I worked in the Secretary's Situation Room/Operations Center (open 24 x 7) at the US Department of State from 1983-1984. Teams rotated first two days 8am - 4pm (briefed by outgoing team 7:15am - 8am), next two days 4pm - midnight (brief 3:15pm - 4pm), and final two days midnight - 8am (brief 11:15pm - midnight), and had off the next 56 hours until their rotation started anew. The State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research Operations Center had to have an alternate schedule for security reasons, i.e. to avoid unauthorized collaboration between the Secretary's Ops staff and INR's Ops staff. They worked two-week shifts of the same hours noted above, i.e., first two weeks 8am - 4pm, next two weeks 4pm - midnight, and final two weeks midnight - 8am. I can't recall how much time the INR teams had off after their sixth week. Both schedules were brutal on families/friends, sleeping patterns and digestive systems, but great for commuting into and out of the District. Debbie Kelly ============================================ Digital Counsel Associates 632 Broadway 10th Floor New York New York 10012 p 212-271-0251 f 212-271-0363 Providing business-driven legal solutions to technology and digital media companies. ============================================ Fight Spam! Join CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email) at http://www.cauce.org and tell your Congresspeople how Spam mailings hurt you. Help protect genuine Internet commerce: Outlaw UCE Spamming.