Out-of-office and availability

Round Robin can automatically skip rotation members who are away. When the duty plan is calculated, unavailable members are excluded for the affected period and, where possible, the next available member takes over.

There are three sources of out-of-office information:

Source	Plan	Where you manage it	When it applies
Availability settings	All	Dashboard, Settings → Availability	Always enforced, for every rotation in scope
Google Calendar out-of-office events	Pro	Your Google Calendar, synced via the Google Calendar integration	Only if the rotation’s out-of-office consideration option is enabled
No-duty keywords in your Slack status	Pro	Dashboard, Settings → Team settings, and per rotation	Whenever your Slack status matches, for as long as it matches

The two work well together: keep recurring unavailability in your calendar, and use availability settings for one-off time away, or manage everything in Round Robin if you don’t use the calendar sync.

Add an unavailability window

You manage your own availability from the dashboard at app.roundrobinbot.eu. Each user configures their own windows; there is no Slack command for this.

1. In the sidebar, go to Settings → Availability.
2. Select Add Unavailability.
3. Set the start date and time and the end date and time. Enable Same day for windows that start and end on the same date.
4. Pick the time zone the window should be interpreted in.
5. Optionally add a reason (for example, “vacation” or “doctor appointment”). It is shown when you are skipped.
6. Choose the scope: All rotations, or Specific rotations only and pick the rotations it applies to.
7. Optionally set a recurrence (see below).
8. Save.

You can edit or delete windows from the same list at any time, and each window has an Active toggle so you can disable it temporarily without deleting it.

Recurrence

A window repeats according to its recurrence rule:

Rule	Behavior
Does not repeat	A one-time window.
Daily	Repeats every N days.
Weekly	Repeats every N weeks on the selected weekdays.
Monthly (on day)	Repeats every N months on a fixed day of the month.
Monthly (on weekday)	Repeats every N months on the 1st–4th or last selected weekday.

Recurring windows end either after a number of occurrences or on a specific date.

Skip by Slack status

Pro. If a word in your Slack status means you are not available, Round Robin can skip you for as long as that status is set. Nobody has to remember to add a window: you set your status, and the rotation passes you over.

1. Open Settings → Team settings and find the No-duty keywords card.
2. Add a keyword, for example vacation or :palm_tree:, and save.

The details:

• Keywords are matched against the status message, not the emoji, and matching is case-insensitive.
• Emoji have to be written in full Slack code notation, for example :palm_tree:.
• Every rotation inherits the workspace keywords. A rotation can add its own on top, from its Settings → Behavior section, or ignore the workspace list entirely and use only its own.

How skipping works

When Round Robin builds a rotation’s duty plan:

1. Your availability settings are checked first. They are always enforced: no rotation option is needed.
2. Google Calendar out-of-office events are checked next, but only if the rotation’s Out-of-Office Time Consideration option (under Settings → Behavior) is set to consider them. See Google Calendar sync for the details.
3. Your Slack status is checked when duty is about to change: if it matches a no-duty keyword, your turn passes to the next available member.

If a window overlaps a duty period, you are marked as skipped for that slot, together with the source (availability setting or Google Calendar) and the reason you provided.

When someone is skipped, the bot sends the rotation owners a direct message saying who was skipped, the reason, and the out-of-office period.

Being skipped does not change the order

Availability settings tell Round Robin when you are away; they do not change the rotation order itself. Skipped members simply do not appear in the plan for the affected slots.

Next steps

• Google Calendar sync: read out-of-office straight from your calendar.
• Create or edit a schedule: skipping weekends and holidays for the whole rotation.
• How Round Robin works: what being skipped means for the duty plan.