The ones nobody imposed
Inherited numbers, shift patterns built for demand that has gone, and rules whose author has left.
Three on Nights Because There Have Always Been Three
How a staffing number survives the reason for it, the archaeology that finds the original decision, and what to do when the number turns out to be right anyway.
The Shift Pattern Built for Demand That Has Gone
How to tell whether a pattern still matches the work, the simplest comparison that shows it, and why demand shifts are almost never followed by pattern changes.
Rules Whose Author Has Left
What happens to a rota rule when the person who made it goes, why the rule hardens rather than fading, and the handover question that prevents the whole category.
The Rota Template Nobody Has Opened
How a spreadsheet or a system configuration becomes the organisation's real rota policy, what is hiding in one, and how to read it without a project.
Rounding, Habit and the Half-Hour Nobody Questions
The small conventions that shape a rota without ever being decided, where they come from, and which of them are worth touching.
What the Software Decided
How a scheduling system becomes a source of constraints in its own right, which of its rules are real, and what to do when the tool and the policy disagree.
Inherited Numbers
Why every number in a rota should carry a date, how to run a numbers audit in an afternoon, and what to do with the ones that turn out to have no source.