They try to call or offer it to the "Man with fewest overtime hours" first. Then it goes up the list from there. But usually its just tag your it.

 

To me, that is just the way it goes with plant work. You end up on call, a LOT!
Due to cost of benefits, companies want to keep the head count low, which means the employees they do have must often work too much overtime and be on call without making a dime.
There is no such thing as a good rotating shift schedule. But some are not as bad as others, and your personal lifestyle and hobbies have a lot to do with which schedule fits you best.

 

I have worked and have buddies at plants who do not even have an on call list. My favorite was you put your name on calendar for days you want off, Tuesday or Wednesday the OT list came out for the following week. The shift going on long change got first chance at signing up for OT shifts, next the shift on short change got a chance... After that low man on long change got forced out if there were any uncovered shifts.... Sick or emergency call offs were covered by whoever wanted it that was off, with low man getting forced out if know body took it.... If you failed to put it on the calendar you were required to get your shift covered or you better be at work.....

I have no problem with shift work I just know there is a better way than being on call 6 months out of the year....

 

I have no problem with shift work I just know there is a better way than being on call 6 months out of the year....

Oh, in many ways I loved shift work; particularly early on and fishing in the middle of the week. But if you happen to work for a place that is understaffed, no magic schedule will change anything. Later in my career, the company reduced head count so much that fishing wasn't possible even on off days because I would not have been able to reach the plant in time from my fishing grounds if they called me.

 

They fill our overtime on Thursdays . It goes to the person with the fewest ot hours on the sign up list.. If no one signed up it is offered from lowest ot hours up until everyone says no .. Then low man is stuck .. If someone calls in then they start at the bottom of the list and call everyone if no one answers the on call guy has to come out .. We are on call for 3 weeks a year .. On call guy only has to answer between 4 and 6 am and pm .. If some one calls off on a Holliday and they weren't sick the day before we return the favor when they are on call. Most of us like extra money so we don't have trouble filling ot .. We average 600 hrs a year on my unit ..

 

They fill our overtime on Thursdays . It goes to the person with the fewest ot hours on the sign up list.. If no one signed up it is offered from lowest ot hours up until everyone says no .. Then low man is stuck .. If someone calls in then they start at the bottom of the list and call everyone if no one answers the on call guy has to come out .. We are on call for 3 weeks a year .. On call guy only has to answer between 4 and 6 am and pm .. If some one calls off on a Holliday and they weren't sick the day before we return the favor when they are on call. Most of us like extra money so we don't have trouble filling ot .. We average 600 hrs a year on my unit ..

That's the way we did it at my last plant.
My current plant does it very similar. Lowest OT hours gets the call first.

 

Is this a union job?

 

No sir, non union plant

 

OT

not sure how many people yall have on schedule, but yall could designate one person on their long change to be on call for the entire 7 days. So if you have 5 people on shift you would be on call 1 week( long change) every 5 months. It sucks when you're on call but the other 4 months are pretty good.

 

not sure how many people yall have on schedule, but yall could designate one person on their long change to be on call for the entire 7 days. So if you have 5 people on shift you would be on call 1 week( long change) every 5 months. It sucks when you're on call but the other 4 months are pretty good.

I brought this idea up as well, thanks for your reply... On call for 3-4 weeks out of entire yr is better than being on call for 6 months out of the yr...

 

Where I work we have an overtime list. You sign up if you want some and person with lowest OT hours gets the overtime. If nobody signs the list, person with lowest hours gets stuck. This doesn't happen very often if properly staffed.

Basically OT is filled when the schedule comes out on Thursday. Volunteers first and low hour persons next. Fair and easy. Right now it doesn't matter how many hours you have, understaffed positions equal lots of OT!

We don't have to be on call, that's the beauty! If you don't wanna work when your off, don't answer your phone!

 

Where I am at we rotate 2 people on call for all days off. We build and color code a calendar at the begining of the year so you know well in advance when you are on call. When your not on call you are not obligated to answer or come out. I can pm you a copy of our shift on call calendar and better show you what I mean. In my opi ion it works out well.

 

I had crews for years at AT&T we had a red line system which offered from lowest to highest. If no one took it the lowest was forced but everyone that was offered and turned it down was red lined for the amount of time the call out guy worked. It kept the hours close and kept someone from turning it down all year and then taking it all at the end of the year when the holiday bills stacked up. Fairest way I ever saw to keep it even. Good luck, this can be a tough situation when you're short handed.

 

Overage/Callout

I worked the "DuPont" rotation for 8 years at a papermill. Our schedule was posted weekly, we did not have an on call status, and we did not track OT for each person.

If OT was needed to cover a known vacancy, the "short off"man for that post position was scheduled. If the "short off" man wanted to give his OT away it was his reasonability to find someone. This could be another "short off" man that was post qualified or the "long off" man for that post or any "long off" post qualified.

If OT was not known(emergency/unexpected) the "short off" man was called first, if he did not answer or refused the callout, then any post qualified "short/long" man could be called.

The supervisor was only required to call the "short off" man first, then he could call any one post qualified. Most of the time he knew who were the OTH's (OVER TIME HOGS) and he would make one more call and the post would be filled.

Long changes were treated like the Holy Grail and they did everything possible to keep from scheduling people in on their long changes.

There was only one shift/day that the "long off" man was scheduled, it was the day in the middle of the long change. This was due to the shift changes between the other 3 shifts.

We never had a problem filling OT, we were never required to be on-call, and we never had a problem getting or giving away OT.

We also started our 4 day lights on Sunday unlike the Chemical plats that started on Monday, this enabled us to have at lease one day off on the 2 work weekends.

If this is unclear Pm me so that we can discuss in more detail.

 

I wouldn't want to work somewhere that the supervisor can play favorites with the ot ..

 

We always had a SRO ( special relief operator ) he would fill in for vacation , unless it was short notice and was already covering a shift. then it went to the low hour person. Oh yea he is paid $1.00 extra per hour.