The Pitman Schedule (2-2-3) Explained: Every Other Weekend Off
If you've ever been handed a schedule that reads "2-2-3" and told "you get every other weekend off," that's the Pitman. It shows up under a few names — the 2-2-3, the "every other weekend" schedule, sometimes lumped in with the Panama — and it runs a huge share of the 24/7 world: police patrol, EMS, 911 dispatch, security, and plenty of continuous-operation plants.
Here's the honest version up front: the Pitman is one specific pattern, but your exact start days, whether you rotate between days and nights, and where overtime kicks in all come from your own agency. Treat this as a map of how the schedule is built — not a substitute for your department's policy or contract.
The building block: 12-hour shifts and four teams
The Pitman covers a 24/7 operation with 12-hour shifts and four teams (often two on days, two on nights). At any hour, one day team and one night team are working, and the other two are off. What makes it "Pitman" is how those on and off days are grouped across a repeating two-week (14-day) cycle.
Over that fortnight, every person works 7 days and is off 7 days — but not evenly split week to week, which is the whole point.
The 2-2-3 pattern, day by day
The name is the pattern. Across 14 days you work in blocks of 2, then 3, then 2, with off days in between:
- Days 1–2: on
- Days 3–4: off
- Days 5–7: on (three in a row)
- Days 8–9: off
- Days 10–11: on
- Days 12–14: off (three in a row)
Then it repeats. Count it up: 2 + 3 + 2 = seven shifts in the two weeks. And notice the ceiling — you're never scheduled more than three days in a row. That single fact is a big part of why so many agencies pick it: three 12s is tiring, but it's a wall you can see coming, not an open-ended grind.
Where "every other weekend off" comes from
Line that pattern up against a calendar and something nice falls out. If your three-on block lands on Friday–Saturday–Sunday one week, then two weeks later — because the blocks shift — you get that same Friday–Saturday–Sunday completely off. So one weekend you're working the whole thing, and the next you have a full three-day weekend with nothing on it.
For shift workers who spend years watching everyone else's Saturdays happen without them, a guaranteed three-day weekend every other week is the Pitman's headline feature. It's predictable enough to book a trip around months ahead.
Fixed or rotating: the version that changes everything
Two agencies can both say "we run Pitman" and mean very different lives:
- Fixed Pitman: you're always on days, or always on nights. Your body keeps one rhythm. Easier to sleep, harder to swap onto if you wanted the other shift.
- Rotating Pitman: teams trade days and nights — often flipping at a set point in the cycle. You get variety and everyone shares the night load, but your sleep has to reset each time you flip.
Neither is "the" Pitman. If you're weighing a job that uses it, the fixed-versus-rotating question matters more to your daily life than the 2-2-3 itself.
How the hours actually add up
Because you work seven 12-hour shifts per fortnight, the Pitman averages 42 hours a week — but it gets there unevenly. One week you work three shifts (36 hours), the next you work four (48 hours), and it alternates.
That "short week / long week" swing is worth knowing before payday surprises you: your check and your free time both breathe in a two-week rhythm, not a weekly one. It's not more total work than a lot of rotations — it's the shape that's different.
Where overtime and the exact rules come from
That 42-hour average is exactly why overtime on a Pitman rarely tracks a plain 40-hour week. Depending on your role, you might fall under a public-safety work-period provision (the kind that measures overtime across a multi-week period instead of a flat 40), or a standard weekly rule, or a union contract that spells out its own thresholds and how shift trades count.
None of that is safe to guess at. The real answers live in:
- Your agency's policy or general orders, which define the rotation and team assignments.
- Your union contract (CBA), which usually sets hours, overtime, and trade rules.
- Your actual pay period, where you can watch how the short-week/long-week hours are counted before overtime kicks in.
Seeing the pattern before it sneaks up on you
The hard part of a Pitman isn't the concept — it's holding the picture in your head. Because the 2-2-3 doesn't line up with a normal Monday-to-Sunday week, "which weekend am I off again?" is genuinely easy to lose track of, especially on a rotating version. That's what Duty Pals is built for: set the Pitman once — fixed or rotating, whatever start day your agency uses — and it lays out years of your on and off days automatically, so you can see that free three-day weekend coming and plan around it instead of recounting blocks off a wall calendar. Duty Pals is currently in pre-registration; you can sign up to be notified when it launches.