Out-of-Office Calendars give your team a shared, automatic view of who’s unavailable, so you can plan work and schedules without surprises.
Instead of checking multiple calendars or relying on people to manually update a shared one, Reclaim syncs OOO time across your team into a single calendar that everyone can reference. Team Out-of-Office Calendars are available on Business and Enterprise plans.
What are Out-of-Office Calendars?
OOO Calendars are shared calendars that automatically track when you and your teammates are unavailable.
Reclaim detects OOO events on individual calendars and reflects them on a shared team calendar, so you can quickly see who is out and when.
This includes:
Full-day OOO events
Partial-day time away
Optional busy events (based on admin settings)
This creates a single source of truth for team availability.
How to set up OOO Calendars in Reclaim
Getting started takes just a few steps:
You must be a Reclaim team admin to set up OOO calendar.
1. Create or choose a shared calendar
In Google Calendar and/or Outlook Calendar:
Create a new OOO calendar or use an existing one for your team
Add teammates or groups who should be included
Make sure participants have write access
Write access is required — this is how Reclaim determines who participates.
How to create an OOO in Google Calendar
Open Google Calendar
On the left, next to “Other calendars”, click the + icon
Select “Create new calendar”
Name it (e.g., “Team OOO”) and click Create calendar
Go to Settings (gear icon → Settings)
Under your new calendar, click “Share with specific people or groups”
Click “Add people and groups”
Enter teammates or Google Groups
Set permissions to “Make changes to events”
Click Send
How to create an OOO in Outlook Calendar
Open Outlook Calendar (desktop or web)
In the left panel, click “Add calendar”
Select “Create blank calendar”
Name it (e.g., “Team OOO”) and choose where to save it
Click Save
Right-click the new calendar in your list
Select “Sharing and permissions”
Add teammates or groups
Set permissions to “Can edit”
Click Share
Tip: If you share the calendar with a group, Reclaim will automatically detect the members and include them in the Out-of-Office Calendar.
2. Add the calendar in Reclaim
Go to Team Settings → Team OOO Calendars
Click Add a Calendar
Select:
Calendar name
Owner
The shared calendar
Click Create
Reclaim will automatically detect participants and activate anyone with access and a Reclaim account.
Once set up:
Team members add OOO time to their own calendars
Reclaim automatically detects those events
Events are synced to the shared OOO Calendar
The calendar shows who is out and when
Admin settings
Admins can control how OOO Calendars behave across the team.
Allow team-created calendars: Let non-admins create their own OOO Calendars. If disabled, only admins can create them.
Include all-day busy events: Treat “busy” blocks as OOO time. Useful if your team doesn’t consistently use OOO events.
Convert partial-day events: Control how partial-day time away appears:
Show exact times (e.g. 2–4pm)
Or display as all-day events for simpler visibility
Best practices for Team OOO Calendars
Out-of-Office Calendars work best when they reflect how your team actually collaborates. Instead of creating one company-wide calendar, most organizations get better results with smaller, purpose-built calendars:
Use team-level calendars, not company-wide
Create OOO Calendars at the team or department level (e.g. Engineering, Marketing, Sales). This keeps calendars relevant and avoids unnecessary noise from people you don’t work with day-to-day.
Create calendars for cross-functional teams
If you regularly collaborate across teams (e.g. product squads, launch teams, leadership groups), set up a shared OOO Calendar for that group so everyone can plan around availability.
Allow people to be in multiple OOO calendars
It’s common for individuals to be part of more than one calendar. For example, a leader might be included in a leadership team OOO Calendar and another with their direct reports. Reclaim will keep all calendars in sync automatically.
Use groups to simplify setup and maintenance
Instead of adding individuals one by one, share calendars with groups (like Google Groups or Microsoft groups). This makes it easier to manage as teams grow or change.
Ensure participants have write access
Write access is required for Reclaim to include someone in an OOO Calendar. Without it, their availability won’t be tracked.
Standardize how your team marks Out-of-Office time
Encourage consistent use of OOO events (or agreed-upon busy blocks) so the calendar stays accurate and reliable.