What to do when your work schedule changes

Your manager sends a revised roster. The events you already added to your calendar still describe the old version. A downloaded calendar file is a snapshot, not a live connection to your employer. You need the new source and a deliberate comparison.

Do not assume importing a second file will replace existing events. Calendar apps can handle repeated files differently. Google explicitly notes that imported events do not stay synchronized between accounts. Google Calendar's import guidance. For Shiftpup's web export, treat every download as a separate file that may create duplicates if added again.

Confirm what the new image covers

Before making changes, check the worker, week, workplace time zone and when the roster was revised. Ask whether it is the complete week or only the changed section. An absent shift in a crop is not evidence that the shift was cancelled. A second worker with the same first name is another reason to ask for clarification.

Keep old and new versions side by side privately. Do not post a whole team roster in a support comment. If a date, code or cancellation is unclear, confirm it with the person responsible for the schedule before changing the calendar.

Compare one shift at a time

Make four groups: unchanged, added, changed, and confirmed cancelled. This example is fictional:

Include the end date in the comparison for overnight shifts. Also check any notes or alerts you added yourself; blindly replacing the week may lose them.

Update the calendar safely

For one or two changes, manually edit the affected events. That lets you preserve the rest of the week and inspect exactly what changed. For many changes, review every old event before considering removal and reimport. Only remove events you can identify as the old imported work shifts. Keep unrelated appointments and other people's events intact.

A separate work calendar can make identification easier, but deleting an entire calendar may remove other weeks or unrelated entries too. Hiding a calendar only changes visibility; it does not resolve duplicates.

After updating, compare the affected dates with the latest confirmed roster. Count the shifts, inspect start and end times, and check reminders. If an action partly failed, inspect what actually exists before retrying the whole operation.

If you use Shiftpup

Review the revised image in the free web tool, then compare those reviewed shifts with your existing calendar. Exporting the new week does not update the earlier import. The web beta does not promise automatic change detection, calendar replacement or duplicate prevention in another calendar app.

Shiftpup cannot discover a manager's update from an old screenshot. When your schedule changes, use the new version and review it again.

Common questions

Can I simply add the same file twice? Avoid doing so. Repeated imports may add duplicate events, and stable identifiers do not guarantee every calendar app will reconcile them.

A shift disappeared. Should I delete it? Only after confirming that the revised source covers the whole period and the shift was actually removed.

Which version should I trust? The latest schedule confirmed by your workplace, not whichever screenshot is easiest to find. If two sources conflict, ask before editing your calendar.

Prepare a reviewed calendar file with Shiftpup, or follow the iPhone import guide. Your shifts. Off your mind.