Overlap minutes

Overlap minutes control the maximum amount of time that a traded shift can overlap with an employee’s currently scheduled shift. The maximum number of allowed overlap minutes is specified in the OVERLAP_MINUTES registry parameter. If an employee accepts a pre-determined shift trade that overlaps with a currently scheduled shift, then the shift trade is allowed if the overlap between the shifts is shorter than the specified overlap minutes. The existing shift and the overlapping shift are combined when the shift trade is completed. If the overlap is longer than the specified overlap minutes, then the system rejects the shift trade.

Note: MVS shifts do not support overlap minutes. Shift trades including MVS shifts are rejected if the shift being traded overlaps an existing shift by any length of time.

Overlap minutes are not relevant when employees perform a two-way trade of entire shifts where the shift times overlap by any amount of time. For example, Robert is scheduled to work 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Pam is scheduled to work 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM. They can exchange shifts without causing an issue with overlap minutes. The shift trade is allowed because their existing shifts are given away when they are assigned to the traded shifts.