Recurring Availability Preferences
Preferences let you tell the scheduling system about your regular availability patterns — like "I'm always off on Mondays" or "I prefer to work weekends."
How It Works
Preferences are soft constraints. The AI scheduling system and your manager will try to honor them, but if the store needs coverage, a shift might override a preference. They're different from hard blocks (see Block Time).
Review My Schedule for the next few weeks and block specific unavailable hours or days as needed. Updating a recurring preference does not cancel an existing shift; contact your manager if a scheduled shift conflicts with a commitment.
Setting a Preference
- Go to My Schedule on staff.ncmuse.co
- On mobile, tap the gear icon in the bottom bar. On desktop, find the Preferences card in the sidebar.
- Tap Add Preference
- Fill in:
- Type: Unavailable (can't work) or Available (prefer to work)
- Day: Which day of the week
- All Day: Check this for all-day, or uncheck to set specific hours
- Repeats: Every week or every other week
- Label (optional): A note like "school", "second job", "childcare"
- Tap Save
Examples
| Preference | What to set |
|---|---|
| "I have school every Monday" | Type: Unavailable, Day: Monday, All Day, Weekly, Label: "school" |
| "I prefer weekend shifts" | Type: Available, Day: Saturday, All Day, Weekly |
| "I can't work Tuesday evenings" | Type: Unavailable, Day: Tuesday, 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM, Weekly |
| "I'm free every other Friday" | Type: Available, Day: Friday, All Day, Biweekly |
Removing a Preference
Tap the trash icon next to any preference to remove it. It takes effect immediately.
How the AI Uses Preferences
When your manager uses the AI Auto-Fill feature to generate the weekly schedule, the AI sees all team preferences and tries to:
- Honor "unavailable" preferences — avoid scheduling you on those days
- Prioritize "available" preferences — prefer scheduling you when you say you're free
- Balance coverage — if honoring a preference would leave the store understaffed, the AI may schedule someone anyway and flag a warning
INFO
Preferences save you from having to block the same days every single week. Set them once and they apply to every future schedule.