I've got a strange question here, but bear with me as I have my reasons.

At work we have the most stupid rostering system. I started my new timetable last sunday, and worked it fine. Today I got to work to be told I was an hour late, and that I was due in at 0440 instead of 0545. I sat spare and came home, convinced that somehow they'd got it wrong (they get it wrong every second week or so) but no, I was wrong.

Instead of starting the new roster at week one, they have started at week nine. They probably have some stupid reason up in the offices, but for the life of me i'll not know why. Even if they're trying to do some sort of continuation through the year, it would make sense to give the rosters to the staff starting at week one.

I, of course, have assumed that my timetable starts at week one.

How does it work where you are? Obviously self-employed / 9-5 minions are exempt from this survey as shifts at our company move around a lot, with the week starting on Sunday. For instance i'll work 0840-1939 Sunday, 0545-1257 Saturday, 1615-2228 Sunday, 0440-1147 Saturday etc... with work-times changing every week for 12 weeks and then it resets.

I ask because i've got to the point where I need to send a letter of suggestion to the union/office or i'll feel like i'm just complaining and doing nothing about it. There are all sorts of other problems with this system too, such as shifts being changed without notice (not allowed) and spare shifts (where we are effectively sat as backup staff to be sent out on trains in case of illness) being moved out of hours.

Currently in a 9-5:45 job, though we have started a 7:45-4:15 'shift'.
This 'shift is given to a random person for a week, then the next week it's given to whoever is next on the list (the list is an alphabetical order of our names), and so it goes on around the list...If you want to work until 5:45 each day, you are welcome to and can take the corresponding hours off on the Friday...

My last job was shift based, there was no real organisation, the timetables were made up two weeks in advance, and was made up by asking member what hours they wanted to work and then management just doing the opposite

Currently, there is a rota for six months (Aug-Feb, Feb-Aug) made available a few weeks before they're due to start. Because they cover six month periods, there's no confusion. If you want to have a planned break, you need to let human resources know as early as possible and they will try to work it into the rota, otherwise you end up having to swap shifts.

In my last job the rotas were drawn up only 3 weeks in advance, with the current week being shown on top, the next two weeks in separate folders underneath. Of course, by the time the 3rd week came in to being, the schedule had been heavily edited for shift swaps, time off etc.