You'd be surprised how many times I hear this phrase after I tell someone how much I would charge to create a set of schedule options for their group:  "Thanks, but I'll figure it out myself."

And I'm sure they do. But will their schedule:

1. Consistently match the workload? Adopting popular patterns you can find on the internet may not be the best fit if your workload varies by time of day or weekdays vs. weekends.
    
2. Make efficient use of the staff? If the staff is not a multiple of four (e.g., 4, 8, 12, 16, etc.), a schedule using 4 crews is obviously not going to utilize everyone equally.
    
3. Maximize weekends off for the employees? If your payweek is different than the schedule's, you may end up compromising the number of weekends off.
    
4. Give them multiple options? Allowing employees to choose from different scheduling options makes them feel more involved in the selection process, which will result in greater buy-in and support for the change.

No way! But are they happy with the schedule they came up with on their own? Probably. But only because they have nothing to compare it to. If they did, they would see that their schedule fell short in several key areas.

Maybe it's my prices. I charge $300 an hour for my services. Most jobs take one hour of my time. Major shiftwork consulting firms charge anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000 to help clients adopt a new schedule. Granted, they come on-site, survey employees, and do a lot more hand-holding than I do. But clients willingly pay their fees and feel good about the value of their services. That's 200 to 300 times what I charge. Ouch!

So, should I give up on people who don't seem to care about coverage, costs, employee satisfaction, or the ability to choose from alternative patterns/approaches? I'd sure like to hear from anyone who reads this post.