Remote and hybrid work have become the norm for many organizations. Employees work from home, from the office, or switch between both throughout the week.

While this flexibility offers many benefits, it also creates a challenge: knowing who is available and where they are working.

Without a shared remote work calendar, teams often rely on chat messages, spreadsheets, or personal calendars. This makes it difficult to answer simple questions:

• Who is working remotely today?
• Who is available for an in-person meeting?
• Who is on vacation or otherwise unavailable?
• Do we have enough coverage for key projects?

A remote work calendar in Microsoft Teams solves this problem by providing one central place for team availability.

Manage Remote Work Directly in Microsoft Teams

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Microsoft Teams is where employees already collaborate every day. It is the natural place to manage remote work and absences as well.

A remote work calendar gives everyone a shared overview of who is working remotely, who is in the office, and who is absent. Instead of searching through messages or calendars, team members can instantly see availability and plan accordingly.

This is especially valuable for hybrid teams. Visibility helps prevent scheduling conflicts, improves coordination, and reduces unnecessary communication.

With Team Absence, remote work days, vacations, PTO, sick leave, and other absences are displayed in a clear calendar view directly inside Microsoft Teams.

Why a Team Availability Calendar Matters

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A remote work calendar creates transparency across the organization.

Teams can quickly see availability, managers can plan coverage, and colleagues can avoid scheduling meetings when key participants are unavailable.

The practical benefits are clear:

As teams grow, these benefits become increasingly important. What works in a small team often becomes difficult to manage across departments, projects, and locations.

Creating a Remote Work Entry Takes Seconds

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For a remote work calendar to be successful, updating it must be simple.

With Team Absence, users create a remote work entry by selecting the absence type, choosing the date range, and optionally adding a comment. The information is immediately visible in the shared calendar.

Because everything happens inside Microsoft Teams, users do not need additional tools or manual processes. The result is more accurate availability information and less effort for everyone involved.

In addition to remote work, Team Absence can also be used for vacations, PTO, sick leave, business travel, training, parental leave, and custom absence types.

Flexible Approval Workflows

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Not every organization manages remote work the same way. Some allow employees to add remote work days freely, while others require manager approval.

Team Absence supports both approaches.

Administrators can configure approval workflows for specific absence types. For example, vacation requests may require approval, while remote work can be added directly. Alternatively, remote work requests can also be routed through an approval process.

When approvals are enabled, users can track request status while approvers receive a centralized view of pending requests. This creates a transparent and efficient process directly within Microsoft Teams.

A Better Way to Manage Remote Work

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Remote work management should support productivity, not create additional administration.

A remote work calendar in Microsoft Teams helps teams stay aligned, improve planning, and avoid confusion about availability. Instead of relying on multiple tools and informal updates, everyone works from the same information.

Team Absence provides exactly that: a simple and effective way to manage remote work, PTO, vacations, and other absences in Microsoft Teams.

What Is Team Absence?

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Team Absence is an absence management solution built specifically for Microsoft Teams. It helps organizations manage remote work, vacations, PTO, sick leave, business travel, training, parental leave, and other absence types in one shared platform.

Teams gain a clear calendar-based overview of availability, helping them coordinate work, plan meetings, and avoid scheduling conflicts. Flexible boards can be used for entire organizations, departments, regions, or project teams, making Team Absence suitable for companies of all sizes.

In addition to the shared Team View, users can manage their own absences through the Personal View. Organizations that require approval processes can enable configurable workflows, while administrators benefit from reporting and insights for workforce planning.

By bringing absence management directly into Microsoft Teams, Team Absence creates transparency, reduces administrative effort, and helps remote and hybrid teams stay organized.