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Work Shift Definitions

When you define a concurrent manager, you assign one or more work shifts to it. Work shifts determine when the manager operates. You define work shifts using the Work Shifts form.

See:

Work Shifts

Work Shift by Manager Report

Work Shifts Report

For example, you can define work shifts such as:

You can define a work shift to run during the night, when most or all of your employees are at home asleep, and are not using their terminals. For example, you can define a work shift as:

You can define a work shift to run twenty-four hours a day on a certain day or days of the week, or on a specific date. For example, you can define a work shift as:

You can define work shifts to use only on special occasions. For example, you can define a work shift named "Inventory" to use when your company is conducting an inventory.

Disabling a work shift

If you define a period of time as a work shift, but do not necessarily want to use the work shift, you can:

Work Shifts and Hours of the Day

Work shifts can run twenty-four hours a day, from midnight till the next midnight. In military time this is defined as:

Using work shifts to run through midnight

The military time clock for a twenty-four period starts and stops at midnight.

If you do not want a work shift to run twenty-four hours a day, but you do want to run programs continuously past 12:00 am, you must define two work shifts:

For example, you want to run some data-intensive programs during the night, when most of your employees are away from the job site. You define two work shifts which you assign to this manager.

Overlapping Work Shifts - Priority Levels

If you assign overlapping work shifts to a concurrent manager, the work shift with the more specific time period takes effect for the overlapping time period. For example, a work shift for July 4 overrides a work shift from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Monday through Friday.

Table 1 - 12 presents a descending list of priority levels for overlapping work shifts. A work shift with a specific date and range of times has the highest priority. The "Standard" work shift has the lowest priority.

Overlapping Work Shift Priorities

Priority Work Shift Definition Example
1 Specific date and range of times April 15, 1994 8:00am-5:00pm
2 Specific date and no range of times April 15, 1994
3 Range of days and range of times Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm
4 Range of days and no range of times Monday-Friday
5 Range of times and no date and no range of days 8:00am-5:00pm
6 Standard work shift. No date, days, or time defined. Standard work shift is 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Table 1 - 12. (Page 2 of 2)

Overlapping Work Shifts with the same priority

When you have overlapping work shifts that have the same level of priority, the work shift with the largest target processes takes effect.

For example, you have two work shifts with a range of days and a range of times. You have a "Weekday" work shift from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Monday through Friday with 4 target processes.

You also have a "Lunch" work shift from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on Monday through Friday with 8 target processes.

The "Lunch" work shift takes effect from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm (Mon.-Fri.) because it has the larger number of target processes.

See Also

Defining Managers and their Work Shifts

Using Work Shifts to Balance Processing Workload

Using Time-Based Queues

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