Duty shift

A duty shift, duty watch, or watch rotation, was the portion of the day that various scheduled personnel aboard a starship or space station were on duty. Officers were expected to report on time for their duty shifts and those that failed to do so, without a good excuse, could face penalties such as being placed on report. () Seven of Nine once commented that crewmen Boylan and were frequently late for their duty shifts. () During her time on the , Ensign Lyndsay Ballard was known for rarely, if ever, showing up for her duty shifts on time. ()
Duty shifts could be exchanged or bartered to some extent. On board Voyager, for instance, Neelix once wagered The Doctor three duty shifts in his kitchen for three in sickbay in a shell game. () Similarly, Odo once assumed a Starfleet security officer's shift aboard Deep Space 9, in order to stand personal watch over First Minister Shakaar Edon and Kira Nerys. ()
== Frequency ==
In Starfleet, days were typically divided into thirds, resulting in three duty shifts. (; ; )
For a brief period of time while Captain Edward Jellico was in command of the in 2369, the ship was put on a four shift rotation. Each shift was designated by a Greek letter: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. This proved difficult for the crew to adjust to because they were used to a standard three-shift rotation. ()
Deep Space 9 was initially put on a three-shift rotation when the Federation took over its administration, but this changed in 2372 due to innovations by Major Kira Nerys. Kira first revealed her plans to Captain Benjamin Sisko when he was seriously injured. She'd hoped that discussing station business might keep him conscious. Later, after he'd recovered, Sisko decided to put the station on a four-shift rotation, saying that the idea had "occurred" to him. He thought the crew "might appreciate more flexibility in their schedules". () The concept went through a probationary period until it was finally made permanent because, as Kira put it, there were "less mistakes due to fatigue". ()
Under the command of Captain Carol Freeman, the was known to operate on a four shift rotation in 2380. ()
==Type==
===Day shift===
The day shift or day watch was the first duty period which theoretically occurred during whatever would be considered day in space. The day shift was presumably preceded by the night watch, which was a time of limited activity. ()
Aboard the , day shift began at 0800 hours. ()
Commander William T. Riker usually commanded the first bridge shift of the day watch, known as alpha shift. () In 2367, Worf was in command during the final shift of the day. ()
===Swing shift===
The swing shift was a duty shift that was after the day shift, but before the night shift. Crewmembers of Deep Space 9 who were on the swing shift included Whatley, Duarte, Abdon, , Tekoa, and Rom. ()
===Night shift===
The night shift was a duty period that occurred during the hours in which an officer would otherwise be sleeping. It was usually relegated to the junior officers, as most people were not fond of the night shift. Aboard starships and space stations, however, there was technically no such thing as "night" or "day". The night shift was preceded by the swing shift. ()
On the Enterprise-D, this shift was known as night watch, in contrast to day watch. Lieutenant Commander Data was often in command of the bridge during the night watch, as he did not require sleep. () Doctor Beverly Crusher volunteered at times for the night shift, as she did in 2370 while Data was away on a mission. She explained that she liked doing this to refresh her starship operations management skills. ()
The was attacked by the Borg during its night shift. ()
After Rom resigned from his position of Assistant Manager of Policy and Clientele at Quark's in 2372, he joined Deep Space 9's engineering crew and was assigned to the night shift. () In early 2373, Miles O'Brien arranged to have him transferred to the day shift. ()
Later in 2372, after a magnetic constrictor accident on the , B'Elanna Torres had to work during the night shift to repair the damage caused by the accident. ()
Ensign Harry Kim served as Voyagers commanding officer during the night shift, twice a week. () Ensign also served as a night shift navigation officer aboard Voyager. ()
==Rotations==
===Alpha shift===
Alpha shift was a duty shift aboard the and the USS Enterprise-D, the first shift of the day watch. Aboard the Enterprise-A, the shift began at 0800 and ended at 1600 hours. Aboard the Enterprise-D, it ended at 1200 hours.
In 2293, around stardate 9521.6, Captain James T. Kirk was on duty during the alpha shift. ()
In mid-2370, Commander William T. Riker served as commanding officer of the alpha shift. Lieutenant Commander Data served as operations officer, Lieutenant Worf as tactical officer, and Ensign Sam Lavelle as flight control officer. Ensign Sito Jaxa was the relief tactical and ops officer. ()
===Beta shift===
Beta shift was the second duty shift of the day watch on board the Enterprise-D, beginning at 1200 hours.
In mid-2370, Commander Riker apparently served as commanding officer of the beta shift, continuing from alpha shift. Other officers on duty at this time included Lieutenant Jae and Ensign Gates. ()
Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford were all on the beta shift aboard the in 2380. ()
===Gamma shift===
Gamma shift was a duty shift on the and the third duty shift on board the Enterprise-D.
In 2293, Ensign Tuvok, Lieutenant Dimitri Valtane, and the two other officers they shared common quarters with all worked during the gamma shift. Captain Hikaru Sulu was known to be on the bridge during this shift. ()
In 2369, was assigned by Geordi La Forge to head an engineering team that covered gamma shift from 2300 to 0700 hours. ()
Lieutenant McDowell was part of the gamma shift on board the ship soon after, until Captain Edward Jellico ordered to rearrange the duty shifts and let the new delta shift replace the gamma shift. () 
In 2370, during a training simulation, Commander Riker informed the alpha shift, including Lieutenant Commander Data, and Ensigns Sito Jaxa and Sam Lavelle, that their response time was seven percent slower than the response time of the gamma shift. ()
===Delta shift===
Delta shift was the fourth duty shift on board the Enterprise-D in 2369.
Captain Edward Jellico ordered to rearrange the duty shifts and let the delta shift replace the gamma shift. ()
On the Cerritos in 2380, delta shift was the opposite duty shift to beta shift. The bunks in the LD sleeping quarters used for lower deck officers on delta shift began with A13001. Functionally it's identical to Night Shift, when majority of its crew is asleep.
There was a certain level of animosity between the Delta and Beta Shifts on the Cerritos. Ensign Mariner felt that Delta shift rubbed her the wrong way, as they did the same duties as beta shift during beta shift's sleep schedule. She also expressed that it "felt wrong" to be awake at the same time as delta shift was. When Captain Carol Freeman cut buffer time, Mariner suspected delta shift of telling her about it. On another occasion, she and Ensign Boimler also suspected delta shift of stealing an isolinear core in an attempt to make Ensign look bad. Ensign Tendi also found the delta shift annoying, saying that they were often better at their work, which made them prone to being incredibly boastful about it. (). From the point of view of Delta Shift, they believe they got the short end of the stick, as while they work just as hard as Beta Shift in same duties, they were seldom in the presence of the senior officers (eg: only seeing Captain Freeman five times and Commander Ransom three times during their tenure on Cerritos), and thus have more difficulty to rank up when compared to Beta Shift. In addition, Delta Shift typically needed to fix equipment that were broken by the beta shift, further adding to resentment. ()
== Appendices ==
=== Apocrypha ===
In the Fifteenth UK Story Arc, Uhura commanded a six-hour 'second watch' during the 's night period.
=== External link ===
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Category:Starfleet