4-10 work schedule (four tens)
Four 10-hour days, three days off, every week. The same 40 hours compressed into fewer, longer days, at the price of one dark weekday.
Also known as: four tens, 4x10 schedule, four day work week 10 hour shifts, compressed workweek
- Shift length
- 10h
- Rotation cycle
- 7 days
- Teams
- 1
- Avg hours/week
- 40
- Longest stretch
- 4 days
- Longest break
- 3 days
The full 7-day rotation
One complete cycle. Coverage is 4 of 5 business days, daytime: deliberately not every day, which is the shape of this pattern rather than a gap in it.
| Team | Week 1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everyone | D | D | D | D | |||
- One row, one week: four consecutive 10-hour days, then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off.
- Everyone on the schedule shares the same rhythm. There is no rotation and no cycle to track beyond the week itself.
- For five-day coverage, run a second cohort shifted by one day (Tuesday to Friday) and read the two rows together: mid-week doubles up, Monday and Friday run single-strength.
Build your 4-10 (four tens) calendar
Pick the date your rotation starts (day 1 of the grid above) and a team to see the next six weeks as real dates. Download the result for your calendar app or as a spreadsheet.
Calendar exports cover 26 weeks from the start date. Shift times use this page's defaults and can differ from your operation's clock times.
How the 4-10 (four tens) schedule works
The 4-10 packs a standard 40-hour week into four 10-hour days, buying every employee a permanent three-day weekend. It is the simplest compressed workweek there is: no rotation to learn, the same days on and off every single week, and no averaging period for payroll to untangle.
The price is printed right on the calendar, and most pages selling this schedule skip it. If everyone works Monday to Thursday, the operation is dark on Friday: a 4-10 covers 4 of 5 business days, a 20 percent coverage hole. Teams that need five-day coverage split into staggered cohorts, Monday to Thursday and Tuesday to Friday, which restores the week but means Monday and Friday run at half strength.
The other cost is the tenth hour. The research on 8 versus 10 versus 12-hour shifts finds fatigue and risk climb with shift length, and a 10-hour day plus commute leaves little evening. The three-day weekend is real recovery, but it is bought with four days that have less slack in them.
How many people you need
Staffing one position across this pattern's window (4 of 5 business days, daytime) takes one person on the schedule shown, before you cover holidays, sick leave, and training. A planning buffer of around 25 percent on top is a realistic starting point; the exact number depends on your absence rates, which you can work out with our shrinkage calculator. The same worked arithmetic for other coverage windows and team sizes lives in the staffing math library.
| Positions per shift | Minimum headcount | With 20% shrinkage buffer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 | 7 |
| 10 | 10 | 13 |
Pros and cons of the 4-10 (four tens) schedule
Works in its favor
- A guaranteed three-day weekend every week, the single most popular perk any schedule change can offer
- Still exactly 40 hours, so salaries, accrual rates, and headcount plans are untouched
- One fewer commute per person per week, a 20 percent cut in commuting time and cost
- Fixed days mean childcare, second jobs, and standing commitments can be planned indefinitely
- Fewer shift starts per week means fewer handovers and startup periods per unit of work
Watch out for
- One business day per week is uncovered unless the team splits into staggered cohorts
- Staggered cohorts restore five-day coverage but leave Monday and Friday at half strength
- In California and a handful of other jurisdictions, daily overtime starts after 8 hours unless a formal alternative workweek is adopted, so a 4-10 needs paperwork before it needs a calendar
- The tenth hour is the most expensive: fatigue research consistently finds errors and injuries climb in the final hours of extended shifts
- Ten-hour days squeeze out evening life four days a week, which some people trade gladly and others quietly resent
Who runs 4-10 (four tens)
Field service and utilities
Crews burn a large share of the day on travel to site, so fewer, longer days convert windshield time into wrench time.
Manufacturing (single shift)
Plants that do not run five days use 4-10s to concentrate production and take a fixed maintenance day.
Government and public works
Municipal crews and agencies adopted 4-10s in waves during energy crunches, and many never went back.
Construction
Four tens is close to the default in trades where daily site setup and teardown eat fixed time.
Whichever industry you plan for, the hard part is rarely the pattern itself but keeping it fair as people join, leave, and swap. That is worth reading up on before you commit a team to one; our guide on making shift schedules fair covers the rotation-fairness tradeoffs in depth.
Common variations
- Staggered cohorts
- Half the team works Monday to Thursday, half Tuesday to Friday. Five-day coverage, mid-week overlap, single-strength edges.
- 4-10 with rotating weekday off
- The dark day rotates through the team so no one owns Friday permanently. Fairer, but the fixed-days advantage disappears.
- 9/80
- The two-week sibling: nine days on, one off, alternating Fridays. Softer daily hours, much sharper payroll rules.
Compare with other patterns
9/80 work schedule
Eighty hours in nine days instead of ten, buying every other Friday off. The calendar is easy; the payroll rule underneath it is not.
9h shifts · 14-day cycle · longest stretch 5 days
View pattern →4-on-3-off shift pattern
Four days on, three days off, the same days every week. Two squads cover all seven days, and the arithmetic leaves exactly one day where both are in.
10h shifts · 7-day cycle · longest stretch 4 days
View pattern →4-on-4-off schedule
The simplest continuous pattern there is: work 4, rest 4, forever. Four teams on 12-hour shifts cover 24/7 with a cadence anyone can remember.
12h shifts · 16-day cycle · longest stretch 4 days
View pattern →Frequently asked questions
- Is a 4-10 schedule still 40 hours a week?
- Yes, exactly. Four 10-hour days is the same 40 hours as five 8-hour days, so pay, benefits, and accruals do not change. What changes is the shape: longer days, fewer of them, and a coverage hole on the fifth day that the roster has to plan around.
- Does a 4-10 schedule trigger overtime?
- Under federal US law, no: the FLSA counts overtime past 40 hours a week, and a 4-10 sits exactly at 40. In daily-overtime jurisdictions it is different. California pays overtime after 8 hours in a day unless the employer adopts an alternative workweek schedule by formal election, so a casual 4-10 there generates 2 hours of overtime every single day.
- How do you keep five-day coverage on a 4-10?
- Split into two staggered cohorts: one works Monday to Thursday, the other Tuesday to Friday. Every business day is covered, Tuesday to Thursday runs double-strength, and Monday and Friday run at half. If your demand peaks on Monday or Friday, that is the wrong way around, and the 4-10 deserves a harder look before adoption.
- Is four 10-hour days healthier than five 8-hour days?
- The evidence is mixed and honest pages say so. The extra recovery day is real, and studies of compressed weeks report higher satisfaction. But fatigue research also finds risk rising in the ninth and tenth hours of work, so safety-critical operations tend to pair 4-10s with duty limits on the most demanding tasks late in the shift.
Your next schedule could take 2 minutes.
Import your team, set your rules, hit auto-fill. Most teams are live the same day.
30 days free ยท No credit card required
Already have an account?Sign in
