11.5 Hour Shifts

1! THATS WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSE TO BASE OUR DECISION ON ! 1 GUY FROM ANOTHER AGENCY DOESN'T LIKE THE HOURS SO WE ARE SUPPOSE TO VOTE DOWN ANY CHANGE ?
KEEP THE 11.5'S AND SPEND 4 FULL DAYS WITH YOUR FAMILY !
WORKING 3 EXTRA HOURS ISN'T GOING TO ROB YOU OF YOUR FAMILY TIME. YOU'LL HAVE 2 ADDITIONAL DAYS OFF TO MAKE UP THE LOST TIME.
FAMILY FIRST !
11.5's !!!

Here Here, well spoken from the non married, no kids, single guy whos drunk every night at The falcon pub.. What about summer rocket scientist... School isnt year round retard[/quote]

Actually, married, 2 kids, sober and unless your a single parent you have a spouse correct ? Its called adjustment, take responsibilty and do what you have to do. Thats the easliest answer is to assume only the younger single guys want the 11.5's, and or we are retards for having common sense. Regardless, you will have your wish and we will most likely stay on 8's and regret it.[/quote]

Actually hmmmm, NOT!!! not sure about your lifestyle but my children are my priority, not this place. Go ahaead stay away as long as you can from your children, dont worry the nanny state government(police) will raise your child.

[Sherlock]

I am wondering what your 8 hour schedule is like now, in reference to days off. Do they rotate, or are they static?

The reason I ask is because, I have worked several different varying schedules consisting of: 8 hour schedules with fixed days off; 8.5 hour schedules, with four days on, three days off, five days on, two days off ( or something like that); 12 hour schedules that rotated Mon, Tues ON, Wed, Thurs, OFF, Fri, Sat, Sun, ON, then the following week was Mon, Tues OFF, Wed, Thurs ON, Fri, Sat, Sun OFF - so the most days you worked in a row were three, and you had a three day weekend every other weekend; four 11 hours days on, four off; and now, in a specialized unit, 10 hour days with 4 on, 3 off (Sat-Mon).

I am married, with children. I have to say that, although the longer days are hard some times, I would NEVER want to go back to 8 hours, 5 on 2 off. Our agency switched to the 11 hour days several years ago, and no one wants to give them up. In fact, we have a hard time filling vacancies in the specialized units because officers don't want to give up the 4 on, 4 off.

Maybe a more flexible shift schedule would help make it work for everyone. We have two different staggered day shifts, and night shifts. One day shift comes in at 0600 and works until 1700. The other works 0900 to 2000. The evening shifts work 1630 to 0330, and 2000 to 0700. With the overlapping, rarely does someone get stuck working overtime. All of our shifts are filled by officer selection and everyone is on the shift they selected. Not one person is assigned on a shift they don't want (those with seniority, and the newer officers). With all the variety of shift schedules, everyone finds one that works for them and their particular needs (family, or single life). And, with the larger number of officers on the road at any given time, it increased coverage and assisted with individual call load.

I really recommend you try something like this. As a married person with children, I found that the 11 hour 4-4 schedule ended up giving me more time with my family, even though I gave up the three hours on the days I worked. We have actually found that because of the four on, four off, that sick leave abuse has gone down. There has also been no increase in the number of accidents.

Your need to use vacation time is also reduced, as four days is often enough for a long weekend getaway, or you could take a full twelve days off by burning only 4 days. I don't know if you can cash-in leave time like we can; but, saving on using leave time gives you the option to have more hours available to cash in. (BTW I do agree that the city should compensate you 11.5 for 11.5 worked, even on holidays.) We did away with Vacation leave versus Sick leave and lumped it all together as Personal Leave. You can use your time however you choose. If you burn it all up, and get sick...well....that's another problem. Hower,we added an accrual of Acute Leave, at something like 4 hours a month. If an officer is out sick in excess of three days, using their own Personal Leave for those first three days, with a physician's note, then the Acute Leave kicks in and we don't have to burn any more of our Personal Leave. For instance, when my wife gives birth later this year, I will only have to burn three days of Personal Leave to take off a month for "Paternity Leave." Since I have been fortunate enough to have not need to dip into my Acute Leave, I have hundreds of hours accrued and won't even use half of it for that time. If you are interested in understanding it all more clearly and more in-depth, here is a link to our current contract: http://www.pbcpba.org/PDF/PBG-Office...02007-2010.pdf

If four on four off seems too difficult, look into how a three on three off schedule might work, or three on-four off, four on-three off.

Also of note, is that with our 11 hour shifts instead of the 11.5, we came up a little short on hours worked for the month. So, in adjustment, those on the four on four off schedule come in for 8 hours on one of their days off, once a month for our monthly in-service training day.

