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.
If you would rather ask which weekends people can work
Some companies’ sign-up forms ask the question the other way round. Go to Company → Rules & defaults → How staff give availability and choose Tick the weekends they can work. From then on:
- Your staff’s My Availability page leads with Tick the weekends you can work, and a new mark starts as Can work.
- A weekend somebody hasn’t ticked reads Not indicated — a question still open, not a no.
- When Herding Cats suggests staffing — AI staffing, the season plan, Run AI staffing on a weekend, the replacement call list and the swap list — everyone who said they can work comes first, then the people who haven’t said, then anyone who said Prefer not. Travel and load decide the order within each group.
- Nobody is ever left out for not answering, and time off marked as Not available is still a hard no.
Switching never changes anyone’s marks — it only changes what a blank weekend means. Switch back to Mark the weekends they can’t work (default) whenever you like.
What your staff do
Your staff go to Availability in their portal. The page is headed My Availability:
You’re assumed available all season. Mark any days you’re away — a trip, exams, a family weekend — and update them whenever plans change.
They mark time off as date ranges: on the Time off view they tap the first day they are away, then the last (the same day twice for a single day), and the stretch appears under Marked time off. Any days work — the page does not assume events only happen on weekends. They can also mark days they can work or would like to work: they switch Marking from Unavailable to Can work or Preferred and tap the days the same way. A second view, Calendar, shows the same marks painted across real month grids, for looking rather than editing.
Each marked stretch is one of four things:
| What it says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not available | They cannot work those days |
| Prefer not | They would rather not, but will if you are stuck |
| Can work | They can work those days |
| Prefer to work | They can work those days and would like to |
Unmarked days are simply available — that is the default and it needs no action (unless your company asks staff to tick the weekends they can work — see above). A day cannot be both a yes and time off: marking Can work or Prefer to work over time off clears the time off from those days, and the other way round. They can add a short note to any marked stretch — e.g. family birthday — which you can see.
There is no save button. Every mark saves straight away.
When they are happy with their season they press Submit availability. That locks their calendar for the season so it cannot change under you, and the page shows Submitted with the date. If plans change, open their page and use Unlock on the Time off card — you add a short note, which they see — and they make the change and submit again.
New companies start with approvals on, and you can change that under Company → Staffing → Availability approvals. With it on, a staff member’s change does not touch the calendar — it files a request for you, and they see it marked Pending approval until somebody acts on it.
Those requests land on Approvals, alongside profile changes, under Pending Availability Changes. Each one is a plain sentence — Mark Nov 7–8 as Not available — “family wedding” — with Approve and Decline, and a box for a note that goes to the staff member. Approving applies the change; declining leaves the calendar exactly as it was. Either way they are notified.
Turn it off and changes go straight to the calendar again, which is how it worked before. Time off you record on someone’s behalf is never held for approval — you are the person who would approve it.
With approvals on, a staff member cannot mark Can work or Prefer to work over days they already marked as time off. The page asks them to remove that time off first — a request of its own — and then mark the days they can (or would like to) work.
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
- Away
When they marked specific dates, the chip carries them — Away Mar 6–9 — and hovering shows exactly what was marked and when.
Somebody who marked the weekend as one they would like to work also gets a green Prefers this weekend next to their name; somebody who marked it Can work gets Can work this weekend.
Somebody with no chip has not marked anything. That is the “assumed available” case — or, when your company asks staff to tick the weekends they can work, Not indicated, drawn as a hollow dot. The legend above the board explains the Can work and Not indicated marks whenever someone on the weekend has one.
When you choose people
Prefers this weekend and Can work this weekend also show wherever you pick people for dates they marked: the staffing pool on an event, the suggested picks on the season board and the weekend view, the list behind See all candidates, the replacement call list, and the swap list.
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. Days someone would like to work are not time off, so they are not on it.
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. When your company asks staff to tick the weekends they can work, the card is headed Availability instead, and when it is empty it says every weekend reads Not indicated until they — or you — mark the dates they can work.
On the Season card, weekends they would like to work show light green and read prefers, and weekends they can work show solid green and read can work, on both the Weekends tiles and the Calendar. When your company asks staff to tick the weekends they can work, a weekend they haven’t ticked reads no answer (Not indicated in the legend).
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.
Can work — Free to work these dates.
Prefers to work — Would like these dates.
When your company asks staff to tick the weekends they can work, the button reads Add availability and a new mark starts as Can work.
- 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, Prefers not, Can work and Prefers to work. On your staff’s side the same four read Not available, Prefer not, Can work and Prefer to work. It is the same information.
Importing the weekends people said they can work
If your sign-up form asked which weekends people can work — Which weekends in 2027 are you able to work?, answered with dates like February 12-14, March 19-21, June 18-20 (Finals) — the staff import can put those answers straight onto their calendars.
When you import the sheet, that column maps to Available weekends → availability calendar, and the line under it says what will happen: Update availability for their 2027 season. Each listed weekend is added to that person’s calendar as a weekend they can work; nothing already on their calendar is changed or removed. The year comes from the column’s heading, or from years written in the dates. If neither names one, pick it from Season on that line — the import waits until you do.
A question about the weekends people cannot work is left alone: it is offered as a custom field, and the calendar takes nothing from it.
Each cell in the review shows what was read — 3 weekends · Feb 12–14, Mar 19–21, … — and clicking it lists every weekend with its note. An entry that couldn’t be read (Memorial Day weekend) is marked as skipped; when a cell has no readable dates at all it turns red and adds nothing.
Every weekend becomes Can work for that person — or Prefers to work when the column’s heading asks which weekends they would prefer (Preferred weekends). Nothing is taken off their calendar, and some weekends are deliberately left alone:
- Someone who has submitted their availability for that season and is still locked gets nothing added. Unlock them first if you want the import to add to it.
- A weekend that is already marked Can work or Prefers to work is not added twice, so importing the same sheet again changes nothing — even a sheet you imported before Can work existed, when its weekends became Prefers to work.
- A weekend that overlaps time off they already marked is skipped. A day can’t be both, and the import never removes time off.
The summary at the end says how many weekends were added and lists each person’s skipped weekends and the reason.
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 Prefer to work does
Prefer to work is a day they are available and would like. It never takes anyone out of the running.
When Herding Cats suggests staffing — AI staffing on an event, the season plan, and Run AI staffing on a weekend — someone who marked the event’s dates this way counts a little more. All else being equal they come first, and the suggestion says Prefers this weekend. Marking only some of the event’s days counts for less. It never brings back someone who is away, already working that weekend or at their season limit, and it never outweighs clearly easier travel. The replacement call list and the swap list show the chip but do not rank by it.
Can work counts a little too, but less than Prefer to work: between two otherwise-equal people the one who said they can work goes first, and the suggestion says Can work this weekend. It never outweighs easier travel or a lighter season. (When your company asks staff to tick the weekends they can work, saying yes matters much more — see the top of this page.)
What to do next
- Staff an event — turn availability into a filled roster.
- Plan your weekends — see availability across the whole season.