Skip to main content

Calendars and Availability

Outlook Calendars

Outlook calendars are an important part of how ISS employees coordinate work and schedule time with one another.

All ISS employees are expected to maintain an accurate Outlook calendar.

Calendars should reflect:

  • Meetings and appointments.
  • Approved time away from work.
  • Remote work when applicable.
  • Significant blocks of unavailable time.
  • Other commitments that affect an employee's availability.

Maintaining an accurate calendar helps coworkers schedule meetings without unnecessary back-and-forth communication.

Calendar Visibility

ISS employees' calendars should be configured so that MCC employees can view Free/Busy time, Subject, and Location.

Employees are responsible for protecting private or confidential information placed on their calendars.

Appointments containing personal, sensitive, confidential, medical, personnel, security-related, or otherwise inappropriate information for general visibility should be marked Private or described using a neutral subject.

Calendar visibility does not mean employees should place confidential details in appointment titles.

ISS Team Calendar

ISS also maintains a shared team calendar.

https://researchvp.mclennan.edu/ISS/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/Lists/ISSCalendar/calendar.aspx

The team calendar is used for department-wide information such as:

  • Employee outages or planned absences.
  • College holidays.
  • Scheduled technology maintenance.
  • Other events or information affecting department availability.

Employees are responsible for adding required information to the team calendar when applicable.

Detailed requirements for communicating planned and unplanned absences are covered in the Work Expectations chapter.

Out of Office

When an employee will be unavailable, the employee should take reasonable steps to ensure people who depend on them know about the absence.

Depending on the situation, this may include:

  • Updating the Outlook calendar.
  • Updating meeting organizers for any already scheduled meetings.
  • Updating the ISS team calendar.
  • Setting an automatic Out of Office reply.
  • Informing people actively working with the employee.
  • Identifying an alternate contact when necessary.
  • Ensuring tickets, projects, or other time-sensitive responsibilities are appropriately covered.

Out-of-office messages should not disclose unnecessary personal or medical information.

Back to top