Clopening shifts: What they are and how to avoid them

A clopening shift is when an employee closes shop and returns hours later to perform opening duties. These shifts are most commonly an issue in retail and service industries with hourly employees. With little opportunity to sleep in between shifts, clopenings can lead to health issues, trouble with mental health, lack of work life balance, and burnout for workers. They hurt businesses, too, contributing to low morale and high turnover.

Companies schedule clopening shifts for a number of reasons; some deliberate and some the result of careless scheduling. While clopenings aren’t illegal, cities and states in the U.S. are implementing laws that help restrict the practice and make it difficult for companies to take advantage of hourly and part-time employees. If you’re determined to avoid clopeners, effective scheduling and using automated scheduling software are some of the best things you can do.

What is a clopening shift?

Clopening is a combination of the words “closing” and “opening.” It’s when an employee works a closing shift followed directly by an opening shift with very little rest in between—sometimes as little as four hours.

Let’s look at an example. A coffee shop employee gets their schedule for the week. It shows them working from 5:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m on Tuesday and from 4:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m on Wednesday. This means the employee is responsible for closing duties late Tuesday night and has to be back first thing on Wednesday morning to open up shop. That’s just five hours in between shifts, which isn’t enough time to fully decompress or get a full night’s sleep.

Whether their manager is understaffed or the business is trying to extend their hours, this employee is scheduled to work a clopening shift.

The most common industries for clopening shifts

Clopening shifts typically happen at retail and service companies with hourly employees. The most common industries for clopening shifts are:

• Restaurants
• Bars
• Hospitals
• Clothing stores
• Retail stores
• Convenient stores
• Gas stations

Any business that’s open 24 hours a day can schedule clopening shifts. You’ll also find clopening in businesses that are closed for less than ten hours before opening again the next day.  

Why do companies schedule clopening shifts?

Companies schedule clopening shifts for a number of reasons. Sometimes it’s deliberate, and other times it’s careless scheduling. Regardless of the intention behind it, these are some of the reasons a company might schedule clopening shifts.

Using an algorithm to make schedules

Employers can now use algorithms to automatically set schedules. These algorithms use real-time information about predicted customer traffic, peak and slow times, and other data to work out how staffing needs, then they put people into shifts. Smaller businesses may use just-in-time scheduling to the same effect.

But algorithmic scheduling doesn’t account for whether an employee has back-to-back closing and opening shifts; it’s all about optimizing costs and filling slots. When companies like Starbucks started relying on algorithms, it had serious consequences for their employees as well as their bottom line.

Inexperienced or multiple managers

Scheduling can be complicated for even the most experienced manager. If you have someone newer at the helm, it’s easy to make mistakes like overscheduling employees or putting them down for clopening shifts—especially if they’re making the schedule manually.

Clopens can also occur if different managers are responsible for different parts of the schedule. Maybe you have a night shift manager and a different manager for the day shift. If your managers don’t communicate or don’t have access to each other’s schedules, there’s a good chance your employees will end up working clopening shifts.  

Trying to cut costs

Many small businesses are trying to save money wherever they can—and hiring is expensive. Recruitment, background checks, onboarding, and training can add up, so it can be less expensive to have a smaller team.

When you have just enough employees to meet your needs, it doesn’t allow for a lot of flexibility. If even one person is sick or has a conflict, it’s going to result in some tight scheduling and some clopening shifts.

Not enough employees

While some companies deliberately keep their teams small, many are just feeling the effects of the labor shortage and high turnover rates. Managing an always-open business with limited people is tough and you can feel pressured to do whatever’s required to cover shifts.

Did you know? The latest data shows that there are 9.9 million job openings in the U.S., but only 5.8 million unemployed workers. There are a lot of jobs, but not enough workers to fill them. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, there would still be 4.2 million open jobs.

When you’re always short on people it’s highly likely you’re going to need to schedule clopeners, even if you’re making a concerted effort to give your employees the rest they need.

Not training enough people

With high turnover rates you may find yourself with a steady stream of fresh employees, and only a few trusted employees with the experience to handle closing and opening. That means these duties will fall to a small number of employees, which is bound to result in some clopening shifts.  

