AG 2003 03 17 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Cabarrus County Sheriff's Department is proposing a schedule change for those officers that work a swing shift and their divisions are responsible for 24 hour coverage. The schedule that these officers work at this time is as follows: 2nd shift (3:00pm-1 l:00pm) M, T, W, Th, F/OffSat, Sun, Mon/1st slltft (7:00am- 3:00pm) T, W, Th, F, Sat, Sun, M/OffTue, We/3rd shift(1 l:00pm-7:00am) Th, F, Sat, Sun, M, Tu, We/ Off Th, F, Sat, Sun and then start back on 2na shift. On ttus schedule the officers work 8 hours every shift except on Saturday and Sunday when they work 12 hours. The officers work 19 out of 28 days and have one stretch where they have to work 14 out of 16 days and 4 of those fourteen days are 12 hour days. Officers work a total of 172.45 if they work their regular hours and have no late calls and no time off during the 28 day pay period The proposed schedule is a 12 hour shift schedule. The officer will not work any more than 3 days tn a row to give them a break m between shifts. The officers will work 14 out of 28 days and their total hours wd be 171:30 if no ovemme ~s worked or time taken off. The mght shifts will be broken up throughout the month and the time between mght shifts will be a seven day break with a couple day shifts. Each officer will be able to be at home with their family and sleep in their bed at mght for seven days in a row before the next mght shift rolls around. A copy of this schedule is attached. One of the biggest advantages of going to the new schedule is that this schedule will have less of an effect on the body's circadian rhythm, or biological clock On a night shift it usually takes 3 to 4 nights for your body to get used to working at night and sleeping during the day. Thls means that on the schedule now betng used that once an officer's body starts to get used to the night shift by the fourth night, he has three more nights then it is time for the body to change back to a regular day time schedule for sleeping, eating, time with farmly, etc. With the proposed schedule, the officer's body never has a chance for the circadian rhythm to fully change, because three mghts is all they work t>efore they are off and sleeping on a regular(nightly) schedule. Another advantage is that the officer's attitude and mood should unprove greatly and t/us is important when deahng with the public. On the current schedule officers work seven days in a row. Seven days in a row of doing anythmg ~s going to affect attitude and possibly g~ve an "I don't care" attitude to the people having to deal with what offi~zers have to deal with on a day tn day out bas~s. With the proposed schedule, officers will only be expected to work two or three days at a time and then will be off for two or ttu'ee days. This is enough time to give the officers rest and refresh them to be able to come to work with a better attitude and outlook on the job. You do not have a b~g enough break w~th this proposed schedule to lose contact w~th what is going on at the department on a day to day basis so the officers will still be able to keep up with what is going on, but you do have enough of a break to keep officers from getting into a mt which is easy to do on the seven days ~n a row schedule. Getting into a mt could be very dangerous ~n this profession, not just for the officer, but for those around htm. In this day and time manpower avadabihty could be a very important issue. With the proposed schedule, there are two squads of officers that would be off at a time and that g~ves a larger number of officers to pull from in case of an emergency. At the current time there is only one squad off at a time, leaving a less number of officers to pull from m an emergency. W~th two squads off instead of one, there will be more patrol cars to choose from at shift change As w~th any change, there may be some k~nks that will need to be worked out. In the long run, it will be worth it. A schedule change would definitely ~mprove worlang conditions for shift workers and attttude and morale would raise higher level than they already are making the Cabarrus County Sheriff's Department a great place to work and also do business with.