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Background

When on holiday I create a calendar entry with status Out of Office, so people know I'm not available for meetings.

My boss wants me to add events to his calendar too so that he's aware when I (or others in our team) are not around without him having to look through everyone else's calendars. He's not joining us on vacation; so wants the status of the event he's invited to to be logged in his calendar as Free.

Microsoft are aware of the above & recommend the same as we're doing here:

  • Add your vacation time to coworkers' calendars
  • Block out vacation time on your calendar

However, this means creating two events; one for my being out of the office, and one to inform my boss of the same.

Question

Is there a simple way to have an Outlook event show that I'm unavailable, whilst including others on the invite list (who will accept the invite) without it blocking out time in their calendars?

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  • What have you researched or attempted so far? Have you looked into creating a shared exchange calendar that everyone puts their time off on?
    – CharlieRB
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 13:17
  • Hey @CharlieRB; research so far was checking google / this site / office support site for info; the above link is the best I found. Haven't looked at using other calendars; ideally I just want to use my calendar, but have some way to inform my manager (ideally without then having multiple calendar entries to manage). Team calendar sounds promising; though this also adds an additional overhead which complicates things; ideally I'd like to use our existing calendars, but have some way to say that the event's invitees should be considered informees instead.
    – JohnLBevan
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 14:27

1 Answer 1

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The way that I solve this is by using the "Save changes but don't send" option.

So I first create a new out of office meeting, but I make sure to mark the "Show As" status to Free. I also turn off the reminder. I invite my boss and send out the invite. Then, as soon as I've sent the meeting request (regardless of whether my boss has accepted the meeting or not), I got in and change the Show As status to Out of Office. I do this in 1 of 2 ways:

  1. Click on the event in the calendar and change the Show As status in the drop down in the ribbon at the top of Outlook. This is easiest, as it doesn't even ask you. I'm fairly certain that it doesn't send an update.
  2. Open the event (double click) and change the Show As status to Out of Office. Then try to close the event (X button or whatever). It should ask you "What do you want to do with this meeting request?" There are three options:
    1. Save changes and send update
    2. Save changes but don't send
    3. Don't save changes

You want the middle one. Save changes but don't send. Then your calendar will be show as Out of Office, and your bosses will show Free.

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  • Microsoft says the first option won't work. support.office.com/en-us/article/…
    – IMTheNachoMan
    Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 16:34
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    It does indeed say that. Strange. I've been using the methods I listed for years and it's always worked for me. Just make sure to not send updates when you change the meeting.
    – Carrot
    Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 16:59

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