All notes
Everything here, by subject. Most people arrive with one situation, so the reading paths at the end may be a faster route in.
All 50 notes
Laid out as a board, one column per subject. The columns are different lengths and that means nothing — a section with fourteen notes is not more important than one with three, only more divisible.
The basics
5 notes
Four jobs at once, two of which pull against each other. Publishing earlier is the largest improvement for the least money.
Building the rota
14 notes
Coverage is arithmetic. Allocation is judgement, and it is where the resentment actually comes from.
Running it
13 notes
The weekly work, the six measures worth watching, and the informal goodwill that absorbs everything the rota did not anticipate.
- Swaps and Cover
- When Someone Calls In Sick
- More Than One Site
- How the Rota Reaches People
- The Numbers Worth Watching
- Scheduling and Turnover
- Handling Requests for Time Off
- How Long the Rota Takes to Build
- How Scheduling Goes Wrong
- Talking to People About the Rota
- The First Quarter After a Change
- Who Owns the Schedule
- The Thing You Are Spending
The legal position
7 notes
Around a dozen US jurisdictions now regulate this directly, with a common shape and important exceptions. Elsewhere the constraints come from working time law and contract.
Tools
4 notes
An optimiser does exactly what it is asked. What it is usually asked is cost, subject to coverage, and nothing else.
What not to do
3 notes
Almost all of them transfer uncertainty from the business to the people, invisibly and in small amounts.
Reference
4 notes
The end state as a checklist, the problems no rota resolves, and the routes through this collection.