LibGuides: Internal Communications Resources: Calendaring Norms and Guidelines

Setting work hours & sharing your calendar

Make your calendar visible to all-lib
- If you have concerns about calendar visibility, you should discuss it with your manager.
Give “reviewer” permissions so people can see availability and details. Set meetings as private when/if needed.
- Background: On 11/28/17, a decision was made by the Associate Directors that the calendar default should be "open to all-lib". Please use JSM for help in applying the setting.
Show your regular work hours/schedule on your calendar. This can be challenging for staff that works varied schedules, so do what you can.
See Calendaring best practices for more detailed technical help.

Keep your calendar current with information on vacations, remote work, etc. Staff with many meetings may benefit from updating 3-4 weeks ahead of time.
- Remote schedules should be communicated with your manager and team
- If you work with multiple shared team calendars, follow your team guidelines for communicating this information
Check your calendar often – at least daily – it can be easy to miss a last minute meeting addition or change.
Add vacations/outages to resources calendars (e.g., Hayden Service Desk Calendar,) as defined by calendar owner/groups expectations/norms
Mark a meeting/appointment “private” whenever necessary.
If staff are unavailable (for any reason) during their regular work hours, this unavailability should be communicated on the calendar, either by a meeting event, a private event, blocked off time for quiet work, etc.
- Meeting organizers - be respectful of people’s calendars and follow up with a conversation with attendee if needed

Mark off vacation time (using "out of office option) on your own calendars as soon as possible
Set an out-of-office notification for when you're unavailable and include when you will return
- Include a back-up contact if necessary
Share the vacation time with your team and supervisor as needed
- When adding vacations/outages to other calendars, use the "all day" event and mark as free
- If your team utilizes a shared calendar, or libcal for appointments, make sure to include your unavailability on those calendars as well

Communicate with your team the days that you work from home if you are a hybrid employee
- See the Flexwork Norms for more information

If you are the scheduler of a meeting - make clear to invitees:
- What is the purpose of the meeting
- Whether an invitee’s attendance is required or optional
- See Meeting Norms and Guidelines for more info
Include a Zoom option for all meetings when possible
- If a meeting needs to be in person, state that clearly on the invite
Consider and be mindful of travel time, lunchtime, back-to-back meetings, etc.
- MIT Libraries subscribes to "MIT Time," which gives meeting attendees a five-minute grace period for joining a meeting
Try not to schedule meetings before 10 am, during lunch time (typically 12-1 PM), on Monday mornings, or on Friday afternoons
- Discuss with your team if there are other non-meeting timeblocks

Staff should take action on invitations as they come into their Inbox (Accept, Accept as tentative, or Decline)
- See Responding to an email norm for more information
Avoid accepting as Tentative
- Use the "Decline and propose new time" feature in Outlook if you are double-booked and reach out to the organizer if your presence is required
- Use your best judgement and communicate with meeting organizer as needed, be mindful if food is being ordered.
For large meetings where an RSVP is required please respond by the organizer's deadline

Make sure you have the training you need to feel comfortable using the calendar.
- Lynda.com has a great series of video tutorials for Outlook 365 Calendaring
- For live-person help, use the DLS Service Portal
Other helpful links
- Library Tech Basics – Exchange calendaring (technical documentation)
- Communication Norms for FlexWork Pilot