---
title: "Reading the roster & your availability"
description: "How to read the board, today's shift on Home, and declaring the days you can't or would rather not work."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://peoplematter.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Reading the roster & your availability

## The board — the wall, digitized

**Roster board** is the digital version of the roster taped up in the corridor:
one column per day, each holding the day's shift cards and the people placed on them —
**your own name weighted** so you find yourself first. An under-staffed session
carries a hole marker.

It is **read-only for everyone** — schedulers included. Every change happens in the
[planner workspace](/en/docs/scheduling/planner/), where the full consequence of an
edit is visible; a wall that is half-editable is only confusing.

- A roster not yet published, still Draft, is the scheduler's worksheet — ordinary read
  tiers never see it, so the roster you see is the settled one.
- Home's **Right now** card shows **Today's shift**; with none today it shows your next one,
  and with none in the next seven days, "No shift scheduled this week." —
  Published rosters only.

## Availability — your half of the bargain

**Availability** is where you tell the scheduler "avoid these days": press **Declare**,
pick a day and a level (**Can't work** or **Prefer not**), and add a reason if you like.
Declared days are listed on the page; **Withdraw**, then **Confirm withdraw**, removes
one.

> **A declared day is a hint, not leave**
>
> The scheduler sees your declared days while picking people: **Prefer not** is only a
> flag, placed over without a word; placing you on a **Can't work** day takes the
> scheduler a typed reason. If you genuinely can't attend, file [leave](/en/docs/leave/).

Source: https://peoplematter.app/en/docs/scheduling/shifts/index.mdx