Cover a no-show in 10 minutes.
Someone didn't show and the rush starts in twenty. Don't think — run the playbook.
01
Minute 0–2: stabilize the floor
Don't open the group chat yet. First, make the floor safe with what you have: pull one person off the lowest-impact station, pause non-urgent tasks, and tell waiting customers the honest wait time. A calm two minutes here saves twenty panicked ones later.
02
Minute 2–5: broadcast once, in one place
Post the open shift in exactly one shared place — your board, not five side conversations. Include the role, the hours, and the one thing that matters ("register, not bar — Saturday lunch rush"). One broadcast means one source of truth; side texts are where double-booking is born.
Name a deadline out loud: "need a yes by 9:40." Open-ended asks get scrolled past. A deadline gets answered.
03
Minute 5–8: fill it or split it
First yes wins — take it immediately and confirm publicly so everyone else stands down. No yes? Split the shift: two people covering halves beats one hero covering everything and hating you by close. Offer the split explicitly; martyrs don't volunteer, but half-shifts get taken.
04
Minute 8–10: log it and move on
Write down who covered, who no-showed, and what time everything happened — while it's fresh, in the same place the shift was posted. Memory lies by next week; the log doesn't. Then run the shift. The conversation about the no-show happens tomorrow, never mid-rush.
Quick answers
What if nobody can cover?+
Split it, shorten the suffering, or close the weakest station early. Then write it down. A documented gap you planned for beats a gap that ambushed you — and it's the evidence you need for the staffing conversation later.
Should I punish the no-show?+
Not mid-shift, ever. Log the facts, run the floor, and have the conversation within 48 hours with the log in front of both of you. Consistency matters more than severity: the same response every time.
Never run this playbook again.
shiftswap turns this whole guide into one shared board. Post it, claim it, approve it — done.