Trading shifts without the Facebook group or group chat
Updated
Most workplaces that trade shifts end up with a Facebook group or a group chat for it. It is free, everyone is already there, and it works, until the group gets big.
Where it breaks down
Everyone hears about everything
Every post pings every member, including people who could never work that shift. So people mute the group, and the post that was meant for them goes unseen.
“Still available?”
A post does not say whether it has been taken. It fills with the same question, the poster answers each one, and last week’s posts sit there looking open.
Two people say yes
Who answered first is not always clear, and sorting it out takes more messages and sometimes a falling-out.
Anyone can reply
Nothing tells you whether the person offering to take your shift is actually qualified to work it.
Your details are out there
Names, schedules and sometimes employee numbers sit in a group whose membership nobody really checks, one screenshot away from anyone.
What a better setup does
Only the people who could take it hear about it
An alert goes to coworkers who can cover the shift and asked to hear about that kind of shift, nobody else. Nobody mutes an alert that is always for them.
One taker, no confusion
The first person to take a shift gets it, and everyone else sees it is gone the moment it happens.
Gone means gone
A shift leaves the board the moment someone takes it, and posts for days gone by drop off on their own. No ghost posts.
Coworkers only
Every member is approved by an administrator at the station, and nobody outside the station sees anything.
How Shift Exchange does it
Shift Exchange is a free shift-trading app for union members. You post a shift you cannot work, and it shows only to coworkers at your station whose classification covers it. They choose which areas they want to hear about, and nothing is switched on until they do.
Trading is free, forever. It runs in your phone’s browser, and added to your home screen it opens like an app and can send you alerts.
Each station gets its own invite codes and its own administrator, who approves every member. To bring yours on, email UnionContractAI@outlook.com with your station and your local.