Five shifts on, then three days off, on an eight-day cycle. Enter your hourly rate to see average weekly hours, annual hours and gross pay, and how the pattern sits against the 48-hour limit.
Open the free rota maker with the eight-day cycle laid out for the next four weeks: five 8-hour shifts on and three off, with two teams so someone is on every day, and the hours per person and per day totalled as you go. No account needed to build it. Sign up to print or download it and the rota comes with you.
Cycle length
8 days
Average week (8h shifts)
35 hours
Annual hours (8h shifts)
1,825
The pattern runs on an eight-day cycle: five shifts, then three days off. Because eight days is one more than a week, each new run starts one weekday later than the last. A run that starts on a Monday is followed by one that starts on a Tuesday, then a Wednesday, and so on. The pattern comes back to its starting weekday after seven cycles, or 56 days.
In those 56 days a worker does 35 shifts. On 8-hour shifts that is 280 hours over eight weeks, an average of 35 hours a week and about 1,825 hours a year. Over a year they work about 228 days, against 260 on a Monday-to-Friday week.
| Shift | Average week | A year | 48-hour limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 hours | 35h | 1,825 | Under the limit |
| 10 hours | 43h 45m | 2,281 | Under the limit, with 4h 15m to spare |
| 12 hours | 52h 30m | 2,738 | Over 48: needs a written opt-out |
The 48-hour limit. On 8 or 10-hour shifts the pattern sits under the weekly limit. On 12-hour shifts it averages 52.5 hours, and averaging over 17 weeks does not help, because every week averages the same. Anyone on the 12-hour version needs a signed opt-out, and can withdraw it.
Daily rest. Workers need 11 hours off in a row between shifts. If the five shifts rotate between earlies and lates, the change from a late to an early is where the 11 hours usually goes missing.
Night workers.If the pattern includes nights, a night worker's normal hours should average no more than 8 in 24, and they must be offered a free health assessment.
Booking leave in days is unfair on this pattern. A week off can cost four shifts or five, depending on where it falls in the cycle.
Track entitlement in hours instead. Statutory leave is 5.6 weeks, so a 35-hour average week gives 196 hours of paid leave a year on 8-hour shifts, or 294 hours on 12-hour shifts. Take off the length of each shift as it is booked.
Ourpro rata holiday calculatordoes the same sums for part-timers and mid-year starters.
Five-on-three-off is used where a site runs every day and needs a steady team on each shift: manufacturing lines, warehouses, contact centres and security contracts. It gives three days off together every cycle, which staff value, at the cost of days off that never stay on the same weekdays.
Covering every day takes two teams on 8-hour day shifts, and more if you also run lates or nights.
Publish the rota to your team's phones, let staff clock in against their shifts, and send approved hours to Xero, QuickBooks or a CSV. Leave can be booked in hours, so the cycle never distorts anyone's holiday. £3 per employee per month, free for 14 days.
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