Workforce Engagement Management

I'm setting up a 6x1 schedule and creating a work plan, but I've noticed some strange behavior:
When I check the "Day Off Rules" option-both for Next Day and Previous Day-and define the shift with a planning period, WFM doesn't validate and returns a conflict error in the work plan (as shown in the second screenshot).

If I remove these settings, the plan is accepted normally.
Could you explain why this happens and, in practice, what the real purpose of this "day off rules" functionality is?
From what I've seen, it seems simpler to define the day off directly in the plan, without using this option.

#WFMConfiguration,BestPractices

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Alesson Santos
NA
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Day-off rules are considered optional rules within WFM, as a way to force WFM not to allocate any shift to the agent on the day before this shift is selected, or on the day after the agent was allocated to this shift in question. It is an option that needs to be aligned with other parameters within the Work Plan to function correctly.

For example, let's suppose we want to make a 12x36 work schedule (the agent works for 12 hours, then has the next 36 hours off). The possible schedules would be:

Agent's schedule in the first week:

Monday: Works from 8 am to 8 pm (12 hours worked).

Tuesday: Day off (36 hours of rest, from 8 PM on Monday until 8 AM on Wednesday)
Wednesday: Works from 8 AM to 8 PM (12 hours worked)
Thursday: Day off (36 hours of rest, from 8 PM on Wednesday until 8 AM on Friday)
Friday: Works from 8 AM to 8 PM (12 hours worked)

Even with the rotation, some adjustments will still be necessary for months with 5 weeks, since WFM, for now, is not yet able to make the rules persist when transitioning from one planning period to another.

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Lilian Masselli
-
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Hi Alesson,

That behavior is expected.
When you enable Day Off Rules (Next Day / Previous Day), WFM starts enforcing an extra layer of validation to make sure the agent's "rest day window" isn't violated by the planning period you configured.

So if your shift overlaps the boundary that WFM considers the "required rest period," it triggers the conflict you're seeing in the work plan. That's why removing the Day Off Rules makes the plan validate normally.

What Day Off Rules actually do:
They're meant to guarantee that the agent truly gets a full rest day before or after a long shift structure (very common in 6x1 or 5x2 setups). Instead of marking the day off manually, you let WFM enforce that "buffer" so the schedule doesn't accidentally place a long shift too close to the rest day.

In practice:
If your 6x1 pattern is already clean and you explicitly define the off-day in the plan, using Day Off Rules doesn't add much-it just adds stricter validation. That's why for most simple 6x1 implementations, people skip this option and set the day off directly.

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Raphael Poliesi
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That's actually expected, as they said.

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Daniel Souza
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Hi Allesson,

Well like all the other colleagues said above - Day-Off rules used to force day-off to happen either prior or after specific shift occurance.
And it is not about ensuring min amount of the rest between working shifts - it is really to ensure agents having day-off around specific shift.

Best example is a nigh shift. 
If I do not want to have situation, where after nigh shift  11:00PM - 6:00AM next day, my agent to have shift from 9:00AM till 6:00PM  - I can go and set the rulke equal to "Next Day is OFF".

Thanks,
Best Regards,

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Dmitriy Vakulenko
WFM Senior Product Manager
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