Remember when booking time off meant writing chain emails to colleagues and filling in spreadsheets that froze every minute? If that's more like your reality than a memory, you probably need a better system.

Luckily, there's no dearth of workplace communication tools today, and Slack seems to be the most popular choice. Having a digital workspace means being able to communicate with colleagues in real-time and collect information in one place. With Pause, that also includes time-off information.

A Slack bot that gets you all the information you need

Pause's Slack bot is super handy, even if we do say so ourselves. With it, you can:

• book time off for yourself or a colleague

• check how many vacation days you have left

• automatically change your Slack status when you're away

• approve or decline time-off requests from team members

• let teams know when you're stepping away from your desk

• book an All Hands so your colleagues are present during a critical week

Leave summary notifications to your preferred channel

Goodbye, long explainer emails to colleagues. Hello, leave summary notifications.

When you integrate Pause with Slack, you get daily or weekly summaries of everyone who's on leave that day or week to a common channel. That way, everyone's in the know and the time-off taker isn't pressured to send out mass emails. It also keeps all important information about availability in one place.

Birthday and work anniversary notifications

Ever missed a colleague's birthday and felt hella awkward the next day? We feel you. It's why we built this feature — to make sure no one goes unappreciated and un-celebrated. You can set up Slack birthday reminders and/or work anniversary notifications to go out into a common public channel.

Public holiday reminders on preferred channels

If you've ever come into work on a public holiday because you forgot it was a day off, say "aye"! With Pause integrated with your Slack workspace, you'll get timely notifications for public holidays. You'll be able to plan your work schedule around the day or put together a great road trip plan if it's a long weekend. Win-win!

AFK and Away emoji statuses for easy understanding

With so many messages and conversations flowing, it can be hard to miss a line saying a colleague is taking a break. What you need is a way to get this information quick n' easy, and we have it.

When you book time off with Pause, your Slack status is automatically set to "Away 🌴" during your vacation period. Or if you simply need to step away from your desk for a walk or to run some errands, the Away From Keyboard emoji "💨" will do all the talking.

Leave management with Slack, done easy

We love building tools that work seamlessly with other tools — and that's what we've done with Pause, too. We take all the benefits of Slack to the next level and ensure team communication is much simpler.

Want to give Pause's Slack integration a spin? Sign up for a free trial, set up the integration, and you're good to go!