What do you think is the optimum WatchKeeping/WatchStanding schedule for StarFleet?

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I remember that in ST:TNG episodes "Chain of Command: Part 1 & 2" that Captain Edward Jellico wanted to change the ships primary "Duty Shift / Duty Watch / Shift Rotation" schedule from 3x 8-Hr Shifts to 4x 6-Hr Shifts.

Assuming that all StarFleet Facilities/Vessels/StarBases need to maintain continuous operation 7-Days a week, 24 hrs a day without fail, what is the optimum "WatchKeeping / WatchStanding" schedule layout/setup IYO?

Assume that StarFleet doesn't have a personnel short fall and you can have as many Shift Teams as you want since you're creating the billets for them so that HR in StarFleet can fill them. Apply this formula across all of StarFleet Facilities/Vessels/StarBases.

The only constant is that you must keep your schedule running Continuously for the "Bridge/Operations Center" Shifts & all Departments on a vessel/facility. Ergo every Department must be manned continuously "at all times".

This is obviously not counting any "Blue/Black/Yellow/Red" Alert situations which may randomly occur and need you to summon the "Senior Staff" on deck and have everybody at their post in a crisis.

Keep in mind that you must factor how many hours every Officer/Staff member must work each week in total and limit that to a common standard that you find acceptable for all Officers / Staff Members including Seniors Staff, Shift Leaders, Duty Officers, etc.

You may also determine how many Shift Leader Positions you want to create for your Billets (I'm using this definition of Billet = Billet can mean a specific personnel position, assignment, or duty station which may be filled by one person, most commonly used by the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard. Every person reporting aboard a ship or shore installation in the naval services is assigned a billet according to the unit watch, quarter and station bill, which shows the duties, stations and billet assignments for all crew members).

What would be optimum "Watch Schedule / Duty Shift / Shift Rotation" IYO?

 

[1001001]

24 one-hour shifts a day.

Gives everyone plenty of time to pursue personal development.

 

[Oddish]

When you're headed into a potential combat situation, the best watch schedule is the one that your crew is used to.

While I think that Jellico did a lot of things right, his decision to make a change like that on the eve of battle was a bad one.

 

[The Wormhole]

Probably something like this.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

24 one-hour shifts a day.

Gives everyone plenty of time to pursue personal development.

So how many Teams / Sections are going to cover how many One Hour Shifts in a day?

How many times a week are there going to be Teams rotating in/out?

Remember, this applies to each department.

Probably something like this.

So you prefer the 5x 4-Hr Shifts + 2x 2-Hr Shifts in one day split amongst 3 teams?
That seems cumbersome to me IMO, mostly because of the 2x 2-Hr Shifts.
But that's just my opinion.

Here's what I could come up with on my own for every permutation of a 24/7/365 schedule.

Here are all possible variants that divide evenly to some degree.

My personal favorite is the one that has:
4x 6-Hr Shift Sections split amongst 7x Teams per department which gives you a 24-hr primary job work week per person.
In a 39-hr Work Week, that affords 24 hrs on your primary job ~= 61.54% of your weekly work time focused on your primary job.
15 hrs of your week can be spent on "Training / Learning new skills / Cross-Training in a different Job Discipline to increase your proficiency in multiple fields of study / Side Projects / R&D / etc".
That 15 hrs ~= 38.46% of your 39-hr work week spent on self improvement in your various job skills (Primary, or Secondary or Tertiary).

It also means you're "On-Duty" for 4x Days of the week and you're "Off-Duty" for 3x Days of the week from your primary job.

This flexibility allows you to learn more, train more, get more proficient in areas that you're weak in.

Just like Julian Bashir tried to take StarFleet Engineering Extension Courses to beef up his basic Engineering knowledge.

Imagine what you could do with everybody in StarFleet if they had this kind of flexible schedule.

 

[The Wormhole]

That seems cumbersome to me IMO,

Well, it works for real life ships sailing the ocean, it should work for fictional ships flying in space.

 

[Mojochi]

When you're headed into a potential combat situation, the best watch schedule is the one that your crew is used to.

Not necessarily when a vast complement of your ship is manned for noncombat duty, & you're reassigning a lot of them anyhow.

