24/7/365 Working

24/7/365 means a service or a team operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, so it is available every hour of every day, including weekends and public holidays. The team as a whole never has a closed period, but that does not mean every person works all the time.

There are no set working hours for the whole team. Instead, different members cover different parts of the day. This is easier when the team is a world team with members in different time zones: someone can work their normal daytime hours while another member is asleep, and together they keep the service running. For example, an online chess club has fair-play volunteers in Edinburgh, Vancouver and Christchurch. Each volunteer reviews new games during their normal working day, so suspicious games are checked around the clock without anyone staying up all night.

Why organisations use it

Continuous cover means customers can get help at any hour, which matters if people use the service overnight or in another country. It also lets work on a project continue for longer periods, because when one member finishes for the day, another can pick up the shared work.

Digital technology makes this possible. Cloud storage, shared calendars and messaging let members open the same files, see who is on duty and read updates at any time, even when they are not online together.

24/7/365 describes the service, not each member of staff. It would be wrong to say everyone on the team works 24 hours a day; the cover comes from the team sharing the hours between them.