Managing unavailabilities
Unavailabilities block a slot in the schedule and indicate that an employee is not available during that period.
An unavailability signals that an employee cannot work over a given period, without it being an absence linked to a contract (leave, sickness). For example: a student unavailable on Wednesday mornings, or an employee who cannot work certain weekends for personal reasons.
Unavailabilities are visible in the schedule and act as an alert when building the schedule: Shyfter warns you if you try to schedule someone during a period they have declared unavailable.
Who can enter an unavailability?
Until recently, only employees could enter their own unavailabilities from the Shyfter Staff mobile app.
Now, administrators, schedule managers and HR managers can also create an unavailability directly from the schedule view, for any member of the team.
Creating an unavailability from the schedule view
Go to Schedules → Schedule management.
Hover over the cell of the employee concerned and click + Add a shift.
In the side panel, switch the type selector from Shift to Unavailability.
Enter the period (start date, end date, or time range if the unavailability is partial) and add a comment if needed.
Click Create shift to save. The unavailability appears in the schedule with a distinct marker.
Deleting unavailabilities
To delete an unavailability, click on it in the schedule and delete it from the side panel, or right-click and select Delete.
If you have several unavailabilities to delete at once, select them (Ctrl + click) and use the right-click menu or the More → Delete menu.
Unavailabilities sent by employees via the mobile app
It is above all your employees who enter their own unavailabilities: employees, salaried staff, students, flexi-jobbers or extras send their unavailabilities directly from the Shyfter Staff mobile app, each for themselves. This is the simplest way to collect everyone's constraints without you having to enter them on their behalf.
From the app, the employee indicates the periods when they cannot work (full day or time range). These unavailabilities appear directly in your schedule as soon as they are saved, and alert you if you try to schedule them during those slots. If your internal policy requires validation, you can configure an approval process in the settings.
Unavailabilities do not deduct from any leave balance. They are blocked slots that signal a non-availability, distinct from official absences (paid leave, sickness, etc.).