Work Shifts and Schedule Changes

Work schedule and days off

Shift (シフト) is the division of working hours of employees or part-time workers by day and time. A shift is usually made in the form of a table (表, ひょう, table). In the table, rows contain names of people or types of shifts, while columns contain days (曜日, ようび, day of the week). To find out who works on a certain day, find the column for that day, then find the desired row, and then look at the cell where the two meet.

The names of the days in tables and schedules are 月(げつ, Monday), 火(か, Tuesday), 水(すい, Wednesday), 木(もく, Thursday), 金(きん, Friday), 土(ど, Saturday), and 日(にち, Sunday). Tables sometimes write a date together with the day in parentheses, for example 11日（火）, which means the 11th, a Tuesday. Time markers are also important: 今週(こんしゅう, this week), 来週(らいしゅう, next week), and 明日(あした, tomorrow). 今週の金曜日 and 来週の金曜日 are two different days.

Shift vocabulary:

• 早番(はやばん, early shift) — a shift that starts in the morning. Its working hours are usually written as a range, for example 7:00〜15:00.
• 遅番(おそばん, late shift) — a shift that starts at noon or in the afternoon and ends in the evening.
• 朝(あさ, morning) and 夜(よる, night) — names of shifts that are also often used in tables in place of 早番 and 遅番.
• 午前(ごぜん, morning/AM) and 午後(ごご, afternoon-evening/PM) — 午前 is used for times before midday, and 午後 for times after it. 正午(しょうご, midday, 12:00) is the boundary between them. For example, 午後1時 means 13:00.

Working hour patterns:

• 〜から〜まで — from A to B. In notes below a table, the notation 7:00〜15:00 is read as 'from 7 o'clock to 15 o'clock'. For questions about working hours, always check the hours listed below the table or in the text.
• 何曜日(なんようび, which day of the week) and 何時から何時まで(なんじからなんじまで, from what time to what time) — question forms that often appear in shift questions.
• 閉店(へいてん, store closing) — 〜から閉店まで means from a certain time until the store closes. The opposite is 開店(かいてん, store opening).

Work status and availability:

• 休み(やすみ, day off) — a noun meaning not working on that day. Its verb form is 休む(やすむ, to take a day off/to rest).
• 働く(はたらく, to work) — 働けます means able to work, and 働けません means not able to work.
• 入る(はいる, to be on duty) — in the context of shifts, 入る means to be scheduled for a certain shift.
• ○ and × — ○ means available, and × means not available. In an availability table, for the condition 両方(りょうほう, both), the person chosen must have ○ on both days mentioned.
• 〜だけ — only. Use this word to confirm whether a day is truly the only working day.

How to read questions about working days: if a question asks about a person's working days, read the entire row and collect the columns that contain working hours, not those that contain 休み. If a question asks about working days for a certain shift, look only at the cells under that shift.