2-2-3 Schedule Generator

A 2-2-3 schedule is a 14-day rotating shift pattern where you work two days on, two off, three on, then two off, two on and three off. It uses four teams and 12-hour shifts to cover an operation around the clock, and it averages 42 hours a week. Use the 2-2-3 schedule generator above to build your own calendar, or read on for exactly what the pattern feels like to work.

I built the generator because a 2-2-3 grid tells you the shape of the rotation and nothing else. What people actually want to know is which Saturdays they lose, how many hours land in a given fortnight, and whether the overtime is real. That takes a calendar, not a picture.

Not sure a 2-2-3 schedule is your pattern? Compare all the 12 hour shift schedules and take the quiz to find the one that fits.

What Is a 2-2-3 Schedule?

The name is just the rhythm of the shifts. You work two days, then you are off two, then you work three. The following week the pattern inverts, so the three-day run becomes a three-day break and you end up working the days you had off before.

Four teams share the clock. Two cover the day shifts and two cover the nights, and the two teams on each shift work opposite halves of the pattern so that somebody is always on. Each team works seven 12-hour shifts a fortnight, which is 84 hours every two weeks, or an average of 42 hours a week. Over a year that comes to about 183 shifts, roughly 2,196 hours, and 182 days off.

Two things follow immediately from the grid. You never work more than three shifts in a row, and every second weekend is a full three-day weekend. That is 26 three-day weekends a year without touching your leave.

The 14-Day Pattern, Day by Day

Here is a full fortnight for one team, with X for a scheduled shift and a dash for a day off:

• Week one — Monday and Tuesday on, Wednesday and Thursday off, Friday, Saturday and Sunday on
• Week two — Monday and Tuesday off, Wednesday and Thursday on, Friday, Saturday and Sunday off

As one line of 14 days: X X – – X X X – – X X – – –

Then it starts again. The cycle is exactly two weeks, so once it is lined up with the calendar it never drifts. You can work out any date years ahead, which is genuinely useful for booking anything.

How the hours actually land

The 42-hour average is true and slightly misleading, because the fortnight is heavily lopsided:

• Week one — five shifts, 60 hours
• Week two — two shifts, 24 hours

One heavy week, one very light one. That is the trade the pattern makes, and it is also what decides your overtime.

2-3-2 and 3-2-2: The Same Schedule, Different Names

You will see this rotation written as a 2-3-2 work schedule, a 3-2-2 schedule, or a 3-2-2-3 schedule, and people reasonably assume these are different patterns. They are not. They are the same 14-day cycle described from a different starting day.

Start counting on the first of the two-shift runs and it reads 2-2-3. Start on the three-shift run and the same rotation reads 3-2-2. Start elsewhere and you get 2-3-2. The hours, the days off and the coverage are identical in every case; only the day you call day one changes.

The generator has all three as starting points so you can pick whichever matches how your employer writes it, and you will get the same calendar out either way. If your workplace calls it the Pitman schedule, that is the same pattern again, named after the rotation rather than its rhythm.

How Four Teams Cover 24 Hours a Day

Team A works the pattern above on days. Team B works its exact mirror image, also on days, so between them every day shift is staffed. Teams C and D do the same on nights.

Line all four up and each day of the cycle has exactly one team on days and one on nights, with the other two off. That is what makes it a genuine 24/7 schedule rather than a rota with holes in it, and it is why the pattern needs four teams to work. The rotation chart in the generator checks this day by day and will tell you if a change breaks the coverage.

Note what does not happen here: on a standard 2-2-3 nobody swaps between days and nights. If you are hired onto nights, you stay on nights. That is the biggest single difference between this and a rotating pattern like DuPont, and for most people it is the reason to prefer it.

Overtime on a 2-2-3 Schedule

You work about 2,196 hours a year. Under United States federal law, overtime is not averaged across a fortnight. It is worked out inside a fixed seven-day workweek that your employer designates, and hours above 40 in that window earn the premium.

Now put that against the 60-hour and 24-hour weeks. The heavy week produces 20 hours of overtime. The light week produces none, and nothing lets one offset the other. So how much overtime you are paid depends entirely on where your employer draws the seven-day line across a 14-day cycle.

