Introduction
The purpose of this calendar is to where all staff are located on a given day (e.g. remote, in-office, or on vacation).
Who should input their availability?
Currently, we ask the following employees to keep this calendar updated with their availability:
- CRE Staff
- Student Workers (CRE IT Assistant, Alumni Relations Assistants)
- Siqi/Kairos
Researchers/post-docs/faculty do not need to update their availability in this calendar at this time.
Viewing the Calendar
- Visit https://crestaff.mit.edu/calendars/cre-work-schedules; or
- Open the CRE: Work Schedules calendar in Outlook. See How to View and Book Outlook/Exchange Calendars
Usage
Follow these steps to record your physical presence in the office.
- In your personal calendar, create a new meeting
- In the subject line, note whether you are remote/not working/on vacation using the "Quick Reference" table in this article below.
- For example, put R-Casey if your name is Casey and you are remote for the day.
- Set the hours you are remote or tick the All Day box.
- If you modify the All Day checkbox, the value in the Show As drop-down field may change.
- Set any recurring options
- Set the "Show As" option in Outlook to the appropriate setting based on the reference table below.
- Add cre-work-schedules-res@mit.edu as a required resource
- Send the invitation
- You will get an email confirmation; you can ignore any conflicts
Quick Reference
Use the following designations for your physical presence:
| Event Subject | "Show As:" Outlook option should be set to | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-Remote | Working Elsewhere | R-Casey | |
| V-Vacation | Out of Office | V-Constance | |
| X-Non-Working Day | Out of Office | X-Meaghan | Intended for staff who do not work 5 days per week |
| A-Available | Free | A-Cooper | Intended for staff who typically work <8 hour days (e.g. Student Assistants) |
It is ultimately up to your supervisor how you wish to schedule your time in the Work Schedules calendar.
Explanation/Benefits
The reason we use this system/process is for several reasons:
- When you update your personal calendar (e.g. to change your remote day), the CRE: Work Schedules calendar is updated automatically
- When someone is using the scheduling assistant, your availability, which is based on your individual calendar, will be reflected appropriately
- It provides a single calendar for staff to reference who is where, without needing to open a dozen calendars
- The CRE: Work Schedules calendar is available in Outlook, Outlook on the Web, the CRE Staff Intranet, and the iPad Kiosk in the CRE Reception Lobby.
Known Issues
- Scheduling an all day event from a Mac, iOS, or Android device produces a bug which shows the event times in the incorrect time zone (PST instead of EST) on the web-published calendar. This is a Microsoft Outlook bug and does not appear to be an easy fix. A workaround is to schedule an event from 9AM-5PM and manually set the time zone to eastern time.