Another option for your contract dispute, since there seems to be some contention between those in the specialized units voting in a manner that effects the road, is to stipulate that they will be granted the 4-3, 10 hour shifts, regardless of the outcome of the vote for the 11.5 hour shifts.

I have to say it is disappointing to hear of so much dissatisfaction amongst the officers at PPD. I grew up in Plantation and wanted to someday be a Plantation Police Officer. Relocation and other life factors led me away from there and I ended up going elsewhere. It is ironic that I just discovered today that a PPD cruiser was parked in a driveway in my neighborhood, all the way up here in WPB. Almost made me feel nostalgic for a moment....

Good luck on the whole matter.

Either way,
Stay Safe!

thanks for the time you put in for that post...you make great points for both sides of us who are voting but the biggest problem we have here is manpower to fill the shifts as well as most wouldnt get to choose what they want since there can only be so many slots(yes i know this is true for all shifts) and days off are key for senority...being here 20 years or 20 days the bottom line is we dont want the new shifts if we give up standby and we dont get paid for hours worked...8s suck but better than 11. w no standby

As a LEO with 10+ years, why would I want to have a rotating schedule? What purpose would senority play and who wants to work a full weekend when theyve been here almost 15 or 20 and a newbie gets the same schedule? Then they leave us 2 years later but man were happy we gave them those days off? I want me standby

I am wondering what your 8 hour schedule is like now, in reference to days off. Do they rotate, or are they static?

The reason I ask is because, I have worked several different varying schedules consisting of: 8 hour schedules with fixed days off; 8.5 hour schedules, with four days on, three days off, five days on, two days off ( or something like that); 12 hour schedules that rotated Mon, Tues ON, Wed, Thurs, OFF, Fri, Sat, Sun, ON, then the following week was Mon, Tues OFF, Wed, Thurs ON, Fri, Sat, Sun OFF - so the most days you worked in a row were three, and you had a three day weekend every other weekend; four 11 hours days on, four off; and now, in a specialized unit, 10 hour days with 4 on, 3 off (Sat-Mon).

I am married, with children. I have to say that, although the longer days are hard some times, I would NEVER want to go back to 8 hours, 5 on 2 off. Our agency switched to the 11 hour days several years ago, and no one wants to give them up. In fact, we have a hard time filling vacancies in the specialized units because officers don't want to give up the 4 on, 4 off.

Maybe a more flexible shift schedule would help make it work for everyone. We have two different staggered day shifts, and night shifts. One day shift comes in at 0600 and works until 1700. The other works 0900 to 2000. The evening shifts work 1630 to 0330, and 2000 to 0700. With the overlapping, rarely does someone get stuck working overtime. All of our shifts are filled by officer selection and everyone is on the shift they selected. Not one person is assigned on a shift they don't want (those with seniority, and the newer officers). With all the variety of shift schedules, everyone finds one that works for them and their particular needs (family, or single life). And, with the larger number of officers on the road at any given time, it increased coverage and assisted with individual call load.

I really recommend you try something like this. As a married person with children, I found that the 11 hour 4-4 schedule ended up giving me more time with my family, even though I gave up the three hours on the days I worked. We have actually found that because of the four on, four off, that sick leave abuse has gone down. There has also been no increase in the number of accidents.

Your need to use vacation time is also reduced, as four days is often enough for a long weekend getaway, or you could take a full twelve days off by burning only 4 days. I don't know if you can cash-in leave time like we can; but, saving on using leave time gives you the option to have more hours available to cash in. (BTW I do agree that the city should compensate you 11.5 for 11.5 worked, even on holidays.) We did away with Vacation leave versus Sick leave and lumped it all together as Personal Leave. You can use your time however you choose. If you burn it all up, and get sick...well....that's another problem. Hower,we added an accrual of Acute Leave, at something like 4 hours a month. If an officer is out sick in excess of three days, using their own Personal Leave for those first three days, with a physician's note, then the Acute Leave kicks in and we don't have to burn any more of our Personal Leave. For instance, when my wife gives birth later this year, I will only have to burn three days of Personal Leave to take off a month for "Paternity Leave." Since I have been fortunate enough to have not need to dip into my Acute Leave, I have hundreds of hours accrued and won't even use half of it for that time. If you are interested in understanding it all more clearly and more in-depth, here is a link to our current contract: http://www.pbcpba.org/PDF/PBG-Office...02007-2010.pdf

If four on four off seems too difficult, look into how a three on three off schedule might work, or three on-four off, four on-three off.

Also of note, is that with our 11 hour shifts instead of the 11.5, we came up a little short on hours worked for the month. So, in adjustment, those on the four on four off schedule come in for 8 hours on one of their days off, once a month for our monthly in-service training day.