I ran the same rotation and the same hours through all seven possible workweek start days. The annual overtime came out at either about 200 hours or about 520 hours. Same shifts, same year, two and a half times the difference, decided by a scheduling choice you probably never saw made.

It is worth knowing which day your workweek starts. It is a fixed designation your employer has to declare and cannot shuffle week to week to avoid the premium, and it will be in your handbook, your union agreement or on your pay stub. Put it into the pay tab of the generator with your real rate and it will show you which weeks tip over 40 and what all seven options would be worth.

What It Is Like to Work

The good parts

• Twenty-six three-day weekends a year, free
• You are never on more than three shifts in a row
• Fixed shifts, so your sleep pattern can actually settle
• Half the year is a day off — 182 days
• A two-week cycle is easy to hold in your head and predictable years ahead
• The 42-hour average usually means paid overtime rather than unpaid hours
• Days off land midweek as often as at weekends, so appointments and errands get much easier

The hard parts

• The 60-hour week is genuinely heavy, and it comes round every fortnight
• Twelve-hour shifts leave very little of the day once you add the commute and sleep
• Every other weekend is worked in full, both days
• Permanent nights suit some people and grind others down, and switching teams is often hard
• Pay swings between the heavy and light weeks, which is awkward if you are paid weekly
• Three shifts in a row at 12 hours is more tiring than it looks on paper

Is a 2-2-3 Schedule Bad for Your Health?

I am not going to give a medical answer, and anyone who does on a page like this should be read carefully. What is worth knowing is what the concern is actually about.

The health question around 12-hour shifts is mostly about circadian disruption rather than shift length by itself. Night work in general is associated in the occupational health literature with sleep debt, digestive complaints and cardiovascular risk. Where 2-2-3 does comparatively well is that the shifts are fixed. A permanent night worker gets to build one routine and keep it, which rotating patterns make close to impossible.

The practical advice from people who work these patterns for years is consistent: guard sleep as though it is part of the job. Blackout blinds, a fixed wind-down whatever the clock says, caution with caffeine in the back half of a night shift, and treating the day after a three-shift run as recovery rather than errands. If you have an existing heart, sleep or metabolic condition, that is a conversation for your doctor and your occupational health team before you take the job, not after.

2-2-3 Compared With Other 12-Hour Rotations

• DuPont — a 28-day cycle that trades a brutal 72-hour week, with a day-to-night flip in the middle, for seven consecutive days off every month. Bigger reward, much harder middle.
• Panama — the same 2-2-3 rhythm, but days and nights swap every two weeks. Adds rotation to a pattern that otherwise has none.
• Four on, four off — a 16-day cycle that is steadier still, but your days off drift across the week so weekends are never consistent.
• Seven on, seven off — long blocks in both directions, common in offshore and remote work.

If you want stability and regular weekends, 2-2-3 is the strongest of the four. If you want a long block of time away and can absorb one very hard week to get it, DuPont is the one to look at. The generator builds all of them, so you can compare real calendars rather than descriptions.

Who Works a 2-2-3 Schedule

Police departments and emergency dispatch. Hospital departments that run around the clock, especially emergency and critical care. Manufacturing and continuous-process plants. Utilities, water treatment and power generation. Security control rooms, casinos, airports and logistics hubs.

If a job advert mentions 12-hour shifts, four teams, fixed days or nights and every other weekend off, it is a 2-2-3 schedule whatever the advert calls it.

2-2-3 Schedule Template and Calendar

The generator gives you the same rotation in whichever form you need:

• A full-year 2-2-3 schedule calendar, all 12 months colour-coded by shift, or one month at a time
• A rotation chart showing all four teams across the 14-day cycle, with the coverage check and the hours breakdown
• A spreadsheet download that opens in Excel or Google Sheets, one row per day, so you can build your own 2-2-3 schedule template around it
• A calendar file that imports every shift into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook
• A printable black-and-white version for a fridge door or a locker
• A shareable link that reopens the generator with your team and start date already loaded

There is also a crew finder for the problem everyone hits at some point: you know which team you are on but not what date the cycle began. Enter one or two shifts you remember working and it tests every team against every possible start date and tells you which ones fit. And if you are trying to line your days off up with a partner on a different team, the crew compare tab counts exactly how many you share.

