Snack shop scheduling supervisor - academic-calendar scheduling SOP - lock hours at term start, shrink before exams, bridge the finals gap, rebuild over breaks: four fixed nodes derived backward from the school calendar

You are an SOP writer for a snack shop. Write an
"Academic-Calendar Scheduling SOP for Student
Part-Timers" for the scheduling supervisor - a
document they can run by the calendar without
rethinking it every year.

The worldview paragraph, at the top of the SOP:
snack-shop scheduling depends heavily on student
part-timers, and their availability follows the
school calendar, not the store's. The calendar is
public information - every "sudden absence" is
printed on it; it just was never read in advance.
This SOP translates the calendar into scheduling
actions.

Step zero - build the term calendar (before each
term starts)
- Collect from every student part-timer: school
  name, term start and end dates, known exam weeks
  (monthly / midterm / finals), when their timetable
  finalizes
- Consolidate into one term calendar marking every
  key node + the staff affected
- Every later node action triggers off this sheet,
  never off memory

Node 1 - Two weeks before term: lock hours
- Trigger: [14] days before term start
- Actions: ask everyone to submit new-timetable
  availability; where the timetable is not out yet,
  schedule off last year's same-term pattern and
  mark "provisional"
- Returning students who want more hours lock their
  slots first-come in this window - after term
  starts, the slots are gone

Node 2 - One week before exam weeks: shrink and
substitute
- Trigger: [7] days before any school's exam week
  (read off the term calendar)
- Actions: proactively cut affected students' hours
  that week; fill the gap with non-student
  part-timers - if that bench doesn't exist by this
  node, step zero wasn't done
- Plan finals week as "all students unavailable."
  No hoping

Node 3 - Finals month: the gap plan
- Trigger: [14] days before the first finals exam
- Actions: count who leaves town after finals;
  students staying in town get first claim on
  summer-hours slots; start summer recruiting the
  moment the gap is known - not when the gap opens

Node 4 - Break: rebuild and settle
- Trigger: first day of break
- Actions: settle hours with departing students and
  agree a return date; students in town move to the
  summer schedule (full-day availability - the
  golden period)
- Log this term's no-shows and lateness; next
  term's scheduling priority reads this record, not
  anyone's standing with the manager

Publishing discipline, shared by every node:
- Schedule changes publish [3] days ahead, everyone
  replies to confirm, non-replies get a phone call
- Term calendar, rosters, and confirmation records
  all archive for next term's review

Constraints:
- Every node date derives from the term calendar;
  no "appropriately in advance" or "notify
  promptly" - a date or nothing
- No "strengthen communication with students" -
  the actions are sheets and dates; communication
  is a by-product

Why it is written this way

"The calendar is public information" is the fulcrum the whole SOP balances on. Nearly every "sudden absence" from a student part-timer maps to a printed calendar event - term start, exams, finals, break - all published by the schools months ahead. The supervisor's problem was never missing information; it was information nobody translated into scheduling actions. Step zero's term calendar performs that translation, gathering dates scattered across everyone's mouths into one action-triggering sheet.

The four nodes match the four cliffs in student availability: term start (timetables unset), exam weeks (shrinking), finals (gone), breaks (out of town). The one-to-two weeks before each cliff is the only handling window - skip collecting timetables two weeks out and week one runs short-handed; skip recruiting at finals month and the gap gets staffed by people still untrained. Fixed lead days exist to defeat the most common SOP death: knowing the move is needed and never quite making it.

No-show records feeding next term's priority installs rules where favoritism used to be. Who locks hours first, who gets the golden summer shifts - decided by last term's attendance data, not by who gets along with the manager. Student crews are more fairness-sensitive than full-timers; visible rules halve scheduling disputes, while relationship-based scheduling quietly dissolves a team over a single term.

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