Shift

How it is used

Call centres run on shifts so that the phones are covered all day: early shift, late shift, night shift, weekend shift. Agents start, finish, swap or cover shifts. Shift patterns and break times are planned by the workforce management team.

Example sentences

1. I'm on the late shift this week, from 2 pm to 10 pm.

2. Can anyone cover my shift on Saturday?

Common collocations

• night shift
• late shift
• cover a shift
• swap shifts
• shift pattern

Related terms

• team leaderA person who leads a small group of agents, supports them during shifts, monitors their performance and coaches them.
• call centreAn office where many agents handle phone calls from customers, or make calls to them, for one or more companies.
• queueA line of calls, chats or tickets waiting to be answered, usually handled in the order they arrived.
• agentA person who answers customers' calls, chats or emails and helps them on behalf of a company.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• shift · Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing
• shift · Nursing
• shift · Healthcare Management
• shift · Tourism & Hospitality

More terms: Call Centre Operations

• supervisor
• average handle time
• script
• inbound call
• outbound call
• IVR
• after-call work
• abandoned call