Time Out / Availability Calendar (Workgroup Solution)

Creating a separate staff "out of office" calendar for your group / department has many advantages:

• Everyone can see, at a glance, when co-workers will be out
• The calendar view can be turned on and off as needed by all members of the group
• With a custom script add-on provided by ITS and strict adherence to how the event is added to this calendar so that it matches up with the Employee Handbook,  a group supervisor can then use this to aid in employee Attendance Tracking

Initial Setup

Create the "Out-of-Office / Availability" Calendar

This is a one-time setup and should be done by the group / department lead who will be managing the Out-of-Office / Availability calendar.

1. Make sure that you are logged into the Manhattan College account that will host this calendar.  Launch your calendar by going to calendar.google.com.  Note that this calendar can be created under anyone's Manhattan College account or a departmental account
2. In the My Calendars section on the left, click Add
3. Choose a name for the calendar (e.g. [Department Name] Out / Availability)
4. In the "Share with Specific People" section, add your co-workers and supervisor.
   • The supervisor should have "Make Changes and Manage Sharing" privileges
   • Everyone else can simply have "See All Event Details" privileges
   • When Sharing, make sure to send an email to the individuals - they will get an invitation with a link to Add the Calendar to their list of Calendars.
5. Click the Create Calendar button at the bottom.  Now, your calendar will appear in the "My Calendars" list

Note:

• You can go back at any time to edit the details and adjust your settings, especially to share with other people.
• Please share the Calendar ID with those in your group (who may not have gotten or missed an email notification so that they can add this calendar to their calendar list.

Supervisor(s) and Staff: Add the Calendar Address as a Contact

1. Locate the calendar you want to add events to in your list of calendars within settings.
   • You may visit calendar.google.com/calendar/r/settings to get there directly
   • If you did not create the calendar then it will be found within the Other calendars section. (Only after adding the calendar via the email link)
   • If you did create the calendar then it will be found within the My calendars section (if you do not see it refresh your page)
2. Click on calendar for your department (This should open up multiple settings beneath it).
3. Click Integrate calendar (found within calendar settings)
4. Find the section labeled Calendar ID
   • Highlight and copy the text
   • Calendar ID examples:
     • c_j34vj72a8pjur3f9n3r77yu89@group.calendar.google.com
     • manhattan.edu_lng4tk1oomfql3dkflkmxlkjadfkjoqerjmlmznde9pf3k@group.calendar.google.com
     • yourdepartment@manhattan.edu 
5. Now, we will add this Calendar as a contact. 
   • Go to your email contacts. You may visit https://contacts.google.com/  to get there directly
6. Once there, click the + (plus sign) located on one the corners of your screen.
   • Then click Create contact
   • Enter (Your Department or Group) calendar name as the First Name
   • For the email address, paste the Calendar ID.
   • Save the contact

You have completed adding the calendar as a contact.

Supervisor / Approver: Set up Notifications

These instructions are to be completed by the supervisor / owner of the calendar who plans to approve events via the calendar, or wishes to receive notifications when events are added or changed

1.  Locate the calendar within settings
   • You may visit calendar.google.com/calendar/r/settings to get there directly
   • Click on the calendar (This should open multiple settings underneath it)
2. Click the Event Notification setting 
   • Set New events to Email
   • Set Changed events to Email
   • Set Canceled events to Email

Using Calendar

Staff: Adding/Requesting Out Event

To Align the Out-of-Office Event with the Employee Handbook and to permit optional use of an add-on Google Sheet that can be used to tally up such events for the Fiscal Year, ITS has developed the following standard for how all individuals should tag their event.

These calendars are not the official method of requesting time off, but rather a method of recording it once it has been approved by one's Supervisor. Please see the Manhattan College Employee Handbook for policies. 

These instructions are to be completed by employees each time they would like to post an "Out Event". Below is a table showing the Out Event Keywords which should be included in your Out Event Title.

1. Add the Out Event to your own calendar
   • Create an all day event on the date you will be out. Or, if you have a shorter appointment, create an event for those times.
   • Include the Event keyword followed by a hyphen then your initials  ( example "VACATION - YF  or YF - Vacation)" 
   • Change Event to "Show me as Busy", so people trying to schedule an appointment or meeting with you will see that you are busy (This does not apply to Remote Events)
   • In the Guest area on the right, start typing the name of the contact name you created for your department calendar . When you see the contact appear, choose it and add it as a guest to the event
   • Save the Event 

Viewing the Calendar

• To toggle the calendar on or off, click its name in your list of calendars.
• To change the display color, click options that appears when hovering over calendar name