Staff availability
Knowing who can work which weekend is the single thing that makes the rest of staffing possible. This page explains how it works, and — importantly — how it does not work, because Herding Cats takes a different approach to most rota systems.
The one rule that changes everything
Herding Cats does not ask people to confirm each weekend. It assumes everyone is available, and asks them only to mark the weekends they cannot work.
That means there is no list of people who “haven’t answered”, because not answering is a valid answer. It means yes.
This is deliberate. Chasing forty people for forty confirmations a season is a losing battle, and the answers go stale anyway. Marking exceptions is a much smaller ask, so people actually do it.
The trade-off is real, and you should know it: a blank calendar means nobody told us otherwise, not this person has confirmed. For anything critical, still pick up the phone.
What your staff do
Your staff go to Availability in their portal. The page is headed My Availability:
You’re assumed available every weekend. Mark the ones you can’t (or would rather not) work — and use Time off for longer stretches. Update them whenever your plans change.
They can enter it three ways, using the List, Calendar, and Time off buttons.
Marking a weekend
They tap a weekend, and each tap moves it to the next state:
| What it says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Available | The default. Nothing has been marked |
| Not available | They cannot work it |
| Prefer not | They would rather not, but will if you are stuck |
They can add a short note to any marked weekend — e.g. family birthday — which you can see.
There is no save button on that page. Every tap saves straight away. If a staff member asks how to submit it, the answer is that they already have.
Marking a longer stretch
The Time off view is for anything that is not a neat weekend — a holiday, exams, a busy fortnight. They tap the first day, then the last. Marked stretches appear under Marked time off, and can be edited as Can’t work or Prefer not to.
What you see as a coordinator
On the weekend view
Open a weekend from Events and you will see, next to each assigned person, a chip:
- Available
- Prefers not
- Unavailable
When they marked specific dates, the chip reads Away with the dates, and hovering shows exactly what was marked and when.
Somebody with no chip has not marked anything. That is the “assumed available” case.
On the season board
The Season planning tab has a card headed Time off on file: Everyone else is assumed available — these are the marked exceptions the plan works around.
That card is your honest picture. It is a list of the exceptions, and nothing more.
On one person’s page
Open anyone from the Staff Directory and you will find a card headed Time off, with a List and Calendar view and a Show past time off link. When it is empty it says: No time off marked — assumed available every weekend of the season.
Recording time off for somebody else
People will tell you in a corridor, in a text, or on a call. Put it in for them straight away — otherwise it exists only in your head.
- Open their page
Go to Staff Directory and click their name. Find the Time off card.
- Press Add time off
The box explains itself: Mark dates when {name} is away or would rather not work — everything unmarked stays available.
- Set the dates
First day and Last day. For a single day, use the same date twice.
- Choose the kind
Away — Can’t work these dates.
Prefers not — Workable if truly needed.
- Add a note and save
The Note (optional) box takes something like family wedding. Press Mark time off.
Underneath, a section headed Season weekends affected shows you exactly which of your weekends this knocks out. Worth a glance before you close the box.
The words differ slightly depending on where you are standing. On your side they read Away and Prefers not. On your staff’s side the same two states read Not available and Prefer not. It is the same information.
Why Prefer not matters
It is tempting to treat Prefer not as a soft no and ignore it. Do not.
When Herding Cats suggests staffing, a Prefer not counts for less than a clear yes but is not excluded outright — so those people still come up when you are short. If you routinely book people who said “prefer not”, they will stop using it and start marking themselves fully unavailable instead. Then you lose the flexibility altogether.
Use it as it is meant: your reserve, not your first choice.
What to do next
- Staff an event — turn availability into a filled roster.
- Plan your weekends — see availability across the whole season.