Guest guest Posted December 29, 2002 Report Share Posted December 29, 2002 Our center works 12 hr shifts. Most of us prefer this because we get every other weekend off. The way our schedule is set we never work over 3 days straight unless we voluntarily signed up for overtime. We don't have any forced overtime. Can anyone tell me though, is there a federal or OSHA law/rule that specifies the maximum number of continuous hours a person can work. I've had several officers from different agencies tell me they can't work over 16 hours straight. This may be a state law, but I'm not sure. I've tried searching the Labor Depts. web sight and OSHA but haven't been able to find anything. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it. It would help settle a debate we're having in my department now. Covington, KY PD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 In our comm center, we are starting a new schedule on Jan. 28th, 2003. There will be 10 hour shifts from 07-17, or 17-03 and those 10 hour shifts will be worked on sun thru weds or weds thru sat. There will be 3 12 hour days and one 6 hour day for a total of 42 hours, so we will work either 6 hours on weds and 12 on thurs,fri,sat with sun mon tues off, or will work 12 on sun, mon, tues and 6 on weds with thurs, fri sat off. On the 12 hour days, we work 05-17 or 17-05, also work 07-19 or 19-07 both sides of the week. We have a mandatory OT folder which is used if the next shift coming on is short, however we also have a policy that no one is to work past 12 hours unless a natural disaster occurs or is pending such as a hurricane. Therefore, by working the 12's they can only ask us to work extra if they are short, many of us dont have a problem staying an hour or 2 b/c we work in two hour blocks, but not many stay past that for their own safety since many of us live either an hour away in another county or have to deal with a 45 min to an hour drive in and out. Collier County Sheriffs Office, Naples, FL My opinions are just that, MINE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 Here goes for us: We are a university police department. Small area (in the grand scheme of things) within the city of Burlington, and small parts of South Burlington and Colchester VT. We have about 3,000 living on campus (this includes underclass, graduate, medical school, and married student housing), plus all academic buildings staff/faculty. We have slots for 18 officers; currently have 11 on staff, plus 3 sgts, a captain, a lieutenant (keeping the federal governments reporting guidelines happy under the Clery Act), and a chief; 4 service officers, 5 dispatchers. We have SEVEN patrol openings (anyone wanna elect a cop to move north ???) Anyway. Our officers work a combination of 8's and 10's, depending on where in the schedule they are. Dispatch has 4 on 8's, and the fifth works tens - two evenings and two midnights (to cover myself and the midnight person's days off). He works either 2pm-12pm, or 4pm-2 am, then 8 pm to 6 am, to get his 10's in. It also gives us some flexible time for paperwork or a few comp hours when the brain gets flipped out. Diane G. UVM PD Burlington, VT > > My question is for any and all who would answer unless this has already been > covered recently (then tell me to read the archives How long is a shift > in your dispatch center (a normal shift). Also, how big is your department > and coverage area you dispatch for? We work 8's and 12's. Some have all > 12's (3 shifts per week), and some work two 12 hour shifts and two 8 hour > shifts a week. Some complain constantly that the 12 hour shifts are too long > but I see that many do work 12 hour shifts. So I am going out on my own to > get a feel of what many centers do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 At 01:29 12/30/2002 -0500, asked: <snip> > How long is a shift >in your dispatch center (a normal shift). Dispatchers at my Comm Center are scheduled to work 4 10-hour shifts in each 7 day week (from Sunday to Saturday). We are at critical staffing of 55%, so there is a LOT of overtime cover they provide, both voluntarily (signing up for pre-planned coverage of the holes in the schedule) and on a mandated basis. Most overtime is worked in 2 hour segments, before or after a scheduled shift. On the odd occasion, we may mandate someone to work 3 hours overtime, but we won't make anyone work more than 13 hours at a whack. Some folks voluntarily come in on one of their 3 days off and take a 3, 4, 5, 6 or even 9 hour chunk of time. The two supervisors are the only ones that will work more than 13 hours. I've pulled a couple of 17 hour shifts and quite a few 13 hour ones. We're on a traditional 8-hour shift, 5 days a week (just us two at my Comm Center) and until this month, often worked every one of my days off - maybe 3 hours or maybe 13 or more. Those of y'all who have been subscribers to this list for some time will remember that I suffered my first stress collapse a year ago (December 2001). So, this December, I've been taking better care of myself; mostly through the prompting of my dispatchers! As I work overtime throughout " my " week (and some of those hours are pretty strange, really hard ones to fill), they seem to pull in together and cover schedule holes occurring on my weekends. More than one of them has outright said, " Take your weekends off! You need them; we get 3 days off but you only get two - take them! We'll call you if we absolutely cannot cover it another way. " (I'd been signing up for the slots and they were crossing my name off ...) And for this entire month, I've had all of my days off. I paid attention to my body and called in sick one of my work days when I knew the shifts were covered, and the next day called to say I'd make it in for the four hours I knew were still unfilled on a graveyard shift, and the senior dispatcher said, " No, we've got the first 2 hours covered already and we'll take care of the rest. Stay home, get ALL better and oh.. take your days off TOO. We'll run you ragged NEXT YEAR. " <grin> My " little " Comm Center provides dispatch coverage for the Highway Patrol over four