Another option for your contract dispute, since there seems to be some contention between those in the specialized units voting in a manner that effects the road, is to stipulate that they will be granted the 4-3, 10 hour shifts, regardless of the outcome of the vote for the 11.5 hour shifts.

I have to say it is disappointing to hear of so much dissatisfaction amongst the officers at PPD. I grew up in Plantation and wanted to someday be a Plantation Police Officer. Relocation and other life factors led me away from there and I ended up going elsewhere. It is ironic that I just discovered today that a PPD cruiser was parked in a driveway in my neighborhood, all the way up here in WPB. Almost made me feel nostalgic for a moment....

Good luck on the whole matter.

Either way,
Stay Safe!

Thanks, The problem is they want to attach on the contract the idea of losing standby with the 11.5...Im sure if they left standby alone and kept the 11.5 on the contract, it would probably pass. Like the US Govt adds earmarks, and we know how everything runs so smooth with our Fed system of Govt hhmmmm?

We are just F'd up, plain and simple. Even our proposed 11.5 hour shift left days off of Thur, Fri, Sat or Sun, Mon, Tue with every other Wednesday off. Most everywhere else at least gives the Fri, Sat, Sun off or Mon, Tue, Wed off. Yeah, it sucks for the new guys but afterwhile they are up there with seniority and can enjoy a weekend off. The way the days off are structured here, you can't really have a weekend off. Oh, unless your in a specialized unit or administration.

well obviously you never worked the hurricanes. 12 hour shifts are hard. The hours that are posted lets see getting off at 530 630 or 730 p obviously someone has never worked afternoons as you will be on a late call as some zone partners will not cancel you and your 11.5 hour day becomes 12 hour days. Or if you get off on 430 530 630 am someone clearly has not midnights as most perimeters start at 4 am and you really think at 430 you can magically leave your point so your 11.5 hour day becomes 12 or more hours. Lets not forget some of the early bravo people like 2 hour briefings where the can get coffee and breakfast so 530 and 630 will be at work longer which will make your commute even longer because thats rush hour traffic. There"s a bigger picture then just 3 and 4 days off, When you have court at 11 am until 4 pm and have to come into work with not much sleep. How are you going to function as a police officer or a backup unless you get zero subpoenas. Oh Btw I voted for the 8 hours because I have thought that far because I have had to stay late and/or gone to court and it's hard.

You make a very valid debate. I wonder how EVERY other department in the state and majority of the country have overcome these issues. Hmm? We're not pioneering a new concept here.

Actually hmmmm, NOT!!! not sure about your lifestyle but my children are my priority, not this place. Go ahaead stay away as long as you can from your children, dont worry the nanny state government(police) will raise your child.[/quote]

HA thats great you said "NOT", must be an SRO and having your kids post for you. Yeh, you make no sense, work an extra 3 hours and get 2 extra days with your kids to get that father of the year award. I hope we stay on 8's I don't want HRS taking my kids.

Actually hmmmm, NOT!!! not sure about your lifestyle but my children are my priority, not this place. Go ahaead stay away as long as you can from your children, dont worry the nanny state government(police) will raise your child.

HA thats great you said "NOT", must be an SRO and having your kids post for you. Yeh, you make no sense, work an extra 3 hours and get 2 extra days with your kids to get that father of the year award. I hope we stay on 8's I don't want HRS taking my kids.[/quote]

What ever. dont get your vagaga in a bind cause you have to work a 5-2. and the specilized unit wont get their precious 4-3. to hell with all you brain dead tards

well obviously you never worked the hurricanes. 12 hour shifts are hard. The hours that are posted lets see getting off at 530 630 or 730 p obviously someone has never worked afternoons as you will be on a late call as some zone partners will not cancel you and your 11.5 hour day becomes 12 hour days. Or if you get off on 430 530 630 am someone clearly has not midnights as most perimeters start at 4 am and you really think at 430 you can magically leave your point so your 11.5 hour day becomes 12 or more hours. Lets not forget some of the early bravo people like 2 hour briefings where the can get coffee and breakfast so 530 and 630 will be at work longer which will make your commute even longer because thats rush hour traffic. There"s a bigger picture then just 3 and 4 days off, When you have court at 11 am until 4 pm and have to come into work with not much sleep. How are you going to function as a police officer or a backup unless you get zero subpoenas. Oh Btw I voted for the 8 hours because I have thought that far because I have had to stay late and/or gone to court and it's hard.

You make a very valid debate. I wonder how EVERY other department in the state and majority of the country have overcome these issues. Hmm? We're not pioneering a new concept here.

i think its difficult to speak for every dept without speaking with them right? with that said, each dept that does change to an over 10 hour shift(11/11.5/12) has done so with certain specific benefits that do not apply to us as is. go to any random depts website, email a member and ask how/what they received for chenging their lives before assuming theyre happy