Out of Office Assistant allows users to determine which timezone should be applicable for their rules.

How to select a different timezone for Out of Office rules

Whenever the app identifies that the timezone in the user's browser is different to the instance timezone, a selector will load in the rule form.



Note that:

  • By default, rules are set in the user's browser's timezone.
  • Once the user picks an option in the selector, the choice will be remembered the next time a rule is created
  • To pick a timezone that is not captured in the existing options, simply change the timezone settings in your device and restart your browser. 
  • When browser settings change, existing rules will keep the current value of their timezone. However, this can be edited manually for each rule.


Example 1: Global collaboration

A company has its instance timezone in the East Coast of the US (UTC-5:00), and additional offices in Denmark (UTC+2:00) and Bangalore, India (UTC+5:30)

  • Workers in the Denmark and Bangalore offices set their rules once to match the browser settings
  • Workers in the main office don't have to do anything: since the timezone of their instance and browser is the same, Out of Office doesn't give them the option to make any changes.
  • During trips to the central office, workers from Denmark and Bangalore change their rules to the instance timezone
  • Vice versa, during trips to the Denmark or Tanzania offices, visitors change the timezone in their devices, then change their rules to match their browser settings. 

Example 2: Traveling workers

Getulia, a remote worker, moves frequently between her two homes, in Sao Paulo (UTC-3:00) and Berlin, Germany (UTC+2:00). Her company, however, is located in London (UTC).

  • Every time Getulia changes location, her Mac automatically captures the new timezone based on her IP. As a result, she only has to go into her active rules and make sure to update the value of the browser timezone.

How are timezones displayed by Out of Office

Timezones are only displayed by Out of Office whenever there are discrepancies between them.

Displaying timezones in the Rules List

Whenever two or more rules have different timezones, the applicable timezone for each rule is shown below the start and end dates

Displaying timezones in the User View

The User View displays an aggregated view of the timezones:

  • Users where  no timezone is displayed are on the instance timezone
  • When the rules for a user are on more than one timezone, the User View displays the line "multiple time zones"
  • When an user's rules are all in a timezone other than the instance timezone, the User View displays the UTC value of that timezone