There’s some irony in this. Low morale and high levels of burnout—often caused by erratic and unbalanced scheduling—are one of the leading causes of high turnover rates.

What are the negative effects of clopening shifts?

Clopening may save companies time on scheduling and money on staffing, but it ends up costing everyone in the long run. Clopening shifts have serious negative impacts for both businesses and their employees.

The negative effects of clopening stem from lack of sleep. According to the CDC, adults need about seven hours of sleep each night, and if your employees are only sneaking a quick nap before heading back to work, you’ll start to see the consequences. Sleep deprived employees tend to lose focus, which can lead to a decrease in productivity and an increase in careless mistakes. And when you’re chronically tired, you start to lose patience, too.

Employees in customer-facing roles can’t provide a positive customer experience when they’re sleep impaired. While you may be saving a few bucks on hiring, a consistently poor customer experience could damage your reputation, drive away valuable customers, and make it harder to hire people.

For the employees working clopening shifts, lack of sleep can also drain their mental abilities and lead to a number of health problems from weight gain to a weakened immune system. Sleep deprivation can also impact an employee’s safety. Being drowsy can increase your risk for car accidents and other injuries throughout the day.

If employees are also parents, childcare can be extra complicated during clopening shifts. Employees scheduled for clopenings need someone to watch their children for long stretches, sometimes for over 24 hours. Relying on the kindness of family members or losing wages to expensive babysitters is stressful and can put a strain on their relationships.

Add sleep deprivation to the frustration and loss of work-life balance that comes with clopening, and now you’re looking at resentment, burnout, and eventually quitting. Finding a new job is stressful and time consuming, and high employee turnover is costly for businesses. Regardless of the pipe dream of saving you money, clopening is expensive for everyone.  

Is clopening illegal?

This is a tricky question. There are no laws in the U.S specifically banning clopening, but cities and states in the U.S. are increasingly implementing predictive scheduling laws, which helps restrict the practice.

Predictive scheduling is when an employer provides an employee with their schedule in advance, allowing them enough time to plan for their lives outside of work and more reliably predict their monthly pay. Some of these laws also dictate the number of hours an employee must have off in between shifts. Both of these measures make it difficult for your business to schedule clopening shifts.  

As of 2023, Oregon, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Emeryville, CA, New York City, and Seattle all have predictive scheduling laws in place. While the legislation varies by jurisdiction, all of the laws require advance notice of scheduling. In some cases employees must be compensated for last-minute changes to their schedules. In others, shifts less than 11 hours apart are subject to time and a half pay or cannot happen at all without employee consent.

Want a more detailed breakdown? You can check out the specifics of existing state and city laws here.

If you’re a business owner in one of these cities, it’s important to make sure you stay compliant. Using an automated solution like Homebase’s scheduling app makes it easier to avoid fines and lawsuits.

If clopening shifts aren’t illegal where you are, consider this. With so much pushback against clopenings, adding them to your schedule isn’t making you very enticing as an employer. By taking your employees’ health and wellbeing seriously, you can stand out in a competitive hiring market.

How to avoid clopenings with effective scheduling

If you’re set on avoiding clopening shifts, effective scheduling can help. You and your employee’s work lives will be more predictable and you can still turn a profit month after month. Here are a few tips for creating more effective schedules.

1. Use scheduling software

Schedule software, like Homebase, reduces the amount of time you need to spend filling shifts each week. Our scheduling app makes it extra simple to edit, share, and handle time-off requests in real time, and color coding makes it easy to see if you’ve accidentally scheduled someone back to back. When your schedule doesn’t take hours, you’ll make fewer mistakes and you’ll have more time to make sure it’s fair and balanced.

2. Get input from your employees

If you’re not sure what makes a balanced schedule, go straight to the source. Ask employees what they like about their shifts and they would change. And while it’s rare, some employees like clopening shifts—ask them about that, too. Homebase makes it easy to connect and chat with your employees with our team communication app. When you have the information you need, build it all into our scheduling app and let the automation keep you on track.

