Rota (schedule)

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See also: Timetable

A rota is a timetable showing when certain things are going to be done during a given period. This is cycled to the next period as a circular system of periods. A good example would be the rotas used in staff shift work or for school lesson times which normally has a weekly cycle.

Although there is a cycle of one period to the next, it is not always the same every week because of the alterations in the system. This is why there are normally several sets of periods.

  • Rolling rota

This is where a period or several concurrent periods follow one after the other in a repeating cycle. This is acceptable when there is a set system that is not likely to change and a good example of that would be the bus time-tables etc

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[edit] Staff rota

When people work at hours that are not set because of the job they do, they will need to accommodate continuously to all the other peers that they work alongside. This is useful in jobs like care, prison service, hospitals, fire and emergency service, rescue workers and police where there is continuous stand by needed 24/7.

There is a lot of negotiation needed to keep the rota stable; but generally because other people can be too busy, not understanding to others or too selfish, it can lead to a compromise in its stability and people have to stretch their abilities to make things fit. But because this is very hard to achieve, it can mean that there is a continuous battle against their peers to make ends meet.

  • Night shift

This is where the staffs are awake during a shift with no sleep all night long. But because they have to do daily things like shopping, using the bank, going out with their families; it will mean that their daytime and night time sleep rhythm is impossible to sustain and they have no sleep rhythm anymore. This can lead to insomnia, sleepiness, feeling confused, too tired, and irritable alongside sleepiness on waking up that can be deeply unpleasant for some people; this is because of a disrupted Circadian rhythm and that can effect their driving and is very dangerous as an accident may occur.

  • Sleep in

This is when the staffs sleep over at work. But they normally are not provided with their own bed clothes and bathing equipment and will need to bring their own. The whole point of this sort of shift is so that they can respond on call without working continuous work all night. This is something that is best combined with the late shifts (if applicable) because this does not causing unnecessary interruptions in places such as child care environments and is better for the staff as they have to wind down to go to sleep. It is not advisable for people who may have a habit of waking up late, because of having to get up at a set time.

  • Late and early shifts

There is often and early and a late shift which is followed by the sleep-in or night shift. But these systems do not always work this way. Shifts may be more than 16-24 hours long and run differently for different purposes, but this is generally how shifts are run. The late and the early are the periods in which people do awake and it generally the most active part of the work that they do.

  • Double and concurrent shifts

This is where people have to work more than one shift at a time and is very much a normal thing in many forms of shift work. There can be several shifts that happen one after the other and is something that can lead to exhaustion and is often the result of the team/teams being short staffed.

  • Cover

Because there is short staffing and problems with shift negotiation, the result can be that there is gaps left behind and one method to deal with this gap is to persuade someone to fill in that gap, or you can employ someone to fill in, but they are often more expensive and come from organisations that provide cover such as agency staff and those people you will not know. This is a problem that can lead to arguments with the peers as no one can completely and adequately decide who is going to work when. Often people are somewhat obliged to volunteer to cover while others do so without having to be persuaded. This is something that is nearly always a problem and is often why the rotas are rearranged; even the rearranging leads to conflict which in turn leads to more rearranging still and so on, so co-operation is vital.

  • Annual leave and sickness

This is where people take time off, which is normally booked unless there are sick and is normally a serious problem because this throws out the rotas completely and they have to be rearranged once again. The fact that the rota has to be arranged shows that it is a good idea for people to give warning in advance to say that they are going to leave if they can because of the chaos that can result if they don't.

  • Swapping

This is a move that is made to allow someone to have time off, but this is at the expense of another shift to compensate the move. This is a method used in negotiation and has proved to be very useful as long as people are prepared to agree on it.

  • Hand-over

This is where staffs exchange information to another set of staff or a single staff member whom is working on the next shift. Normally, there is a set of records that they may have to show to the other person or/and there is procedure needed for the exchange of information. In many cases, the staff may exchange small talk in this period, but this is not always the case. There can be serious human rights issues in regards to people such as children and patients etc being involved in handovers that may be about them which is often only partly negotiable.

[edit] The rota at school

There is a table in which there is lessons scheduled and can follow a 1, 2 or more week system that is in the form of a rolling rota. This is something that is employed to allow the student to recall where they should be when. It is not something that would be employed in primary schools because students normally stay in a single room with a single teacher for that year. However in the high schools, the rooms change with every lesson given and this would mean that there is rota of the lessons plans.

Often in the school, different children would need to attend different lessons because of being part of an arranged group and/or being in a different year or grade.

  • Double lessons

This could be arranged often because there is extra time needed in order do a lecture in the lesson or it could be for convenience or co-incidence. There are not many double lessons arranged normally.

  • Break time and lunch, arrival and departure, etc

The lessons are fitted around these special times, but it can lead to shortening of some lessons because each period is not a set amount of time per period. There is break-time, lunch-time, home-time and arrival time and usually an assembly (something that can slice off more time in a period). School times and schedules vary from one school to another.

[edit] College rota

This is something that is mapped out quite randomly in the sense that one lesson can have an interaction with the other and they can cross-over and there is no way to negotiate this. It is possible to go to one college and then another; however this may be inconvenient for the students and will waste more time for travelling.

The years start differently at college as it does in universities, but this is something that can change depending on the subject studied at the time.

[edit] Shared responsibility rota

This is often made with people that have problems with negotiating when they are going to take part in particular activities that they do not want to do. Good examples are washing up, vacuuming and washing the car. It can be because some people are addicted to working and are not allowing others to work as well and others whom are too lazy to take part in work need to be given a fair amount of work. Although this system is designed to be fair, it can break down when there is selfishness, misunderstanding, laziness, lethargy and excessive sleepiness, hypersomnia or inconsistency. This often leads to conflict.

It is possible to use people’s talents and good abilities to do an equal quantity of work each rather than having to do exactly the same jobs to avoid as much arguments as possible. This could be partly because some people hate washing up and like cleaning windows for example. It is easy to assume that no one likes doing house hold tasks, but there are many people whom claim to enjoy doing just that and often pick up after everyone else too much and leave others to be too lazy and neglectful.

It also is important to recognise that there is never often a perfect solution to this sort of problem, so a lot of work and patience is needed.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.