The situation: When a facility has a 24-hour Monday-to-Friday schedule and volumes start to increase, the logical first step is to start working some Saturdays and Sundays on overtime. Initially, employees love the overtime and the bigger paychecks. But as volumes increase and more weekend overtime is required that enthusiasm quickly fades. Suddenly, managers are scrambling to fill weekend shifts through ‘volun-telling’ or offering costly incentives – like extra bonuses on top of overtime pay. Turnover starts to spike.
At this crucial moment, someone suggests a ‘magical’ fix: the weekend warrior schedule. This plan promises four-day weeks for your current weekday crew (with a 3-day weekend every week!) and a dedicated weekend team working just three days for a full paycheck. It sounds perfect on paper. This is when they ask us: “We’ve heard about the weekend warrior schedule – it is the perfect win-win solution, right?’
But as wonderful as it sounds, you must ignore the siren song of the weekend warrior schedule!
The “weekend warrior” model, with its seemingly efficient split between weekday and weekend crews, conceals hidden downsides that will ruin long-term business health. In our 30+ years of experience, we’ve seen this schedule fail almost every time. Recruiting, training, and retaining a reliable weekend crew is a constant battle. Turnover is rampant, especially for night shifts. Productivity plummets as your facility effectively splits into two disconnected entities, with minimal knowledge transfer. And the costs? Higher compensation, incentives, and the inevitable struggle to change your weekday staff back to a flexible schedule once they are used to always having a three-day weekend.
While the “weekend warrior” approach might seem like a perfect temporary solution, it creates a ripple effect of hidden costs and challenges that undermine sustainable business growth. Don’t fall for the illusion of this quick fix. Before you start going down the weekend warrior path, please give us a call. We can walk you through whether this schedule would work for your facility. Spoiler alert: 98% of the time it won’t. Contact us today for a free phone consultation and we can help you discover scheduling solutions that are much better long-term solutions for your business.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you find the optimal schedule and navigate a delicate change process. Discover how we can assist you.
