Weekly Shift Schedule Template, Free to Print

One page, three shift rows, seven days. This shift schedule template is a free printable for the weekly version of the problem: write who works early, late, and night on every day of the week, count the heads per shift, and keep a small log for swap requests. The row labels are generic write-ins, so the sheet fits any workplace that splits the day into three blocks. When you also want to track the rotation you personally worked over weeks, the shift work schedule template handles the record-keeping side; this one is for posting the coming week.

Fits A4 and US Letter at 100%. Grayscale prints fine.

Why the coverage table sits under the grid

The grid answers "who is on"; the coverage table answers "is that enough". They are the same three shifts twice, once as names and once as numbers, because the failure mode of a posted schedule is subtle: every cell has someone in it, but nobody counted whether Tuesday night has two people or four. Writing the small number in each box takes about a minute after the grid is filled, and it is the fastest way to spot a day where the night row quietly dropped to one. If a cell in the grid has a name but the count row does not match, one of the two is wrong.

Swap requests: four rows, one rule

The swap log has four rows: who wants the swap, the day and shift they are giving up, the day and shift they would take, and an agreed checkbox. The checkbox is the whole mechanism. A swap written on the sheet without the tick is a request; a swap with the tick is a plan. Keeping the two states visible on the same row is what stops the Monday-morning version, where two people each believed the other had the early shift. Four rows covers most weeks; when the log fills up, that is worth noticing on its own.

Four posting habits

Opinions from filling in sheets like this one, take or leave:

1. Post the schedule the same day every week. Opinion: the day matters more than the lead time. A crew that knows the sheet lands Wednesday afternoon stops asking, and the person posting it stops answering the same question six times.
2. Write names, not just codes. Opinion: initials and shift codes are fast for the writer and slow for every reader after them. A cell that says "J.P." with the row label telling you the shift is worth the extra two seconds of writing.
3. Count heads before the week starts, not after. Opinion: the coverage table only helps if it is filled before Monday. A count written mid-week is a post-mortem, and the day it would have caught is already gone.
4. Log the swaps that did not happen. Opinion: a request with no agreed tick that got dropped is information. If every row stalls at "no", the schedule itself is the problem, and the log is your evidence.

What this sheet does not do

It records who is on when, nothing more. It does not decide whether a swap is allowed, who qualifies for which shift, or what notice a schedule change needs. Those come from your employer's process and the rules where you work: check your local rules for rest requirements and anything else that applies, and let the sheet do what it is good at, which is being one piece of paper everyone can read at a glance. If the swap process at your site needs approval sign-off too, the swap log in the full shift work schedule template has an approval column alongside the agreed one.

Rotation calendar, 31-day pattern tracker, sleep log, payroll hours, overtime, meal prep. A4 + US Letter, write-in by design.