Southern Swing Schedule Calendar 2026–2027
The Southern Swing schedule is a 8-hour shift rotation: 7 day shifts, 2 off, 7 swing (evening) shifts, 2 off, 7 night shifts, then 3 off, repeating every 28 days. Each crew works 21 of every 28 days, about 273.8 shifts and 2,190 hours a year, or an average of 42 hours a week. Also called: rotating 8-hour shift schedule, 7-2-7-2-7-3 rotation.
Southern Swing schedule generator and printable calendar
Day 1 of the cycle is the first shift in the pattern table below. The .ics file adds every shift in the months shown to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook; nothing is uploaded. Copy link saves your crew, start date and months in the link. Different pattern or hours? Use the custom shift schedule generator.
The rotation, crew by crew
| Crew | Mo 1 | Tu 2 | We 3 | Th 4 | Fr 5 | Sa 6 | Su 7 | Mo 8 | Tu 9 | We 10 | Th 11 | Fr 12 | Sa 13 | Su 14 | Mo 15 | Tu 16 | We 17 | Th 18 | Fr 19 | Sa 20 | Su 21 | Mo 22 | Tu 23 | We 24 | Th 25 | Fr 26 | Sa 27 | Su 28 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew A | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | – | – | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | – | – | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | – | – | – |
| Crew B | Night | Night | Night | Night | – | – | – | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | – | – | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | – | – | Night | Night | Night |
| Crew C | Swing | Swing | – | – | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | – | – | – | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | – | – | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing |
| Crew D | – | – | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | Swing | – | – | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | Night | – | – | – | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day | Day |
Three 8-hour shifts (day, swing and night) cover the clock, and four crews start the 28-day cycle a week apart, so on any day one crew works each shift and one is off. Every crew works the same number of day, swing and night shifts. Weekly hours vary between 32 and 56 (an average of 42), depending on where each 7-shift run falls in your workweek. A few sites use other day orders under the same name (for example, nights before swings), so check your roster.
Shifts stay at 8 hours and everyone shares the evening and night work. The catch is three changes of sleep pattern every 28 days, with only two days off between some runs.
Hours and days off
- Cycle length: 28 days
- Shifts per cycle: 21 (8 hours each)
- Average hours per week: 42
- Shifts per year: about 273.8 (2,190 hours)
- Longest run of shifts: 7; longest break: 3 days
Weekly hours and overtime on the Southern Swing schedule
Crew A's hours aren't the same every week. Say its cycle starts on Monday, October 5, 2026 and the payroll week runs Sunday through Saturday. Then the 4 weeks before the pattern repeats come to 48, 40, 40 and 40 hours. Federal overtime is time and a half for anything past 40 in a payroll week, which works out to 8 hours of overtime per 4 weeks and about 104 in a year. Move the start of the payroll week, or start the crew on another weekday, and you'll get a different split.
Crew A gets 1 full weekend off (Saturday and Sunday both free) in those 4 weeks. Taking 2 shifts as vacation in the right spot gives 5 days in a row away from work.
The overtime calculator works out the pay for any single week.
Southern Swing schedule in Excel or Google Sheets
In Excel or Google Sheets, put crew A's first day in cell B1 and a column of dates from A2 down. This formula in B2, filled down, shows the shift letter (D day, N night, S swing) or a dash for a day off:
=MID("DDDDDDD--SSSSSSS--NNNNNNN---",MOD(A2-$B$1,28)+1,1)
The text in quotes is one character per day of the 28-day cycle. For crew B, which starts 7 days later, subtract 7 more inside the MOD, as in MOD(A2-$B$1-7,28). MOD gives a result from 0 up to 27 in both programs, even for dates before the start date.
Southern Swing schedule questions
How does the Southern Swing schedule work?
Every crew runs the same 28-day cycle (7 day shifts, 2 off, 7 swing (evening) shifts, 2 off, 7 night shifts, then 3 off, repeating every 28 days). The crews start it on different days, and that's how the site stays covered.
How many hours a week is the Southern Swing schedule?
It averages 42 hours a week, since each crew works 21 shifts of 8 hours in every 28 days. Single weeks can come out higher or lower than the average.
How many days a year do you work on a Southern Swing schedule?
About 273.8 shifts, which comes to 2,190 hours over a year.
What is the difference between the Pitman, Panama and DuPont schedules?
All three use four crews on 12-hour shifts. Pitman is the 2-2-3 pattern over 14 days with each crew on fixed days or nights; Panama is the same 2-2-3 pattern with crews swapping between days and nights; DuPont is a 28-day cycle that mixes day and night blocks and ends with 7 days off in a row.
Related pages
Cite this page
APA: ClockTotals. (2026, October 15). Southern Swing Schedule Calendar 2026–2027. https://clocktotals.com/shift-schedule/southern-swing/
MLA: “Southern Swing Schedule Calendar 2026–2027.” ClockTotals, 15 Oct. 2026, clocktotals.com/shift-schedule/southern-swing/.
Link (HTML): <a href="https://clocktotals.com/shift-schedule/southern-swing/">Southern Swing Schedule Calendar 2026–2027</a>