When you step out, go on leave or are off sick, IntelliDesk can stop sending you new work and, if your desk is set up for it, hand your open tickets to someone who's there. This article covers setting your status, what managers can do, and what happens to tickets while you're out.
Setting your own status
Your status is in the sidebar, just above Feedback: a coloured dot with Available (green), Away until 15:34 (amber), or On leave, back 30 Sept or Absent (grey).
Click it to open the menu:
- Away for 30 minutes
- Away for 1 hour
- Away until tomorrow (until 08:00 the next day)
- Schedule leave…: pick the First day and Last day (both inclusive). No reason is needed or stored.
- Cancel leave …: shown for leave you've already scheduled.
- I'm available: shown only while you're unavailable. It ends your away time, leave or absence now.
While you're unavailable, new tickets and chats go to others.
Managers: setting someone else's status
Managers can set the status for people on the desks they manage. Go to Workload → Members and pick the person. The header shows a badge such as "Absent", "On leave, back 14 Oct", or "Leave from 12 Oct" for upcoming leave, with these buttons:
- Mark absent: for someone off sick or otherwise out without notice.
- Schedule leave
- Mark available
People who are unavailable have a grey dot on their avatar in the member bar.
Privacy
No reason is ever asked for or stored. Colleagues see only whether you're available and, if not, until when. Whether you're away, on leave or absent is visible only to you and to the managers of your desks. Every change is recorded in the Audit Log.
New work goes to others
- Auto-assign never picks someone who is away, on leave or absent, whichever way the desk chooses (take turns, least busy, Best match (AI), or preferred agents), even if they used IntelliDesk recently.
- Live chat treats you as away whatever your chat toggle says, so chat isn't offered on your behalf.
- A short away never moves your existing tickets.
What happens to existing tickets on leave or absence
Each desk decides. A desk manager sets it under Settings → Help Desks → your desk → Settings tab, in the card When someone is on leave or absent:
- They keep them (the default): nothing moves.
- Move to the backup: choose a person in the Backup dropdown. Tickets go to them if they're available, otherwise back to the queue.
- Back to the queue: tickets become unassigned, and auto-assign picks someone available.
Open and customer-responded tickets always move. Switch on Also move tickets waiting on the customer or on hold to move those too.
The handover runs once, when leave starts or when someone is marked absent. Each moved ticket gets an internal note such as "Handed over from Thandi Mokoena (unavailable) to Sam Naidoo." The note never gives a reason. Nothing moves back automatically when the person returns.
Hand over tickets
Managers can also move someone's tickets by hand. In Workload → Members, pick a colleague who has open tickets and click Hand over tickets. Choose Back to the queue (auto-assign picks someone available) or a colleague (unavailable colleagues are greyed out). Their open tickets on the desks you manage move, each with a note, and the new owner is notified.
Replying on a colleague's ticket
If a ticket's owner is on leave or absent, the colleague who replies to it or closes it becomes the owner, even if the owner had already replied.
When a customer replies
- Owner away: the owner and the desk's backup are notified.
- Owner on leave or absent: the backup is notified instead, or the desk's managers if there's no available backup.
While you were away
When your leave or absence ends (within the last 14 days), Home shows a While you were away panel. It lists your tickets that were handed over while you were out, who has them now, and their status. The tickets stay with their new owner. Dismiss the panel when you're done.
The SLA keeps running
Someone's availability never pauses or moves the SLA clock. Covering for people who are out is the team's job. See SLA policies and business hours for who is warned when a ticket's owner is unavailable.
No one available on a desk
If auto-assign finds nobody available for a new ticket, the desk's managers get a No one available on {desk} notification (in the bell and as a push notification) saying the ticket is waiting unassigned. It's sent at most once every 4 hours per desk, and resets as soon as auto-assign succeeds again.
Related: Assigning tickets and team workflow · The Workload page: new tickets, who's busy, and unassigned work