How do swaps and covering shifts work?

For staff and managers — swap a shift with a colleague, ask someone to cover, offer a shift to the team or take an open shift; a manager says yes unless the venue's rules let it go ahead.

On your rota page (or Requests on the venue's devices) open Swaps:

• Swap — pick your shift, a colleague and one of their shifts, then Ask … to swap. They get an email and say Yes or No.
• Cover — pick your shift and a colleague, leave their shift empty, then Ask … to cover.
• Offer it to the team — everyone who works that area can press I can do it (only if your venue allows offers).
• Open shifts — an open shift in your area shows under Shifts you could take; press Ask to take it.

A shift is never handed to a Door or Kitchen screen login or to someone left off the rota — they can't be given shifts, so they can't take, swap for or cover one. If that's you, you'll see "You're not on the rota, so you can't take shifts — ask your manager."; if you picked such a colleague, it names them and asks you to pick someone else.

After your colleague says yes, a manager approves it — then the rota changes and you're both told by email. Your venue chooses the rules: swaps on or off, only within the same area, a cut-off before the shift (for example 24 hours), and who says yes. Usually a manager approves every swap. A venue can instead let swaps that pass the rules go through by themselves: same area, before the cut-off, no new working-time warning (two shifts at once, too little rest and so on) and nobody getting a shift on a day they have time off. Anything else still waits for a manager. You're told when it's done — by email, and on your phone if you've turned alerts on.

Once a shift has started it can't be swapped or covered by your team any more: your colleague can no longer say yes to it, and an offer for it disappears from Shifts you could take. Ask your manager instead.

If a shift's day or times change after you've said yes (or asked to take it), nothing moves: the request comes back to you marked "New times — check them", with a bell and an email saying "A shift you said yes to has new times". Check the new times and say Yes again if you can still do it, or No if you can't — for a shift offered to the team, No puts the offer back for everyone.

For managers

Swaps waiting for you are on Requests, with any working-time warning the change would bring (warn, never block). Approve moves the shifts in one go — if either shift has been given to someone else since the request, it's refused and nothing moves. If a shift's day or times changed after your colleague said yes, Approve is refused too ("A shift on this request has new times since Jo said yes — Jo has been asked to confirm them. Nothing has moved.") and the request goes back to them, showing "New times — waiting for Jo"; once they say yes again you can approve it. A request already waiting for you can still be approved after its shift has started. Decline tells both people. If the person taking the shift has been left off the rota since they asked, approving is refused and nothing moves — Decline it. If a shift in the request has been deleted, it says "That shift isn’t on the rota any more" and can't be approved — restore the shift from Recently deleted on the Rota page and the request stands again, or Decline it.

Related: How do I ask for time off?