Needs you and Inbox
Everything that waits for you lands in one place: the Inbox. The Office’s Needs you column shows the same items beside the floor, and you can decide most of them right there.
On this page
Where things that need you show up#
When an employee needs you, their work stops and waits; nothing runs or is charged while it waits. The same item appears in several places, and deciding it in any of them decides it everywhere:
- The Inbox, with its count on the rail.
- Needs you beside the Office floor, where the employee also walks to your office.
- The employee’s Now tab, and the task’s record under Waiting for you.
Tabs and filters#
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| All | Everything, newest first under Today, Yesterday and Earlier. |
| Needs you | Only what waits for you, oldest first, grouped by kind. |
| Updates | What finished, failed or changed. |
| Decided | Requests you approved or declined, or that expired, over the last 90 days. |
| Snoozed | Items you snoozed, while there are any. |
Chips narrow a tab to Approvals, Chat proposals, Questions, Plans, Failed or Done. From anyone narrows it to one employee, and Search inbox finds rows by their words or a task’s short ID such as PB-142.
What can need you#
| Kind | What you do |
|---|---|
| Approval | Approve or decline one exact action, such as sending an email. See Approvals. |
| Input needed | Answer the employee’s question: pick a suggested answer or write your own. |
| Chat question | Chat asked you something it needs before it can go on. Answer in chat opens that chat; the row leaves once you write there. The chat shows Your turn in the sidebar meanwhile. |
| Not making progress | The work stopped because its last steps added nothing new. Give guidance to continue, or cancel. |
| Limit raise | An employee reached a spending limit. Approve raise or Decline; declining ends that task. |
| Review decision and Team plan | A team’s or skill’s review kept returning the work, or a team’s plan waits for you. See Teams and handoffs. |
| Task to assign | Royak wasn’t sure who should take a task. Choose someone, or don’t assign it. |
| Standing rule | A line to add to an employee’s instructions. See Standing rules. |
| Plan, Organization changes and Chat proposal | Something Chat proposed. Nothing changes until you confirm it. |
| Memory to keep | Keep or Don’t keep what Chat suggests remembering. |
| Proposed date | Keep it on the calendar or Dismiss it. |
| Credits used up, Model key refused, Spending limit | Notices about what pays for the work, with a link to fix it. |
Deciding an item#
- 1
Select the row
The right side shows what it is, the task it belongs to (Open the task), and the message in full. If the work read content you didn’t write, it says from where.
- 2
Decide in place
Approve, decline, answer, raise a limit, keep or confirm, with the same checks as on the item’s own screen. Items decided elsewhere, such as a team plan, offer Decide or a link instead.
- 3
Move on
The decided row leaves and the next one opens. A request you decided moves to Decided.
Opening a row marks it as seen, but doesn’t decide it: it stays in Needs you until you deal with it. Under an approval, Allow again without asking… starts a standing approval for that action; it decides nothing about the request itself.
Snooze and Done#
Snooze (S) hides an item In 3 hours, Tomorrow or Next week; it comes back at that time, marked new. Done (E) clears an item you’ve dealt with. Both apply only to you, not to other members, and both offer Undo. Mark all read clears the new marks at once.
Keyboard#
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| J / K | Next / previous row |
| A | Approve the selected request |
| X | Decline it, with a reason |
| Enter | Open the request’s details |
| S | Snooze |
| E | Done |
| ⌘↵ | Send an answer you typed |
Updates#
Updates tells you what happened without asking anything: tasks done or failed (with the reason you can act on), goals complete or not, routines blocked, reminders, handovers (“Peter handed “October invoices” to Nadia, whose task started with it.”), finished automation imports, and the company paused or resumed. Each links to the work. The Office’s Just did shows the latest eight.
An Optional question is listed here too: a question a new hire’s first deliverable ended with, to improve their next one. Nothing waits for it and it isn’t counted in Needs you. Answer it right there, or in the chat First tasks; the answer is saved as that employee’s note.
Questions#
Does my employee keep working while a request waits?
That task waits, and nothing in it runs or is charged. The employee’s other tasks carry on.
What happens if I never answer?
Questions wait until you answer. Action requests and limit raises expire; the action isn’t sent, or the task ends with the limit reached.
Can other members see my snoozes?
No. Snooze, Done and read marks are each member’s own.
Where do I find a request I already decided?
In Decided, for 90 days, and in Settings → Activity.