Six staff, two shops, opening at 6 a.m. Every Sunday night I used to spend an hour with a pencil. Last week I tried this instead:
- A shared sheet with each person's availability and their maximum hours.
- A prompt that says who can bake, who can only do the till, and that every shift needs at least one baker.
- I paste the sheet in and ask for next week's rota as a table.
It mostly works! It took twelve minutes including my checking. But it keeps putting Jess on Sunday mornings even though her availability says "no Sundays", and once it gave Sam 41 hours when his maximum is 30.
Is this a prompt problem, a spreadsheet problem, or am I asking too much of it?
(No phone numbers or surnames went into the chat. I read the house rules.)
