# Out of office

An **out of office period** marks a range of days when you're away. While it's active
you have **no bookable slots on any of your event types**, and team events
([round-robin](/help/event-types/round-robin)) skip you so your teammates still get
booked. Manage your periods from
[**Availability → Out Of Office**](/360/availability?tab=out-of-office).

It's the one-click alternative to adding an "unavailable"
[date override](/help/schedules-availability/weekly-hours-and-overrides) to every
schedule for every day of a trip.

## What it is

- A period is an inclusive date range — a **first day** and a **last day** — plus an
  optional **note** (up to 500 characters) that only you can see.
- It blocks **whole days, everywhere**: every schedule, every event type, including
  team events. A date override, by contrast, belongs to one schedule.
- **Existing meetings are not canceled.** If confirmed meetings fall inside the dates,
  42min warns you with a count and a **Review meetings** link — rescheduling or
  canceling them is up to you.
- You can keep several periods at once, and a single period can span up to a year.
  Periods that have fully passed are cleaned up automatically.

<Screenshot
  src="/help/screenshots/schedules-availability/out-of-office.png"
  alt="The Out Of Office tab of the Availability page in the 42min dashboard, with a list of away periods and the Add out of office dialog"
  caption="Availability → Out Of Office — add a period by picking its first and last day; the note is visible only to you."
/>

## How to do it

1. Open [**Availability → Out Of Office**](/360/availability?tab=out-of-office).
2. Click **+ Add out of office** and pick the **first day** and **last day** (both are
   away days — a one-day absence uses the same date twice).
3. Optionally add a note ("Summer vacation") — it's visible only to you.
4. If confirmed meetings already fall inside those dates, a warning appears with the
   count and a **Review meetings** link that opens your
   [meetings](/360/meetings) filtered to that range. Reschedule or cancel them
   yourself — 42min never cancels meetings for you.
5. Save. To end an absence early, delete the period (the **×** next to it) — the days
   become bookable again immediately.

## Out of office, date overrides, or holidays?

Three features block days; they're for different jobs:

| | Best for | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| **Out of office** (this page) | Vacations, trips, leave — multi-day absences | Whole days, **all schedules and event types** |
| **[Date override](/help/schedules-availability/weekly-hours-and-overrides)** | A single date with different hours (or none) | One schedule — can block part of a day |
| **[Holidays](/help/schedules-availability/holidays-and-time-zones)** | Your country's public holidays, automatically | Whole days, all your event types |

<Callout type="tip">
A connected [AI assistant](/help/ai-assistants/overview) can manage this for you —
"I'm on vacation August 10–14" adds the period, and it reports any meetings that
need reviewing.
</Callout>

## Common pitfalls

- **Meetings booked before the period don't move.** Out of office only stops *new*
  bookings. Use the **Review meetings** warning link to deal with what's already on
  the calendar.
- **Away half a day?** Out of office blocks whole days only. For a free morning
  before a flight, use a [date override](/help/schedules-availability/weekly-hours-and-overrides)
  with just the hours you'll work.
- **Invitees aren't told why.** Your booking page simply shows no slots on those
  days — the note is private and never shown to invitees.
- **Days are your days.** A day is blocked in *your* time zone (the one on your
  default schedule): a slot that starts on an away day is blocked, even if your
  invitee sees it as a different date in their zone.