Employee assistant
Proposal · not implemented
The proposed assistant lets employees ask for schedule changes in plain language; it checks the rules, offers options, and sends a ready-made change to the manager for approval.
Employees ask the assistant, the assistant does the puzzle, the manager still decides.
What an employee can ask
- “I can’t work Thursday evening, can someone cover?”
- “Can I swap my Saturday with someone’s Sunday?”
- “I need to start an hour later on the 14th.”
- “When am I working next week?”
The first channel is the Shiffty app itself, which managers and employees share; see Architecture. Whether employees can also write from a messenger the team already uses is not decided.
What happens with a request
An illustrative exchange (not output from a real system):
Employee: Can I get Saturday off? My sister’s wedding.
Assistant: Your Saturday shift is 12:00–20:00. Chloe and Dan are available and under their weekly hours. Chloe would cover it without overtime. Should I send the swap to Chloe and then to your manager?
Employee: Yes.
Assistant: Sent to Chloe. Once she agrees, your manager gets the change to approve. I’ll let you know.
Behind this, the assistant:
- Finds the affected shift.
- Checks who could take it without breaking rest, hours or availability rules.
- Proposes the least disruptive option and says what it would cost (overtime, a gap).
- Asks the colleague, if another person is involved.
- Sends the change to the manager, who approves or rejects it in one step.
- Updates the published schedule and tells everyone affected.
What the assistant should not do
- Approve on its own. In the first version the manager approves every change. Automatic approval of small changes is a possible later rule, not a default.
- Pressure colleagues. A colleague who is asked to cover can say no without explaining why.
- Share more than needed. An employee sees who could cover a shift, not colleagues’ personal reasons or pay.
When no option works
If nobody can cover without breaking a rule, the assistant says so and passes the request to the manager with the facts: who was checked and why each option failed.