Split Shift Calculator

Worked example

Two separate work blocks, 08:00 to 12:00 and 16:00 to 20:00, each cover 4 hours, for a combined worked total of 8 hours across the day. Between those two blocks sits a 4-hour unworked gap, from 12:00 to 16:00, which this calculator reports directly alongside the worked total rather than folding it silently into the day's numbers. Add a third block later that same evening, say 21:00 to 22:00, and the worked total grows to 9 hours while a second, smaller gap of one hour appears between the second and third blocks. Reporting every gap explicitly, not just the total worked time, is what makes this useful for understanding a genuinely split schedule rather than a single shift with one lunch break in the middle.

Common mistakes

• Entering two blocks that overlap each other. This calculator rejects an overlap outright rather than merging the two blocks into one combined span.
• Treating a single shift with a lunch break as a split shift with two blocks. A split shift genuinely has separate work sessions, while a shift with a lunch break is better modeled with the Hours Calculator or Break Deduction Calculator.

Limitations

Gap time between blocks is reported but never deducted from or added to pay automatically. Whether unworked gap time between split-shift blocks is paid at all is a workplace policy question this calculator does not answer.