vuorokautensa

Vuorokautensa is a Finnish noun form that denotes the shift or 24-hour duty period allocated to a person in a rotating work schedule. In practical use, it refers to the specific time span a worker is on duty, for example from a starting hour to the following day. The form employs the third-person possessive suffix -nsa, marking “his/her/its own,” and translates roughly to “his/her shift” or “his/her 24-hour duty period.” In contexts such as hospitals, emergency services, manufacturing, and security, employees may speak of their vuorokautensa when discussing scheduling, handovers, and on-call arrangements. It is more common in written planning documents and formal reports than in casual speech, where terms like vuoro or vuoronsa are typically used.

The term is closely related to vuorotyö (shift work) and vuoro (shift, turn) and to vuorokausi (a 24-hour day). The nuance lies in the possessive form, which emphasizes the individual’s assigned duty window rather than the general concept of a day or a shift.

See also: vuorotyö, vuoro, vuorokausi, työvuoro.