 

[Deks]

Since humans are only productive for 2 to 3 hrs per day at most, for regular situations, duty shifts shouldn't probably extend more than 3 - 4 hrs per shift.
If there is a crisis, then the senior officers would likely spring into action and take over. Once its been dealt with, the ship would resume with standard operations.


Also, I don't necessarily think Trek portrayed duty shifts accurately.
It was already doable to reduce the working hours to 15 per week with the technology we had in 1974. Today, we can easily do much less (4 to 2 hrs per week).

In all seriousness, the only reason why we do jobs for 8 hrs (or more) per day is due to money. In Trek, there would be 0 need to maintain that paradigm.

Trek Starships have far more sophisticated technology (and automation) at their disposal, so I would imagine that duty shifts wouldn't really revolve around doing mundane things which the computer can (and usually does) handle.

In order to maintain peak performance, I would imagine that SF ships wouldn't have duty shifts lasting longer than 4 hrs... this also frees up the crew's time to pursue other personal interests - which arguably would probably be INTEGRATED into their daily lives to begin with on such a setting.

As I said, there would be little to no point having long hour duty shifts. The computers long range scans can easily alert people to potential dangers.

Heck, in the VOY episode 'Night' the ship was effectively running on autopilot as is with minimal amount of people having to actually MAN the ship.
In fact, there would be SO MANY other things for the crew to do with their time that I think Trek writers stupidly injected 'boredom' into the episode to illustrate how having jobs is actually 'beneficial'.
It really isn't.
They had a decent chance to illustrate how progressive UFP was and show us that the characters had a TON of things to do outside their life as SF officers - in fact, they would likely be doing experiments, etc... it would literally be a BREAK from all the non stop fights and anomalies.
In fact, I would imagine that most of the crew would ENJOY that kind of quiet time to pursue other things they usually wouldn't (or couldn't) during their shifts.
As progressive and all encompassing SF carreers can be, in such a future, people will inevitably develop multitude of different interests that would keep them busy in their so-called 'off time'.

 

[Oddish]

Not necessarily when a vast complement of your ship is manned for noncombat duty, & you're reassigning a lot of them anyhow.

Adding a fourth shift only increases the amount of chaos, at a time when chaos can get you blasted out of space. If you're going to make a change like that (and not saying you shouldn't), you do it during a period of peaceful, routine operations.

 

[Dumbbell]

It depends on your definition of “duty,” and your definition of “crewperson.”

If “duty” refers to a function that must be performed by a person for some reason, and “crewperson” refers to a person that must perform a duty…

Then starships are actually ferries and most crewpersons are actually passengers.

And this is actually what they are.

The idea of a “duty station” gives the idea that a particular “workstation” must be attended to by an “operator” at all times. This reminds us of a factory worker who operates a particular station for his entire shift except for mandatory break times, such as to eat a meal. Or at least of an on-call office worker who is sitting at his home office and working from home. He can’t shut himself out, he must be on call for his entire life even during sleep and meals.

While there could be such workstations on a starship, these would be completely undesirable. They would only exist in special circumstances such as temporary alerts. Not just ship wide alerts, but regional or even civilization-wide alerts issued by the fleet’s command. Under these special circumstances, certain workstations could need to be operated at all times until automated processes could be set up to take over.

As a general rule, however, the only reason people are even on a starship and in space at all is because they want to be part of the bigger picture, to be explorers, etc. Not because they need to send their pay back home for the kids to have food and get an education, etc. Not because they are on a warship that must be at Red Alert at all times for preparedness. Not because a starship ferry actually needs them to sit at a station pushing buttons for hours on end.

Since most of the time spent in space would actually be filled with travel time rather than any actual work, that mostly uneventful travel time becomes the focus any “duties” of the crew who are there to lend themselves to the mission. So we have firstly drills, then training, perhaps a very little maintenance, as mandated by the mission parameters, then education, arts, and recreation with more personal flexibility. Much of these would be structured as per the mandates of the fleet’s command and mission parameters.

So, the number of duties and workstations will always be much less than the number of crewpersons you will have aboard in order to carry out your mission once your starship gets them there.

