GMs can text the days they're away

A GM can now text AI COO the days they're off, and stop hearing from it for that stretch. The store keeps its lever. Only one person's texts pause.

How a GM sets it

The GM texts AI COO in plain words, the way they would tell a colleague: "I'm off the 14th through the 21st" or "out next week". AI COO reads the dates back and asks before it holds anything:

"Away Sep 14–21? Reply OK and I'll hold your texts."

Nothing changes until the GM agrees. Dates read wrong would silence someone for a stretch nobody chose, so the GM always sees them first.

Coming back is simpler. "I'm back" ends the hold straight away, with no confirmation. A hold lifted by mistake costs one text they can ignore, and asking someone to confirm they are back at work reads as not believing them.

What a hold does

A hold stops one person's delivery and nothing else. While it runs:

• The GM gets no levers and no quiet-day wins, by text or by email.
• The store's lever still appears in the owner's brief, the same as any other morning.
• The owner's delivery note says where it went instead: "Castle Rock: Sarah is away Sep 14–21 - sent to you."

That note sits in its own line, not under anything that failed to send. Nothing went wrong and nobody needs to chase it.

A store whose only GM is away writes no empty thread in Messages, so a fortnight off doesn't leave a fortnight of blank conversations behind.

Why it's built this way

The point is coverage, not silence. A GM on holiday who gets a text they can ignore is mildly inconvenienced. A store whose lever reaches nobody for a week is the failure that matters. So a hold always moves the store's lever to the owner rather than dropping it.

Holds also end on their own. Each one has a start, an end and a maximum length. A GM with no return date has left the store, and that is a change the owner makes in People, not a hold.

A hold is not an opt-out

A hold is separate from text consent. Replying STOP still stops all texts, and stands until the GM lifts it. A hold pauses one person for one stretch of dates and changes nothing about whether they have agreed to receive texts. When the hold ends, their texts resume exactly as before.

Owners can set it too

GMs get sick, set the wrong week, or leave in the middle of a hold. So an owner can set or clear a hold from the GM's dialog in Settings > People, and see it on the store's page. A delivery setting only its subject could change would be one nobody could fix when that person is unreachable.

What GMs don't see

There is no line about holds in the footer of every text. "Or reply with any questions about the store" already covers it, and those characters belong to the lever.

Read more about how AI COO delivers each store's lever.