Employee Details Overview
When you work with colleagues in other offices or time zones, the question is always the same: is it a good moment to write or call? The Availability card on the Employee Details page answers it. It shows the local time of the colleague, the working hours, and a calendar strip with the periods when the colleague is free or busy today - next to your own calendar, so you can see at once when you are both free.
What the card shows
Local time
The card shows the current time in the colleague's time zone. The time keeps running while the page is open. Next to it, the card tells you how this time differs from yours: 3 h ahead of you, 2 h behind you or same time zone. On your own page, the difference is not shown.
Working hours
Under the local time, the card shows the Working hours of the colleague, for example 9:00 – 17:00. If it is now outside these hours, the mark outside working hours is added. It is a hint that the person is probably not at work, not a prohibition - urgent matters can still be sent.
Free/busy strips
Below, there are colored strips divided into half-hour slots from 9:00 to 19:00 for today. The first strip belongs to the colleague, the second one, marked Me, to you. Hover the pointer over a slot to see its status:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Free | No events in the calendar. |
| Tentative | The event is not confirmed. |
| Busy | There is a meeting or another busy event. |
| Out of office | The calendar is marked as out of office. |
| Working elsewhere | The person works from another location. |
You see only the status, never the subject or the details of an event. The strips are drawn in your time zone, so a slot of the colleague and the slot of yours at the same position are the same moment.
Schedule a meeting
Under the strips, click Schedule a meeting. A new meeting opens in Microsoft Teams in a new browser tab, with the colleague already added as an attendee. Choose a free slot, add a subject and send the invitation. The button is not shown on your own page.
Where the data comes from
The data comes from Exchange Online through Microsoft Graph:
- the time zone and the working hours are taken from the colleague's Outlook settings;
- the free/busy status comes from the calendar schedule of the colleague and your own;
- your own calendar is read to draw the Me strip.
Because of this, the people who have no Exchange mailbox have no local time and no strips.
When the card is not shown
The card (or a part of it) is not shown when:
- the colleague has no mailbox, or the calendar information is not available to you - in this case the card is simply omitted, without an error;
- the working hours of the colleague cannot be read - then the local time and the working hours are not shown, and only the strips remain;
- your own calendar is not available - then the Me strip is missing;
- the administrator switched off Local time and working hours or Free / busy for today and "Schedule a meeting" in the web part settings. The two options work independently; the button Schedule a meeting is part of the second one.
📝 Note
The card needs the Microsoft Graph permission to read shared calendars (Calendars.Read.Shared). If the permission has not been approved by a tenant administrator, the card is not shown. The list of permissions is in KB10279. Employee Details. Solution Overview.
💡 Tip
To prepare a call with a colleague in another country, open the profile in the morning: the strips show when both of you are free during the day, and the difference in hours is written next to the local time. For the other signs of availability - presence and out-of-office - see KB10286. Employee Details: Presence, Out of Office and Anniversaries.