So, shift lengths are rather arbitrary and depend on the captain and lead’s decisions as to scheduling. It could be that a few individuals would gladly operate a workstation for 12 hours at a time thus freeing up the others to pursue other things or the mission directly, or the captain or lead could decide that very short shifts should be shared by almost everybody in the department.

Personally, if you could get someone to do a 12-hour shift, overlapped with two others for a 24-hour period, you could free up a lot of others and prime them for the mission at hand. Once the training is complete, you could switch the same persons to three 8-hour shifts. Done. It’s only temporary anyway. Next time around, you can use some other people.

 

[fireproof78]

So, shift lengths are rather arbitrary and depend on the captain and lead’s decisions as to scheduling.

I think this is the smartest thing I've read here thus far on the topic. The captain and the mission will define what is needed.

 

[Mojochi]

Adding a fourth shift only increases the amount of chaos, at a time when chaos can get you blasted out of space. If you're going to make a change like that (and not saying you shouldn't), you do it during a period of peaceful, routine operations.

Respectfully, you & I have different definitions of what chaos is. I work in a hospital, & we're routinely understaffed, & have mandated overtime, float pools, split shifts, on-call duty, leave time & that's not even during an emergency like the pandemic. So when I hear someone say "Hey we're gonna shorten shifts by 2 hours & float people to different shifts, with a week or two, to ramp up, where we'll be supplementing your departments with crew from others, so to allow you to be more well rested, & better primed when on duty" that doesn't even sound all that eventful to me. I'm no military expert, but it sounds like it might actually ease conditions in the long run.

Then you factor in an emergency being dumped in your lap without notice, & you should see what it's looked like in my world the last year & a half. Jellico is a daisy imho. lol

Edit: & Picard is a fantasy dream boss, for a fantasy future utopia

 

[BK613]

It's so strange when this subject comes up because what inevitably gets proposed never seems to match my RW experience. When we divided into duty sections, one duty section would have the duty for the whole day and the watchstanders for that day would be pulled from that duty section. The next day a different duty section would have the duty and be responsible for standing watches. Duty sections that didn't have the duty would put in a work day and have the evening off. While there were a few exceptions to that pattern*, mostly the ship ran on a day and night schedule with watchstanders being the only crewmembers up at night.


*(for example, the main engineering space MMs and BTs ran 12on/12off because they could do most of their workday stuff 24/7.)

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It's so strange when this subject comes up because what inevitably gets proposed never seems to match my RW experience. When we divided into duty sections, one duty section would have the duty for the whole day and the watchstanders for that day would be pulled from that duty section. The next day a different duty section would have the duty and be responsible for standing watches. Duty sections that didn't have the duty would put in a work day and have the evening off. While there were a few exceptions to that pattern*, mostly the ship ran on a day and night schedule with watchstanders being the only crewmembers up at night.


*(for example, the main engineering space MMs and BTs ran 12on/12off because they could do most of their workday stuff 24/7.)

Isn't it tiring to run on 12 hour shifts?

 

[BK613]

Isn't it tiring to run on 12 hour shifts?

When has the wardroom ever worried about that?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

When has the wardroom ever worried about that?

I'm not the Wardroom, and UFP / StarFleet generally cares more about it's officers.

So what would be optimal in terms of scheduling for maximum performance of it's officers while maintaining general readiness and overall long term growth?

I've listed many options above.
My preference still remains:
4x 6-Hr Shift Sections split amongst 7x Teams per department which gives you a 24-hr primary job work week per person.
In a 39-hr Work Week, that affords 24 hrs on your primary job ~= 61.54% of your weekly work time focused on your primary job.
15 hrs of your week can be spent on "Training / Learning new skills / Cross-Training in a different Job Discipline to increase your proficiency in multiple fields of study / Side Projects / R&D / etc".
That 15 hrs ~= 38.46% of your 39-hr work week spent on self improvement in your various job skills (Primary, or Secondary or Tertiary).

It also means you're "On-Duty" for 4x Days of the week and you're "Off-Duty" for 3x Days of the week from your primary job.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

It also means you're "On-Duty" for 4x Days of the week and you're "Off-Duty" for 3x Days of the week from your primary job.

