Case Study: Buck's T-4 Lodge achieves collaborative scheduling and improved staff morale with Orbital Shift

Employee scheduling From battles to collaboration

Buck's T-4 Lodge, a historic hotel and entertainment venue at the base of Lone Mountain near Bozeman, Montana, was bogged down by weekly scheduling battles. Co-owner and GM David O'Connor and his department heads relied on handwritten schedules, sticky notes and ad-hoc time-off policies, which made shift coverage adversarial and strained staff relationships.

In 2010 they implemented Orbital Shift across five departments to automate availability, time-off requests and two-way communication. The platform made scheduling collaborative instead of imposed, added alerts for missed clock-ins and daily notes for kitchen staff, and gave managers historical data for smarter staffing and budgeting—reducing conflict, improving operations and reinforcing a positive company culture.

Buck’s T-4 Lodge

David O’Conner

Co-Owner and General Manager