Standby pool

A standby pool (or reserve list) is a ranked group of staff held behind an allocated shift or position, ready to be called on if someone allocated can't make it. Everyone in the pool asked for the shift but wasn't placed first, so the pool is made up of allocation's overflow.

How it works

When a shift draws more requests than it has room for, the extra requesters don't simply miss out. They're ranked and held as standby for that shift. Usually:

• A top tier of standby is told they're in reserve, and may be told where they rank, so they know they're likely to be called if a seat opens.
• A wider, silent reserve sits further down the list and is contacted only if needed.
• If an allocated person drops out, the pool is worked through in rank order until the seat is filled.

Why a pool helps

Without a standby pool, one cancellation becomes a scramble: a manager working down a personal contact list, or posting in a group chat and hoping someone's free. A ranked pool replaces that with a known order to work through. It also gives unplaced requesters a clearer status than a flat no. They know they're still in contention.

Standby pools are what make fast dropout recovery possible. Without a ranked reserve already in place, there's no quick way to know who to ask next.

In Chronomancer

In Chronomancer, each night can carry a ranked standby list of people a manager holds in reserve. The top few are told they're on standby and the rest are kept as a silent reserve. When a seat comes free, through a self-withdrawal or a dropout on the night, a one-time claim link can go to the whole ranked list at once, and the first valid claim gets the seat.