Central California coastal counties. Well, San Benito and Santa Clara aren't " coastal " but Monterey and Santa Cruz counties are... anyway.. it's a rather large chunk o' geography to handle with two radios and four phone consoles; we seldom have more than two phone consoles staffed at a time. My department is the primary PSAP for wireless 9-1-1 calls - mine is just one of 24 Comm Centers operated by the CHP throughout the state. " My " authorized staffing level is 20 dispatchers and we're working with only 12 of them fully trained. (Three vacancies, four trainees, and one dispatcher off on long-term medical leave.) The rest of my department's Comm Centers work a variety of shifts, with most on the traditional, five 8-hour shifts per week. A couple have a mixture of 5/8 and 4/10 shifts, and a very few are on the 4/10 plan, as is mine. Our largest Comm Center is authorized 212 dispatchers, and our smallest one is authorized 6. So, although I work for a much larger Department, my Comm Center is just one of 24. (Well, 25, but that's .... a different story..) We're like little separate entities across the state, and learning what goes on in ONE of 'em won't necessarily tell anybody how the entire department operates. <grin> Hence the disclaimer in my signature line! Happy to be here, proud to serve. Olmstead Communications Supervisor ~on the Central California coastline~ " Not presumed to be an official statement of my employing agency. " Home E-mail: mailto:gryeyes@... http://www.gryeyes.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2002 Report Share Posted December 31, 2002 Our Dispatchers do 10's and Supervisors do 12's. Our 10 hour shifts are overlapping...7a-5p...11a-9p... 5p-3a...9p-7a...2 Dispatchers for each shift on 2 separate rotations. Supervisors do 6a-6p and 6p-6a on 2 separate rotations. I prefer 12's. Some people adamantly HATE to work 12's others love 12's. OT is posted ahead of time for volunteers...if no one volunteers by the " pull date " on the sign up sheet or some one calls in sick then we " Order " OT to be filled. We keep track of each individual employee's OT in a book. When someone calls in sick the Supervisor calls the person with the lowest OT hours first and on down the list accordingly...The first Dispatcher to answer the phone gets " ordered " for the OT. (except at the beginning of the year, all employees go back to zero OT, then the most senior Dispatcher gets " offered " the OT first untill everyone in the Center has aquired some OT) Supervisors cover OT for Supervisors and Dispatchers for Dispatchers. I know, I know...it is confusing. Most times it works, except if we are going through a shortage and no one answers the phone as is the case right now...Dispatchers cannot be ordered if there is less than 8 hours in between their shift and the OT...and they cannot be ordered for more than 15 hours at any given time...but it has happened when absolutely no one can be reached. Most times people will volunteer to take the time for the " ordered " Dispatcher...the person " ordered " can ask anyone to take the OT but it is the " ordered " employee's responsibility after they have been " orderd " Is that clear as mudd for everyone????? Case Dispatch Supervisor Grand Traverse County 911 Northern Michigan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2002 Report Share Posted December 31, 2002 In a message dated 12/31/2002 3:34:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, TARABUL911 writes: > Our Dispatchers do 10's and Supervisors do 12's. > Our 10 hour shifts are overlapping...7a-5p...11a-9p... > 5p-3a...9p-7a...2 Dispatchers for each shift on 2 separate > rotations I forgot to add... Population 75,000-80,000 minimum staffing of 3 dispatchers (most of the time except off times 3a-7a) Optimum staffing of 12 full time Dispatcher and 4 Full time Supervisors...as of now we are down 3 full time Dispatchers...we have 3 in training and one on maternity leave. Case Dispatch Supervisor Grand Traverse County 911 Northern Michigan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 9, 2003 Report Share Posted January 9, 2003 Some complain constantly that the 12 hour shifts are too long but I see that many do work 12 hour shifts. So I am going out on my own to get a feel of what many centers do. ~~~~~~~~~~ This is an answer to an old question, but at least I didn't answer things from 12/18 which is how far I was behind (can anyone say 400 messages??). We work four 12 hour days and then have 4 days off. I love this schedule. I work fulltime and yet I have 4 full days off to be mom and so it feels more like a part-time job in my head. Shifts are 6AM to 6PM. We have one all-day shift, one all-night shift and two swing shifts that work 2 days and then 2 nights. Its a complicated schedule but works great and I've heard great things about working each shift. I'm training on day shift but for sure will get assigned to either a night or swing shift as there is a waiting list to get on the day shift. Debbie Christmoms - the chat group for Christian moms http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christmoms " Being confident in this, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. " ~~ Phil 1:6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 9, 2003 Report Share Posted January 9, 2003 We work four 12 hour days and then have 4 days off. ~~~~~~~~ And I forgot to add that this is Prince County, Virginia, in the DC burbs. We have a minimum of 3 calltakers, 3 police dispatchers and 2 fire dispatchers on duty at any time. Plus supervisors and a Fire Lt. Population??? Lots! We dispatch for the entire county except for two small cities located in the middle of the county but we can request and respond to requests for mutual aide. We also dispatch for 4 small towns with their tiny police departments. Debbie Christmoms - the chat group for Christian moms http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christmoms " Being confident in this, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. " ~~ Phil 1:6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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