Assigned shift
An assigned shift is the named working window one person has been placed on. It carries a start date, and either an end or an open-ended run. Someone on a Mid shift of 12:00 to 21:00 is measured against those hours, even where colleagues started at 10:00.
The assignment links a schedule to a person. Without it, a shift is just a label on a wall.
Assignments carry a history. Somebody joins on Morning, moves to Mid in April, moves back in September. Any punctuality figure across that year is meaningless unless it knows which window applied on which day.
That history also settles the most common attendance dispute. Not 'were you late', but 'late against what'.
Assignments need a start date for the same reason. A change applied without one reaches backwards silently. Every past morning gets re-judged against a window that did not exist then. Dating the change keeps yesterday's record true. It also shows who moved a person and when.
Where this shows up in PeopleMuster
PeopleMuster assigns a named shift with a start date, an assigner and a duration. Every past assignment stays in an assignment history rather than being overwritten.
Questions people ask
Can one person be on more than one shift?
Over time, yes. Assignments follow one another with dates. What matters is that only one window applies to any given day, or the lateness figure means nothing.
What happens to old attendance when a shift changes?
It should stay judged against the shift that applied on that date. Recalculating history against a new window rewrites the past and makes trends unreadable.
Is an assigned shift the same as a roster?
No. An assignment puts one person on one named pattern. A roster is the wider plan showing who covers what across a period.