How to set a vacation status in Slack

Slack doesn't have an out-of-office reply, but a status and paused notifications tell everyone you're away and keep work from following you. You can set the status by hand, or let Palmy, the BuddiesHR time-off tracker for Slack, set it automatically for approved time off.

Set a vacation status#

1. In Slack, click your profile picture.
2. Click Update your status.
3. Choose Vacationing 🌴, or type your own message, such as "On vacation until Monday 12".
4. Under Clear after, choose when the status should disappear, for example the day you're back.
5. Click Save.

Your status now appears next to your name everywhere in Slack, so people see it before they message you.

Set the status automatically with Palmy#

If your team uses Palmy and an admin turned on Slack status auto-sync, you don't have to remember. When your time off is approved, Palmy sets your Slack status to the leave type, for example 🌴 Paid Time Off (PTO), at midnight on your first day off. Slack clears it at the end of your last day.

See set people's Slack status automatically for the details and the permissions it needs.

Pause notifications while you're away#

1. Click your profile picture.
2. Click Pause notifications.
3. Choose how long, or set a custom date and time.

You won't get notified until the pause ends. Palmy doesn't pause notifications for you, so do this step yourself.

Track your team's time off#

A status tells people you're away today. To plan around absences, you also need to know who's off and when. With Palmy, your team requests time off right in Slack and everyone's days off sit in one place:

• Request time off
• Post who's on leave in a Slack channel every day
• Sync time off with Google Calendar or Outlook
• Get started with Palmy