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Vacations, shift swaps and asking for cover

Keep the rota right when people are away, without rebuilding it.

This is for whoever looks after the rota, and for everyone on it. Time off and swaps sit on top of a rotation; they never change its order. When you're done, people on vacation aren't rung, someone else is on call for them, and everyone can ask for cover from the Standby app.

What you'll set up

A decision on whether cover changes need an admin's approval (Business).
Time off booked in the console, and swaps made as a pair of entries.
Your team asking for cover from the app.

Steps

Decide who approves. Go to Settings → Shift swaps and time away. Choose Apply at once, or, on Business, An admin approves first. On Team, changes always apply at once. See Workspace settings.
Book a vacation. Go to On-call → Rotations, open the rotation, and choose Book time off or cover. Pick Who, choose Away, and set the First day and Last day. Both days are included. Add a Note if you like, and choose Save. Before you save, the form names who picks up the first shift.
Book it on every rotation they're on. Time off belongs to one rotation. Someone on two rotations needs an entry on each.
Swap two shifts. A swap is two entries for the same dates: Away for the person giving up the shift, and Covering for the person taking it. Someone covering is on call for those dates whatever the rotation says. For a straight trade, do the same again for the other week, the other way around.
Show your team the app. In the Standby app, on the On Call tab, each shift under Your shifts has Get cover. They can hand the shift to someone on the same rotation (that person is told), or choose I'll be away and let the rota pick whoever is next. See Your shifts and asking for cover.
Approve requests, if you turned approval on. Waiting requests appear at the top of On-call → Rotations as Cover requests to approve, and in the app on the On Call tab. Choose Approve or Decline. Until then, the person who asked can Withdraw it.

What to expect

Someone marked away isn't rung for their own shift, and isn't rung as anyone else's backup either.
Changes show straight away in the list of upcoming handovers on the rotation's card. A covering tag marks someone covering, and for Alex, who is away shows who someone is filling in for.
Everyone affected is told when a change applies. Each person can mute On-call changes notifications in Settings → Notifications.
With approval on, a request nobody decides goes through when the shift starts. Changes starting within an hour, and changes an admin makes, apply at once.
To undo an entry, choose Remove next to it. Past entries are kept, folded away under the list.

Try it safely first

The time-off form tells you who will pick up the first shift before you save. If everyone on that rotation would be away, it says so. On a rotation that hands off to a backup (Business), it tells you the backup covers those dates; check the backup's upcoming handovers. Otherwise it says Nobody would be left: add someone as Covering, shorten the dates, or have the rotation hand off to another one. To check a night in the middle of a long vacation, go to Rules → Simulate and choose At a particular time. Nothing is sent.

Variations

The whole team is away the same week. A backup rotation takes over automatically on Business. See Two people take turns, and a third backs them up.
Cover from outside the rotation. Covering and Get cover only offer people on the same rotation. To have someone else step in, add them to the rotation first.
Part of a day. The console books whole days, and the app's Get cover covers a whole shift.