenty of time. It's not like they had to recall anyone back from a weekend trip to Yosemite.

Here's the transcript:

JELLICO: How many duty watches does the crew stand?
RIKER: We've a standard three shift rotation.
JELLICO: I'd like to change that to four starting tonight. I'd also like to examine the duty roster and the crew evaluations as soon as possible.
.... later ....
JELLICO: I believe we're scheduled to arrive at the Cardassian border during delta shift. Please inform the delta tactical officer that I want to launch a class five probe just before we drop out of warp.
RIKER: I was actually going to talk to you about delta shift a little later, sir. Right now, gamma shift will be on duty when we arrive and I will tell Lieutenant McDowell about the probe.
JELLICO: Is there a problem with delta shift, Will?
RIKER: There is no delta shift yet, sir. I have spoken to the department heads about changing from three shifts to four, and they assure me it's going to cause us significant personnel problems.
JELLICO: So you have not changed the watch rotation.
RIKER: I was going to explain this to you after the ceremony, sir.
JELLICO: You will tell the department heads that as of now the Enterprise is on a four shift rotation. I don't want to talk about it. Get it done. Now that means delta shift will be due to come on duty in two hours. I expect you to have it fully manned and ready when it does. Is that clear?
RIKER: Yes, sir. If you'll excuse me, sir. Captain.

Okay, I assure you that a "standard three shift rotation" does not mean there are only three teams. If it did, nobody would get a day off. Rather, there are at least four but more likely five teams that rotate in a four-on/two-off or five-on/two-off schedule, working 3x8-hour shifts per day. That would require each team to rotate to a different shift each flip: days this week, nights next week, swings the following week, then back to days. I know because I worked such a schedule most of my 26 years in the Air Force.

Indeed, with a ship the size of the Enterprise-E, it's possible that there are six teams working a three-on/three-off no-flip schedule. But let's say for some stupid reason they gave the ship the minimum number of teams: four. There should be enough manpower to run a 4x6-hour duty schedule. There shouldn't be any "significant personnel problems", at least not in the short term. Jellico originally ordered the change to happen "starting tonight", which was plenty of lead time to make it happen smoothly. Riker drug his feet and thereby cause it to be more of an issue than it needed to be.

The only valid objection Riker and the department heads should have had was "Okay, sir, but we can't keep this up for very long, or you're going to burn the crew out by not giving them time off." And at that point, Jellico would have looked at him and said, "Of course I know that. I'm not stupid. We're gearing up for a crisis, and once that crisis is over, we can go back to a normal duty schedule."

Been there -- done that. More times than I can count. A no-notice switch to 12-hour shifts for two weeks because someone ended up in the hospital sucks, but you do what you have to to get the job done. Going from a 16x5 to a 24x7 shop to support real-world operations sucks, but the bad guys don't stand down for weekends and holidays.

 

[D'Artagnan]

I love the fact that there is such an intelligent discussion going on about this sort of detail. It's like being in a Writer's Room. I feel the most important aspect of any work is a attention to detail. Whatever you decide... you did your due diligence.