Team View privacy modes

4 min read By TimeOff Support

Team View helps employees, managers, and administrators see who is off.

It is useful for planning cover, avoiding overlapping leave, and checking team availability.

However, leave data can be sensitive.

TimeOff.Management lets administrators control who can see Team View and how much detail they can see.

Open Team View privacy settings

Team View visibility settings can be managed from General Settings.

To update them:

  1. Open General Settings from the main menu.
  2. Select Edit in the top-right corner.
  3. Find the Team View visibility settings.
  4. Choose the privacy option that matches your company rules.
  5. Save your changes.
General Settings in the main menu

Team View visibility options

You can choose who can access leave data in Team View.

The available options are:

OptionWhat it means
Admins onlyOnly administrators can access Team View and see all employees
Admins and SupervisorsAdmins can see the whole company. Supervisors can see the employees they manage
Department membersEmployees can see colleagues in their own department. Admins and supervisors can see more, depending on permissions
Everyone sees everyoneAll users can see the full company Team View
Team View visibility settings options

Option 1: Admins only

Use Admins only when Team View should be restricted to company administrators.

This is the most private option.

It may be useful when:

  • employee absence data should not be shared across the company
  • managers do not need Team View access
  • the company wants strict control over leave visibility
  • sensitive absence records should have limited visibility

Employees can still use their own calendar to manage their leave.

Read more: My Calendar

Option 2: Admins and Supervisors

Use Admins and Supervisors when managers need to plan cover for employees they manage.

With this option:

  • admins can see the whole company
  • supervisors can see employees they manage
  • ordinary employees do not see the full company Team View

This is a good option for many small businesses.

It gives managers useful planning information without opening company-wide leave data to everyone.

Read more: Employees section for supervisors

Option 3: Department members

Use Department members when employees should see leave information for their own department.

With this option:

  • employees can see colleagues in their department
  • supervisors can see employees they manage
  • admins can see everyone

This helps employees check team availability before requesting leave.

For example, a Support employee can check whether other Support team members are already off before booking a holiday.

Read more: How to request leave

Option 4: Everyone sees everyone

Use Everyone sees everyone when your company wants full leave visibility across all employees.

With this option, all users can see the full company Team View.

This may be useful for:

  • small teams
  • open-calendar cultures
  • businesses where everyone needs to plan around each other
  • companies with simple privacy rules

Before using this option, check whether company-wide leave visibility is suitable for your business.

Hide leave types in Team View

You can choose to hide or obfuscate leave types in Team View.

When this option is enabled:

  • users can see that someone is off
  • the reason for the absence is hidden
  • absences appear in grey
  • employees do not see whether the leave is Holiday, Sick Leave, or another leave type

This helps protect sensitive leave information.

For example, an employee may need to know that a colleague is unavailable, but not that the absence is Sick Leave.

Who can still see full leave details?

When leave types are hidden, admins and supervisors can still see full details where their permissions allow it.

This means:

  • employees see limited leave information
  • managers can still manage their teams
  • admins keep full company visibility
  • sensitive details are not shared more widely than needed

This is a useful balance between planning and privacy.

When to hide leave types

Consider hiding leave types when your company wants to protect sensitive information.

This is often useful for leave types such as:

  • Sick Leave
  • Medical Appointment
  • Bereavement Leave
  • Compassionate Leave
  • Unpaid Leave
  • other company-defined sensitive absence types

If employees only need to know that someone is unavailable, hiding the leave type may be the best option.

If an employee cannot see Team View

Check:

  • the selected Team View visibility option
  • whether the employee is active
  • the employee’s department
  • the employee’s location
  • whether Team View is restricted to admins or supervisors
  • whether the employee has the correct role
  • whether an employee policy affects their access

If the employee should have access, update the relevant setting and ask them to refresh the page or log in again.

If an employee sees too much information

Check:

  • whether Team View is set to Everyone sees everyone
  • whether leave types are exposed
  • whether the employee has supervisor permissions
  • whether the employee has admin permissions
  • whether a policy gives wider company leave visibility
  • whether the employee is in the correct department

If privacy is a concern, use a more restricted Team View option and enable leave type hiding.

  • Using Team View Learn how employees and managers use Team View to check availability and plan leave.

  • Leave types Configure leave type names, allowance effects, limits, visibility, and booking rules.

  • TimeOff.Management data security Learn how TimeOff.Management helps protect company and employee data.

Best practice

Start with the most private setting that still lets your team plan leave effectively.

For many small businesses, Admins and Supervisors with hidden leave types gives managers the information they need without sharing sensitive absence details with everyone.