3. Give plenty of notice

It’s good practice to make your work schedules available several weeks in advance. This way, employees have time to arrange shift trades, manage childcare or other personal tasks well ahead of their scheduled shift. With Homebase’s shift scheduling app, you can easily build out shift work schedules. Once you’ve got a solid staffing plan in place, you can copy it over from week to week, making your scheduling processes simple and fast.

4. Be flexible

One of the serious downfalls of clopening is the lack of work-life balance. This can be fixed by allowing employees to swap shifts and have some flexibility in their schedule. Homebase makes it easy to adapt on the fly with our team communication app. Employees can message specific colleagues or the entire team to ask if someone’s willing to trade shifts or cover open shifts, without having to search for phone numbers or send an email. Managers can approve or deny shift swaps right from their mobile app.

Employees are your most valuable asset. When hiring’s competitive and budgets are tight, a fair, predictable schedule that doesn’t require clopening shifts can help you stand out. It keeps your team happy and goes a long way to making you the kind of employer they’ll want to stick with. Automate clopenings right out of your schedule with employee scheduling from Homebase.

Is your company struggling with effective scheduling? Homebase can help by making it easy to create schedules that work for your entire team, as well as offering things like time clocks, team communication, onboarding, compliance, and more. Get started for free.

Clopening shifts FAQ

What is a clopening shift?

A clopening shift is when an employee works a closing shift immediately followed by an opening shift. They typically have very little rest in between their shifts, sometimes as few as just four hours. The word clopening comes from combining the words “closing” and “opening.” Clopening shifts can lead to health issues and difficulty with family life, and are generally frowned upon by most labor advocates.

Though they can seem convenient to schedule, teams generally dislike them. They’re best to avoid with certain exceptions, unless your team is asking for them for their own reasoning.

What industries schedule clopening shifts?

Several different industries schedule clopening shifts. Any business that’s open 24 hours a day or closed for less than 10 hours at night can schedule clopening shifts. Clopening shifts are most typical in retail and service companies with hourly employees. The most common industries for clopening shifts are:

• Restaurants
• Bars
• Hospitals
• 24-hour clinics
• Grocery stores
• Clothing stores
• Retail stores
• Convenience stores
• Gas stations

Are clopening shifts legal?

While clopening shifts aren’t illegal, several cities and states have implemented predictive scheduling laws that help restrict the practice.

Predictive scheduling is when an employer provides work schedules well in advance or scheduled shifts, allowing employees enough time to plan doctor’s appointments, social events, childcare, and other aspects of their lives outside of work. It also helps them more reliably predict their monthly pay. Many predictive scheduling laws dictate the number of hours an employee must have off in between shifts, which makes it difficult for companies to schedule clopening shifts.  

As of 2023, Oregon, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Emeryville, CA, New York City, and Seattle all have predictive scheduling laws in place. In some cases employees must be compensated for last-minute changes to their schedules. In others, shifts less than 11 hours apart are subject to time and a half pay or cannot happen at all without employee consent.

If clopenings are illegal in your city or state, it’s important to stay up to date on labor laws and ensure you’re staying compliant. If there are no applicable laws in your city or state, consider that clopening shifts are harmful to employee health and wellbeing and can hurt your business, too.

What are the negative effects of clopening shifts?

Clopening shifts can have a negative effect on both businesses and their employees. Because clopening shifts deprive employees of much-needed sleep, they tend to lose focus. This can lead to a decrease in productivity, an increase in careless mistakes, and loss of patience as well.

Employees in customer-facing roles can’t provide a positive customer experience when they’re sleep impaired. While you may be saving a few bucks on hiring, a consistently poor customer experience could damage your reputation, drive away valuable customers, and make it harder to hire people.

Lack of sleep also drains employees of their mental abilities and can lead to a number of health problems including weight gain, immune issues, poor mental state, and an increased risk of accident and injury.  

If employees are also parents, childcare can be extra complicated during clopening shifts. Constantly relying on family members or paying expensive babysitters is stressful and can put a strain on their relationships.

Lack of sleep, frustration, low morale, and burnout will eventually result in quitting. Finding a new job is time consuming, and high employee turnover is costly for businesses. This makes clopening shifts expensive for everyone.