Pitman vs DuPont: 12-Hour Rotating Schedules Compared

Pitman (2-3-2): the steady one

The Pitman template is 14 days: 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off — the same on/off rhythm as the 2-2-3 Panama. Most Pitman crews work that template on days for two weeks and then on nights for two weeks, so the full rotation is 28 days with 14 shifts. Never more than 3 shifts in a row, every other weekend off on days and on nights alike, and weekly hours that alternate between a three-shift week and a four-shift week.

Because the day/night flip happens on a three-day break, Pitman crews get a runway to turn their sleep around. Some sites slow the rotation to monthly or quarterly, and some don't rotate at all — that fixed version is just the 2-2-3.

DuPont: the week-off one

The DuPont cycle runs 28 days: 4 night shifts, 3 off, 3 day shifts, 1 off, 3 nights, 3 off, 4 days — then 7 consecutive days off. That built-in vacation every month is why crews defend it fiercely, and why departments that try to replace it get petitions.

The cost: one 72-hour week inside every cycle, a single recovery day mid-cycle, and day/night flips baked into the pattern — you switch direction twice per cycle, once after a one-day break. Sleep scientists wince at it; plenty of plants have run it for decades anyway.

Head to head, computed

Same crews, same 12-hour shifts, same 42-hour average — different everything else. Overtime is shown as a range because the number of hours in a 'week' depends on which day your employer's workweek begins; the low end is the friendliest alignment and the high end the harshest.

Which is better for overtime?

Neither, on average: both are 42-hour schedules, so under a 40-hour weekly rule both produce the same overtime in the best alignment (208 hours a year). The difference is the shape. Pitman delivers it as a steady 8 hours every other week. DuPont concentrates it into the 72-hour week — up to 32 overtime hours in one check — followed by a week with nothing.

DuPont's worst-case alignment is also harsher: 624 overtime hours a year versus Pitman's 520, because a badly placed workweek can pile a 4-shift stretch and a 3-shift stretch into the same seven days. If your employer pays a differential on nights, DuPont's big week is often a night week, so the overtime premium lands on the higher differential-included rate. Good for the check, bad for the body.

Which is better for sleep?

Pitman, clearly — and fixed-crew Pitman (the 2-2-3) most of all. Its longest stretch is three shifts, every direction change gets a break of at least two days, and if the crews don't rotate there are no direction changes at all. DuPont asks for four nights in a row, then a flip to days after three days off, then back to nights after a single day off. That one-day turnaround is the hard part: there isn't time to reset before the next block starts.

DuPont people will tell you the week off makes up for it, and for a lot of them it does — they treat it as a monthly reset and take real trips. If you're choosing, be honest about which you'd rather have: even weeks or a real vacation every 28 days.

Which is better for weekends and family?

Pitman's answer is simple: every other weekend off, permanently, on days and on nights alike, and a three-day weekend at that. You can tell your family which weekends are yours for the whole year. DuPont's weekends are irregular. Its 28-day cycle holds four weekends; the week off covers one completely, and the others are cut up by the four-night and four-day blocks in ways that depend on where the cycle starts. Some DuPont crews get two clean weekends a cycle, some get one and a half.

For parents of school-age kids, Pitman's predictability usually wins. For people who want to travel, DuPont's week off is hard to beat — seven days without touching PTO, twelve or thirteen times a year. Neither is wrong; they're built for different lives.

Paycheck reality

DuPont's 72-hour week means a monster check once a cycle, followed by lean ones — budgeting on DuPont means saving from the big check for the off week. Pitman pays more evenly. Either way, knowing which weeks are heavy is exactly the problem ShiftCheck solves: stamp the pattern with rotation autofill and read each paycheck off the calendar.

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