Shift Scheduling Satisfaction Survey for Hourly Teams

Thanks for taking a few minutes for this! We want to understand how your work schedule actually feels week to week — predictability, swaps, fairness, and workload. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymized. Your honest answers help us fix real problems. About 5 minutes.

How predictable is your work schedule week to week?

In the last month, how much advance notice did you typically get before a schedule was posted or changed?

• Same day
• 1-2 days
• 3-6 days
• 1-2 weeks
• More than 2 weeks

How easy is it to swap a shift or find coverage when you need to?

In the last 30 days, how often did a shift-swap or coverage request you made get approved?

• I didn't request any swaps
• Never approved
• Sometimes approved
• Usually approved
• Always approved

How much do you agree with each statement about how schedules are handled on your team?

In the last 30 days, how often has your work schedule left you feeling physically or mentally exhausted?

In the last 30 days, how many times did you work a closing shift followed by an opening shift with less than 11 hours in between?

• 0 times
• 1-2 times
• 3-5 times
• 6+ times

Which of these would do the most, and least, to improve your satisfaction with scheduling?

• More advance notice of my schedule
• Easier shift swaps or coverage requests
• More input on my preferred shifts
• Fewer back-to-back closing/opening shifts
• More consistent hours week to week
• Better communication about schedule changes
• More say over which days I get off

Get the respondent to walk you through one specific, recent scheduling incident — a shift change with little notice, a denied swap, or a clopening stretch — and reconstruct exactly what happened, how they found out, and what it cost them (missed plans, childcare scramble, sleep, etc). If they rated fairness low, probe for a concrete example of favoritism or inconsistency rather than a general complaint. If everything they describe is positive, ask what would have to change for scheduling to become a real problem for them.

Which best describes your usual shift?

• Morning
• Afternoon/evening
• Overnight
• Rotating/varies
• Prefer not to say

How long have you worked in this role?

• Less than 3 months
• 3-11 months
• 1-2 years
• 3+ years
• Prefer not to say

That's everything — thank you! Your responses are combined with your team's to spot patterns in predictability, swap access, fairness, and burnout, and to shape changes to how schedules are built.