FAQ

What Is a 2-2-3 Schedule?

A 2-2-3 schedule is a 14-day shift pattern where you work two days on, two off, three on, then two off, two on and three off. Four teams and 12-hour shifts cover an operation around the clock, with two teams on days and two on nights. Each team works seven shifts a fortnight, which is 84 hours, or an average of 42 hours a week.

How Does a 2-2-3 Schedule Work?

One team works the pattern and a second team works its mirror image on the same shift, so between them every day is staffed. The same arrangement covers nights. Because the cycle is exactly two weeks, the pattern inverts in week two: the three-day run of shifts becomes a three-day break, and the days you had off become working days. You never work more than three shifts in a row.

What Does 2-2-3 Schedule Mean?

The name is simply the rhythm of the shifts: two on, two off, three on. It is a description of the pattern rather than an abbreviation of anything. The same rotation is also called the Pitman schedule after the shift pattern itself.

Is a 2-3-2 Work Schedule the Same as 2-2-3?

Yes. A 2-3-2 work schedule, a 3-2-2 schedule and a 3-2-2-3 schedule are all the same 14-day cycle described from a different starting day. Begin counting on a two-shift run and it reads 2-2-3; begin on the three-shift run and the identical rotation reads 3-2-2. The hours, days off and coverage do not change.

How Many Hours a Week Is a 2-2-3 Schedule?

It averages 42 hours a week, delivered as one 60-hour week of five shifts followed by one 24-hour week of two shifts. Over a year that is about 183 shifts, roughly 2,196 hours and 182 days off.

Do You Get Overtime on a 2-2-3 Schedule?

Usually yes. The 60-hour week sits well above the 40-hour federal threshold and the light week cannot offset it, because overtime is calculated inside a fixed seven-day workweek rather than averaged across the fortnight. How much you are paid depends on which weekday your employer designated as the start of that workweek. On the same rotation, annual overtime works out at either about 200 hours or about 520 hours depending on that single choice.

Do You Get Every Other Weekend Off on a 2-2-3?

Yes, and it is a full three-day weekend from Friday to Sunday when the cycle is aligned to the calendar week. That is 26 three-day weekends a year without using any leave. The trade is that the alternate weekend is worked in full, both days.

Is a 2-2-3 Schedule Good?

It is one of the better 12-hour rotations for stability. The shifts are fixed rather than rotating, you are never on more than three in a row, the cycle is short enough to remember, and half the year is a day off. The costs are a heavy 60-hour week every fortnight, working every other weekend in full, and 12-hour days that leave little else in them. Whether that suits you depends mostly on how well you handle a permanent night shift, if that is the half you land on.

What Is the Difference Between a 2-2-3 and a DuPont Schedule?

Both use four teams on 12-hour shifts and both average 42 hours a week. A 2-2-3 runs a 14-day cycle with fixed shifts and a three-day weekend every fortnight. DuPont runs a 28-day cycle that rotates between days and nights, includes a 72-hour week with a day-to-night flip in the middle, and gives seven consecutive days off every cycle in return. A 2-2-3 is steadier; DuPont delivers a bigger block of time away.

Who Uses a 2-2-3 Schedule?

Police departments and emergency dispatch, hospital departments that run around the clock, manufacturing and continuous-process plants, utilities and power generation, water treatment, security control rooms, casinos, airports and logistics hubs. Anywhere the doors never close and the workload is steady rather than seasonal.

Is a 2-2-3 Schedule Bad for Your Health?

The concern with any 12-hour pattern is circadian disruption more than shift length by itself, and night work in general is associated in occupational health research with sleep debt, digestive complaints and cardiovascular risk. A 2-2-3 does comparatively well because the shifts are fixed, so a night worker can build one sleep routine and keep it rather than resetting it every fortnight. If you have an existing heart, sleep or metabolic condition, discuss it with your doctor and your occupational health team before taking the job.

Can I Get a 2-2-3 Schedule Template?

Yes. The generator exports a spreadsheet with one row per day covering the date, weekday, shift, start and finish time and hours, which opens in Excel or Google Sheets and can be used as the basis for your own 2-2-3 schedule template. There is also a printable year calendar and a calendar file that imports every shift into your phone.