Availability patterns are a way of defining when you can and can't work shifts. Elsewhere you may have heard it referred to as a "work pattern".
In Rotaready, patterns are incredibly configurable and can be used to accommodate even the most obscure availability, such as "I can only work every other Wednesday between 9am and 8pm, and every alternate Friday but not between 3pm and 4pm".
Depending how your employer has configured Rotaready, you may not be able to define your own availability pattern. If this is the case, you'll have to request your manager adds it for you.
Adding an availability pattern
It's possible to have multiple patterns. They can overlap and they can also be time-boxed with a start and an end date. It's also possible to toggle specific patterns on and off.
This can't yet be done from the Rotaready app and must be done online.
Under the Home navigation menu, click My availability
Choose whether this pattern should be weekly, monthly, or custom (your choice of an arbitrary number of days long)
Give your pattern a good name that helps you identify it in the future, like "while studying" if it represents your availability while at school or university.
Pick a start date for when you'd like the pattern to take effect
Optionally pick an end date if you'd like the pattern to stop, otherwise it will continue into the future. You can always come back and add one later.
For a weekly pattern, you'll need to choose the number of weeks. A two week pattern is a 14-day repeating block, which is perfect if you can only work "every other Tuesday", for example.
Now, for the days within your pattern, you can specify whether you're available, unavailable, available AM only (midnight to midday), available PM only (midday to midnight), available custom (you choose the hours of the day when you're free) or unavailable custom (you choose the hours of the day when you're not free).
If you're unsure if you've defined your pattern correctly, just save it and review your schedule. It'll appear your schedule calendar immediately, making it easy to see how the pattern applies and if it's what you intended.
Making an exception
Sometimes you're available when you wouldn't normally be. Perhaps your other commitments have been cancelled or you just want to work extra hours. Whatever the reason, there's no need to change your availability pattern. Simply make a pattern exception.
View your schedule online or on the Rotaready app.
Find the day that you're now free to work on
Click or tap on where it says Unavailable
Click or tap I'm available
You can reverse this exception if you later change your mind, so long as you haven't already been given a shift. Just look for the Edit exceptions button, found below your schedule calendar.