Opens at five, closes at ten, posted on Thursday
Coffee runs early and late, and the schedule swings between the two week to week. An open means a four-something alarm; a close means home near midnight. Both look like ordinary days to anyone reading a normal calendar.
The schedules this actually has to cope with
Freeish is built around these, not around a nine-to-five with the occasional exception.
Opens
In before five for a six o'clock open, which means the evening before is really part of the shift.
Closes
Out an hour after the doors shut, once the machines are clean.
Clopens
Close then open. Between them is sleep, and not much of it.
Peak-only shifts
A short shift stacked over the morning rush, which fragments the day around it.
What it sounds like at home
- “An open means I am asleep by nine and nobody plans for that.”
- “The rota changes weekly and my partner cannot keep up.”
- “A clopen is invisible on a normal calendar and brutal in real life.”
- “I pick up shifts and forget to say.”
- “Nobody knows whether I am around for dinner until the day.”
Where Freeish fits
Import the posted rota from a photo rather than typing it out.
Early nights before an open can go in, so an early bedtime is expected rather than explained.
Picked-up shifts appear the moment you add them.
Everyone at home sees the week rather than asking about it.
One week, start to finish
Kit, café supervisor
- The rota goes up Thursday for the following week.
- Kit photographs it and imports it on the walk home.
- Their flatmate sees three opens and stops planning weeknight things.
- A colleague drops a Saturday close; Kit picks it up and adds it in seconds.
- The clopen is visible, so the Sunday lie-in is not negotiated.
Questions baristas ask
Can I import a photo of the rota on the wall?
Does it work if my rota changes every week?
Can I keep some shifts off it?
Stop being the schedule. Start sharing it.
Now on iPhone — Android coming soon. Free to start. Import a photo of your next schedule and see who stops asking.