Editing 24/7 service

{{Short description|Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week}}
{{Redirect-several|dab=off|24/7 (disambiguation)|24-7-365 (disambiguation)|Open 24 Hours (film)|Open 24/7 (TV series)}}
[[File: 1 times square night 2013.jpg|thumb|Businesses in [[Times Square]], New York City, offer 24/7 service.]]
[[File:Klaukkala S-Market 01.jpg|thumb|[[S-Market]] 24/7 grocery store in [[Klaukkala]], Finland, 2022]]

In [[commerce]] and industry, '''24/7''' or '''24-7 service''' (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is [[Service (economics)|service]] that is available at any time and usually, every day.<ref>{{citation|chapter-url=http://accuracybook.com/glossary.htm|chapter=Inventory Accuracy Glossary|title=Inventory Accuracy: People, Processes, & Technology|last=Piasecki|first=David J.|publisher=accuracybook.com (OPS Publishing)|date=15 March 2003|isbn=0-9727631-0-4|access-date=2009-05-04|archive-date=2009-04-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090406071401/http://www.accuracybook.com/glossary.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> An alternate [[orthography]] for the numerical part includes '''24×7''' (usually pronounced "twenty-four by seven"). The numerals stand for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week". Less commonly used, '''24/7/52''' (adding "52 weeks") and '''24/7/365 service''' (adding "365 days") make it clear that service is available every day of the year.

[[Synonym]]s include '''around-the-clock service''' (with/without hyphens) and '''all day every day''', especially in [[British English]],<ref>{{citation|date=26 March 2009|title=Condoms to be advertised round-the-clock on TV|last=Gledhill|first=Ruth|newspaper=[[The Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{citation|date=1 April 2009|title=Glastonbury to be covered round the clock by BBC 6Music|last=Plunkett|first=John|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> and '''nonstop service''', but the latter can also refer to other things, such as public transport services which go between two stations without stopping.

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OED) defines the term as "twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; constantly". It lists its first reference to 24/7 to be from a 1983 story in the US magazine ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' in which [[Louisiana State University]] basketball player Jerry Reynolds describes his [[Jump shot (basketball)|jump shot]] in just such a way: 24–7–365.

24/7 service is employed in many settings including commercial businesses, emergency services, transport, [[Public utility|utilities]], certain industrial processes, and some human services.

==Examples==
===Commercial business===
24/7 service might be offered by a [[supermarket]], [[convenience store]], [[automatic teller machine|ATM]], [[automated online assistant]], [[filling station]], [[restaurant]], [[Concierge|concierge services]] or a staffed [[datacenter]], or a staffing company that specializes in providing nurses since often nurses cover shifts 24/7 at hospital which are open 24/7. 24/7 services may also include [[taxicab]]s, [[security guard|security service]]s, and in densely populated urban areas, [[construction crew]]s.

===Emergency services and transport===
[[File:HK CWB Tung Lo Wan Road St Paul's Hospital name sign Jan-2013.JPG|thumb|Hospital in Hong Kong with 24-hour clinics]]
Public 24/7 services often include those provided by [[emergency medical service|emergency medical provider]]s, [[police]], [[fire department|fire]] and [[emergency telephone number]]s, such as [[9-1-1]] in North America.

Transport services like [[airports]], [[airlines]], and ferry services, and in some cases trains and buses, may provide 24-hour service. Examples of public transport services operating 24/7 include the [[New York City Subway]], [[Staten Island Railway]], [[PATH (rail system)|PATH]], [[PATCO Speedline|PATCO]], the [[Copenhagen Metro]], and the [[Red Line (CTA)|Red Line]] and [[Blue Line (CTA)|Blue Line]] of the [[Chicago "L"]].

===Industrial and utility services===
Industrial and manufacturing facilities—especially those that operate near or at capacity, or which depend upon processes (such as [[production line]]s) that are costly to suspend—often provide 24/7 services. Similarly, utilities generally must provide multiple 24/7 services. For instance, an [[Electric power industry|electricity provider]] will handle outage reports 24/7 and dispatch emergency repair technicians 24/7, in addition to monitoring electrical infrastructure and producing electricity at all times. The same applies to telecommunications and internet service providers.

===Nonprofit and charity services===
Many crisis centers and [[crisis hotline]]s provide 24/7 services.

==Methods==
===Continuous operations===
Many 24/7 services operate continuously at all times with complete shift staff.

