Holiday Mode

Why It Matters

When someone on your team goes on holiday, things can quietly break. Interviews go unattended, reviews pile up, and candidates wait longer than they should. Holiday Mode gives your team a single switch that handles all of this — it pauses email notifications, warns the team about coverage gaps, and keeps your hiring pipeline moving while you’re away.

Enabling Holiday Mode

To enable Holiday Mode:

1. Go to Account Settings → Holiday Mode (or click the sun icon in the sidebar)
2. Pick a return date using the date picker
3. Review the “What happens when you enable” summary
4. Click Enable Holiday Mode

A confirmation dialog appears before activation. Once confirmed:

• Your team admins receive an email listing any interviews or stages that may need attention
• If you are currently on-call (CSIRT), your shift is automatically handed off to the next person in the rotation
• A holiday badge appears next to your name across the platform

What Gets Paused

Channel	During Holiday	After Return
Email notifications	Paused	Resume automatically
In-app notifications	Still delivered	N/A — always active
Browser push notifications	Still delivered	N/A — always active
Slack DMs (on-call alerts)	Depends on rotation	Resume with next shift

All notifications are still recorded in the system. When you return, your notification inbox shows everything that happened while you were away — nothing is lost.

Impact on Interviews

Automatic Scheduling

When a candidate books an interview, Kit automatically skips team members who are on holiday. The scheduling algorithm routes interviews to the next available reviewer, so candidates always get a timely slot.

If all interviewers on a stage are on holiday, the system falls back to the full reviewer pool and logs a warning.

Already-Scheduled Interviews

Interviews that were already booked before you enabled Holiday Mode appear in your impact summary. You can reassign them directly:

1. Open the interview from the impact summary link (or from Hiring → Interviews)
2. In the Interviewers section, use the Select replacement dropdown next to your name
3. Click Reassign

The new interviewer receives the full interview notification email with an ICS calendar invite, meeting link, and candidate details.

Reassigning Interviewers

Interview reassignment is available on any pending or confirmed interview, not just during holidays. Any participant can be swapped out from the interview detail page. Team members who are on holiday appear as disabled options in the replacement dropdown.

Impact on Reviews

If you are the sole reviewer on a stage with active candidates, a red Requires action card appears in your Holiday Mode page with a direct link to the stage’s reviewer settings. This warning also appears as an amber triangle icon on the stage card in the pipeline view.

Consider adding a backup reviewer before you leave — navigate to the stage settings and add a colleague to the reviewer list.

Stage Warning: All Reviewers on Holiday

When every assigned reviewer on a stage is on holiday, Kit shows a warning icon on the stage card in the pipeline board. This helps hiring managers spot bottlenecks at a glance. If you have Slack connected, a notification is also posted to your hiring channel.

On-Call Rotation (CSIRT)

Holiday Mode integrates with the CSIRT on-call rotation:

• Currently on-call? Your shift is immediately handed off to the next available person when you enable Holiday Mode. No manual handoff needed.
• In the rotation pool? You are automatically skipped during scheduled rotations while on holiday. The next non-holiday person takes the shift instead.
• Everyone on holiday? If all rotation members are on holiday, the system keeps the last assigned person to avoid a gap. An alert notifies account admins.

Your holiday status is visible as a badge next to your name on the on-call roster page.

Team Visibility

When someone is on holiday, a small On holiday badge appears next to their name in several places:

• Team Members page (Account Settings)
• Interview participants on the interview detail page
• On-call rotation member list
• Stage reviewer assignments

Hovering over the badge shows when they return (e.g., “Back in 5 days”).

Auto-Expiry

Holiday Mode expires automatically when your return date passes. You don’t need to remember to turn it off — the system disables it and your email notifications resume immediately.

The cleanup job runs every few hours. In practice, on_holiday? checks the date in real time, so email suppression stops the moment your holiday period ends — even before the cleanup runs.

Returning Early

If you come back early:

1. Go to Account Settings → Holiday Mode
2. Click I’m back early

Holiday Mode is disabled instantly and your email notifications resume.

Email Preferences Note

While Holiday Mode is active, a notice appears at the top of your Email Preferences page explaining that email notifications are paused. Your email subscription settings are preserved — they take effect again as soon as Holiday Mode ends.

Quick Checklist

Before enabling Holiday Mode:

• Check the impact summary for sole-reviewer stages — add a backup reviewer if needed
• Review upcoming interviews during your holiday period — reassign if necessary
• If you’re on-call, confirm the next person in the rotation is available
• Let your team know your return date (Kit notifies admins automatically)