Open Shifts – Post Shifts With Nobody Assigned

An open shift is a shift with no person. The need is in the schedule, but who takes it is decided later — by those who actually can and want to.

Why open shifts

The alternative is ringing round, or assigning the shift to someone and hoping. An open shift makes the need visible to everyone at once, and whoever wants extra hours comes to you.

The shift also counts in the schedule straight away: it appears in the grid, comes along in the printout and is included when you copy the period. The staffing need does not vanish just because nobody is assigned.

Posting an open shift

1. Click an empty cell in the schedule
2. In the panel that opens, choose Open shift at the top of the staff list
3. Fill in times, break and station as usual — or pick a base shift and everything is filled in
4. To control who sees the shift, choose a Required role
5. Save

The Required role field only appears once you have chosen Open shift. Leave it empty and the shift is shown to the whole team.

Targeting the shift at a role

An open kitchen shift shown to every server is noise. Set Required role to Chef and only the chefs see it.

Staff can also filter themselves: the portal has an Only my role button, on by default for anyone with a role. If they see no open shifts with the filter on but know some exist, they can switch it off.

Staff only see the shift after publishing

An open shift sitting as a draft is invisible to everyone. Open shifts appear in the portal only once you have published the period.

That is the same rule as for every other shift, and it is deliberate: you should be able to finish the schedule before staff start requesting pieces of it.

How staff request a shift

The staff portal has an Open shifts tab. It lists every published open shift with date, time and the name of the base shift or station, with the base shift's colour as a marker.

The employee clicks Request shift. The button changes to Requested, and they can change their mind by clicking again as long as you have not answered.

Once you answer they see the outcome on the shift itself: Assigned or Declined. A rejection therefore does not vanish without trace — they know you saw the request and said no, and do not have to guess.

Approving or declining requests

If there are pending requests, a button appears in the schedule toolbar with the count, for example 3 requests. Click it.

The Open shift requests dialog lists each request with who asked, which shift it concerns and when it came in — oldest first. Two buttons per row: Approve or Decline.

Approving assigns the shift to that person immediately. It is no longer open, and disappears from everyone else's list.

The button only appears for those allowed to edit the schedule. If you can only read the schedule you do not see it, since you could not have answered anyway.

Open shifts in copying and printing

Copy week has an Include open shifts checkbox, ticked by default. The need therefore travels with you as you build the next period. To copy only the staffed schedule, untick it.

The printout has its own section for open shifts. Those rows are often exactly why the schedule goes up in the staff room.

Tips

• Post open shifts early. The more notice, the better the chance somebody wants them
• Use base shifts. An open shift with a name and colour is easier to recognise than 17:00–23:00
• Set the required role when it matters. Without it the whole team gets a notification about a shift most of them cannot take
• Answer quickly. Whoever requested a shift is planning their week around your answer