> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://absentify.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How to configure absence privacy

> Decide who in absentify can see that someone is away — and who can also see why. This guide walks you through the right setup, step by step.

When you set up absentify, colleagues see each other's absences by default — including the leave type. That helps with planning. Often, though, you do not want everyone to know why someone is away, or to count how many vacation or sick days someone took. Sometimes the department manager should see the team but not appear on the calendar themselves.

Privacy settings solve exactly that. This guide shows you how to configure them so the team can still plan and sensitive reasons stay hidden.

## What you can configure

Most teams only need the first setting. The other two are special cases.

| Setting | What it does | When to use it |
| - | - | - |
| **Leave type privacy** | Colleagues still see who is away, but only **Absent** instead of vacation or sick leave. | The default for vacation, sick leave, and similar types. |
| **Invisible manager** | The manager keeps a full view of the department, but does not appear in the team overview, calendar, or member list. | When leadership should see everything without appearing themselves. |
| **Only managers and approvers** (per department) | Hides the absences themselves. The team overview shows only a lock. | Only when a department must not show absences at all. |

Workspace toggles such as **Other departments** or **Show absences in the past** control which calendars someone can see — not whether the reason is visible. You find them under [Privacy](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/general/privacy).

## Set it up

<Steps>
  <Step title="Decide which leave types should be private">
    Make private what is a real absence and whose reason colleagues should not see:

    * Vacation
    * Sick leave
    * Unpaid leave
    * Special leave and similar types

    Keep types visible when the team needs the status:

    * **Home office**, when colleagues should know someone is working elsewhere
    * **Training**, when it should be visible that someone is in a course

    <Warning>
      Do not turn privacy on for sick leave only. If that is the only type that shows as **Absent**, colleagues can infer the rest — and then it is obvious who is sick.
    </Warning>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Enable leave type privacy">
    1. Go to **Settings** > **Leave types**.
    2. Open each type that should stay private.
    3. On the **Basic** tab, enable **Leave type privacy**.
    4. Repeat for every private type and save.

    The fields are described in [Create a leave type](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/leave_types/create-leave-types#basic).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Match Outlook">
    Privacy in the app helps little if Outlook still shows "Vacation" or "Sick leave" in the subject.

    1. Open the same leave type.
    2. On the **Calendar** tab, set the **Event's subject** to **Absent**.

    <Tip>
      To also hide the free-text reason from colleagues, enable **Reason visibility** on the **Advanced** tab. absentify then omits the reason in shared calendars. The reason still appears in the user's personal Outlook calendar — the user should review who can see full details there.
    </Tip>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check what users see">
    * **Colleagues** see **Absent** for private types, and the real type for the ones you left visible.
    * **Department managers, assigned approvers, accepted representatives, and admins** still see the real type. If the representative declines, the normal privacy rules apply again.
    * Weekly absence summary emails follow the same rules.

    Open the [team overview](/docs/en/roles/employee/team_overview) with a test user who is not an admin and check a few entries.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## When the manager should stay off the team calendar

A common request: the department manager or CEO should see the team, but not appear on the team overview. Mark them as an **invisible manager** — available from the [Essentials plan](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/plan-feature-matrix#users-and-administration). They keep all rights. The team does not see them.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Mark the manager as invisible">
    1. Go to **Settings** > **Departments**.
    2. Open the department.
    3. The user must be a **manager** of that department. Add them as a manager first if they are not.
    4. Select the **eye icon** next to their name to mark them as invisible.
    5. Save.

    The setting is documented under [Departments](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/departments#general-information).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check what the team sees">
    After that:

    * Regular colleagues do not see the manager in the team overview, calendar, or member list of the department. Their absences are also left out of the [weekly absence summary](/docs/en/roles/employee/your_preferences#notification-settings).
    * The manager themselves, admins, and co-managers of the same department still see them.
    * If they approve a request, their name still appears as the approver.
    * The workspace toggle **Other departments** does not override this.
    * If they are only a member of another department and not an invisible manager there, colleagues in that department can still see their absences.

    Absences of invisible managers are not written to the department's [shared calendar sync](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/integrations/shared_calendar_synchronization) or [timeghost](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/integrations/timeghost) workspace.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Invisible manager hides only that one person. To hide absences for the whole department, use the next section.
</Note>

## When a department must hide absences entirely

Use this only when a team — for example a small HR or leadership team — must stay off the team calendar. For everyone else, leave type privacy is enough. **Only managers and approvers** hides the absences themselves, so the [team overview](/docs/en/roles/employee/team_overview) stops doing its job.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Set the department to Only managers and approvers">
    1. Go to **Settings** > **Departments**.
    2. Open the department.
    3. Set **Absence visibility** to **Only managers and approvers**.

    The setting is documented under [Departments](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/departments#absence-visibility).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check what changes — and what does not">
    After that:

    * Within the department, regular colleagues only see their own absences.
    * The team overview still lists those colleagues, with a lock and without their absences. The exception: anyone who manages that department, or is the assigned approver or accepted representative for that particular request, still sees that one request — not the person's annual calendar.
    * What those members see of the rest of the company does not change.
    * The workspace toggle **Other departments** does not override this.
    * If someone also belongs to an unrestricted department, colleagues who can see that department can still see their absences.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Remove the department from syncs if needed">
    The setting does not stop [shared calendar](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/integrations/shared_calendar_synchronization), [Microsoft Teams Shifts](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/integrations/microsoft_shifts), or [timeghost](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/integrations/timeghost) syncs. Remove the department from the sync if the absences must not appear there.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Why not hide only sick leave?">
    If only sick leave shows as **Absent**, everyone can tell the remaining absences apart. Turn privacy on for vacation and the other real absences too, so colleagues see **Absent** for all of them.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="When do I hide the manager, and when the whole department?">
    If only leadership should stay hidden and still see everything, mark them as an [invisible manager](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/departments#general-information). If nobody on the team should see each other's absences, set the department to **Only managers and approvers**. For day-to-day use, [leave type privacy](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/leave_types/create-leave-types#basic) is enough.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="When should I use Only managers and approvers?">
    Only when a department must not show absences at all, for example a small HR or leadership team whose time off must stay off the team calendar. For everyone else, [leave type privacy](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/leave_types/create-leave-types#basic) is enough.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where do I control whether colleagues see other departments?">
    On [Privacy](/docs/en/roles/hr_admins/settings/general/privacy#other-departments). The **Other departments** toggle controls calendar visibility, not the absence reason. A department set to **Only managers and approvers** stays restricted either way.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.