"Days off" is really more of a civilian/civil service concept.

The crew on Deep Space Nine and similar facilities might follow the sort of pattern you suggest, but for ship deployments tend to avoid "days off", work 7 days a week and give more leave in blocks.

 

[Dumbbell]

The problem is that on one hand we want to think of a starship as a warship rather than a multipurpose transport. On the other hand we want to think of Starfleet as a benevolent charitable organization rather than an advantage-seeking competitor… The two ideas don’t go together. A kind and charitable organization does not operate a fleet of warships unless it is only pretending to be a kind and charitable organization, a hypocrisy that should be quite transparent!

If the ships are actually warships, then all of our ideas of Starfleet prioritizing kindness to its human and alien volunteers become moot. The ships are warships, with a captain and crew that act like it and are proud of it. In that case, efficiency is what would be best rather than charity. Then, when you declare war, your people are already accustomed to the wartime lifestyle. Go ahead and use long shifts. Everyone is on-call 24-hours anyway. If you are not on one duty, you are on another.

Of all the alien members of Starfleet, how many could successfully operate on the same schedule as a human with a 24-hour day? Would it not be better for the majority of them to be together in their own alien unit? That way they could enjoy their own schedule, which may be an advantage to Starfleet. If so, how could we dictate a schedule that works for all?

I don’t think you could dictate Federation-wide what schedule would be most efficient for all infrastructure. It would necessarily be up to the captain and leads to determine what is best for their particular unit under their particular circumstances. Flexibility and understanding the crew, including alien members, heck! what planet you are on, would be the key to success.

Even the mighty Borg cube “enjoyed” necessary and regular shutdown periods of dormancy. It was the most efficient thing for it and its drones to do.

The Federation members are not a Borg Collective, so we cannot expect the same efficiency. They rather value their individuality. Respecting individuality means that there should be no strict adherence to a Federation-wide standard. Rather, each unit would pursue what is best for its particular circumstances in hopes that this would somehow lend a better hand to the Fleet.

Now, in the case of a starship that could “travel” instantaneously from one place to another, it could operate just like a warship, if war were its mission. With no travel time, you would not have crewpersons who are actually passengers waiting to get to the mission to do their thing. With no travel time, you are already there. Therefore, only necessary personnel would even be aboard the ship in the first place, and only necessary superstructures too. Such a ship would not require, swimming pools, lounges, gymnasiums, or even kitchens, or anything to make travel time more bearable. It could essentially be a warship. The bridge could sit right on top of the phaser banks.

But, I like to think of starships as something more than a warship. To make that happen, we need to maintain lengthy travel times. With lengthy travel times, you will have crew who are actually passengers. Therefore, you will always have more people than you need to fill any duty or work station.

It is a ship (a vessel for transporting people or goods), after all.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It is a ship (a vessel for transporting people or goods), after all.

This is the same StarFleet that made the ultra Luxurious Galaxy Class to fit only 1000 people as standard Crew.
StarFleet doesn't do 100% WarShips, ergo the wierd Hybrid between WarShip & Hotel Mariott/Hilton & Smithsonian Science center.

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Personally I would've staffed the same Galaxy Class with at least 10,000 crew instead.
You'd have a dedicated contingent of StarFighter pilots and their support staff, Troop Regiment for internal Ship Security & external landing party deployment, enough basic ship crew for staffing for my 4x 6-Hr Shifts w/ 7x Teams system =D.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think the enormous size of the Galaxy-class was based on having the capacity to carry out medium-scale planetary or space station evacuations if it was far from the nearest starbase, and was "the only ship in the Quadrant." It could probably easily transport 10,000+ evacuees without assistance from other ships. It's also possible that the ship was built with future crew expansion in mind. At the time of TNG, the Galaxy-class was still presumably a fairly new design, less than a decade or so out of the shipyards, and maybe still undergoing refinements from lessons learned in the field. Later Galaxy-class ships could have crews of 5,000 or more, IMO.

If these ships were intended to operate alone in far distant sectors of space, the Starfleet philosophy behind the design might be that it's better to have the extra room and not always need it than to need the extra room just once and not have it.