===Geographical alternation===
24/7 services that can utilize [[virtual office]]s, such as [[call centers]], may employ daytime agents in alternating [[time zone]]s.

==Service disruption==
In some cases, 24/7 services may be temporarily unavailable under certain circumstances. Such scenarios may include [[scheduled maintenance]], [[upgrade]]s or [[renovation]], [[Maintenance, repair, and operations|emergency repair]], and [[injunction]]. 24/7 services which depend upon the physical presence of employees at a given location may also be interrupted when a minimum number of employees cannot be present due to scenarios such as [[Weather-related cancellation|extreme weather]], [[death threat]]s, [[natural disaster]]s, or [[emergency evacuation|mandatory evacuation]].

Some 24/7 services close during major [[Public holiday|holiday]]s.

===Redundancy and hardening===
24/7 services often employ complex schemes that ensure their resistance to potential disruption, resilience in the event of disruption, and minimum standards of overall reliability.

Critical infrastructure may be supported by [[failover]] systems, [[electric generator]]s, and [[Communications satellite|satellite]] communications. In the event of catastrophic disaster, some 24/7 services prepare entirely redundant, parallel infrastructures, often in other geographic regions.

===Long-term post-COVID disruption===
At the beginning of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] in 2020, many stores ended 24/7 operations, ostensibly on a temporary basis, in order to clean and sanitize their establishments.<ref name="Biz Insider COVID" /> After the widespread availability of vaccines, however, many such businesses have not returned to 24-hour service for a variety of reasons. Some proprietors in the United States originally blamed pandemic unemployment benefits for a lack of workers, yet employers still struggled to resume pre-pandemic hours after these programs ended, citing continued staff shortages and demands for better working conditions among jobseekers. Many businesses that were once broadly open for 24/7 operations only resumed such service across some of their establishments or have ended 24/7 operations altogether, as in the case of [[Walmart]].<ref name="Biz Insider COVID">{{cite news |last1=Meisenzahl |first1=Mary |title=Walmart, 7-Eleven, and McDonald's shortened hours during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 24 hour shopping might be slow to return |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-ended-24-hour-shopping-walmart-7-eleven-mcdonalds-2021-5 |access-date=16 February 2023 |publisher=Business Insider |date=16 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520035726/https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-ended-24-hour-shopping-walmart-7-eleven-mcdonalds-2021-5 |archive-date=20 May 2021}}</ref><ref name="Forbes post-pandemic">{{cite news |last1=D'Innocenzio |first1=Anne |title=Frustration mounts as customers want longer opening hours, stores can't fill positions, employees feel overworked: 'Nobody is winning' |url=https://fortune.com/2022/12/11/post-pandemic-frustration-shoppers-workers-business-owners-opening-hours-service-holiday-shopping/ |access-date=16 February 2023 |agency=Associated Press |publisher=Fortune |date=11 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222071548/https://fortune.com/2022/12/11/post-pandemic-frustration-shoppers-workers-business-owners-opening-hours-service-holiday-shopping/ |archive-date=22 December 2022}}</ref>

==Criticism==

24/7 workplaces can put employees under conditions that limit their personal life choices and development. Calls for a rehumanisation of the 24/7 workplace have therefore been voiced.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/connectivity.pdf|title=24/7 Workplace Connectivity: A Hidden Ethical Dilemma|first=Charles F.|last=Piazza|date=23 January 2007|access-date=2009-05-04|publisher=[[Santa Clara University]]|archive-date=2009-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107115140/http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/connectivity.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Some have also remarked on the "collective mania" especially in the US that takes a sort of pride in the "work at all times" attitude exemplified by the 24/7 concept.<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/03/usa.worlddispatch|title=So long, American work culture|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=3 August 2001|last=Kettle|first=Martin|access-date=2012-09-03|archive-date=2021-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410134833/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/03/usa.worlddispatch|url-status=live}}</ref>

In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the [[Sunday trading#England and Wales|Sunday trading laws]] prevent many stores from truly opening 24/7, but they sometimes advertise as such. Some core services such as [[filling station]]s are exempt from the law requiring them to close. A campaign against changing the law was supported by many bodies, including the [[Church of England]], the [[Church in Wales]], and many secular bodies in an effort called [[Keep Sunday Special]].

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|24/7|twenty-four seven}}
* [[High availability]]
* [[Shopping hours]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:24 7 service}}
[[Category:Working time]]
[[Category:Ethically disputed working conditions]]