For dispatchers

The rotation that keeps the radio staffed, made legible at home

Dispatch runs every hour of every day, so the rotation exists to cover the console rather than to fit around anyone's life. Add mandatory overtime when the centre is short and the published rotation stops being the whole story.

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The schedules this actually has to cope with

Freeish is built around these, not around a nine-to-five with the occasional exception.

Rotating twelves

Days and nights in blocks, with the change-over week that belongs to neither.

Pitman or similar

Two on, two off, three on — a fortnightly cycle that gives every other weekend off and confuses everyone who does not work it.

Mandatory overtime

Held over because the next shift is short. Not optional, and not predictable.

Holiday coverage

The console does not close, so holidays are a rota rather than a given.

What it sounds like at home

“I get mandated and my family finds out when I do not come home.”
“The rotation gives me every other weekend and nobody remembers which.”
“Nights mean I am asleep through the part of the day everyone else uses.”
“Holidays get assigned and my family plans as though they are mine.”
“Explaining a Pitman rotation to my in-laws has never once worked.”

Where Freeish fits

Set the rotation once and it keeps generating, weekends included.

Mandated overtime is one edit that everyone following sees immediately.

Sleep after a night block can be an event, which is the only way anyone knows to leave you alone.

Family see days rather than a cycle they have to work out.

One week, start to finish

Rosa, 911 dispatch

Rosa sets her Pitman rotation once.
Her family stop asking which weekend she has off — it is on the calendar.
She gets mandated for four hours and extends the shift in seconds.
The night block shows her sleep window, so the house stays quiet.
Christmas cover is visible in October, which is when her mother plans.

Questions dispatchers ask

Does it handle a Pitman or 2-2-3 rotation?

Yes. Set the pattern once and it repeats forward, so every other weekend stays correct without you re-entering it.

What about being mandated at short notice?

Extend the shift. Everyone following you sees it straight away, which is usually faster than sending a message.

Can I keep the centre out of it?

There is nothing about your workplace in Freeish beyond what you type. Times are the point.

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.