Set your virtual office hours

Virtual office hours define when Swimlane may act on LinkedIn for you. Set a daily time window that matches your real working day, so automated activity looks like yours.

Steps

1. Click Settings at the bottom of the left navigation, then Virtual Office Hours. From the Campaigns page, you can also click Set up office hours or Manage office hours in the banner at the top.
2. In the Status card, turn the switch on. Swimlane pre-fills Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00, in your browser's timezone, and the badge reads Active.
3. Under Active Days, click a day to select or unselect it.
4. Under Active Hours, choose a Start Time and an End Time (in 30-minute steps). The same window applies to every selected day.
5. Choose your Timezone. The list shows each zone with its current offset.
6. Read the sentence at the bottom of the card, for example LinkedIn activity will occur between 09:00 and 18:00 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
7. Click Save.

What office hours control

• Campaign actions: connection requests, messages, likes and pokes only go out inside the window.
• Imports: LinkedIn imports, one-off and recurring, also wait for the window.
• Outside the window, an action isn't lost: it's deferred and retried about every 15 minutes, and goes out once your office opens, still spaced out and within your daily limits. In the Queue panel (rocket icon at the bottom of the navigation) it shows as Waiting for daily limit, whatever the reason for the wait.

What they don't control

• Messages you write and send yourself from the inbox go out immediately.
• Conditions and tag steps of your campaigns are handled at any hour, since they don't act on LinkedIn.
• Delays keep counting in calendar days, day and night.

The Campaigns page banner

• Virtual office hours are not set up…: no hours are configured, so Swimlane can act at any hour. Click Set up office hours.
• Your virtual office is closed…: you're outside your window. The banner gives the date and time actions will resume. Click Manage office hours to change them.

Good to know

• One window per day. There's no lunch break, no second window and no public holidays. For a day off, pause your campaigns.
• Unselected days. Only selected days get a window. Today, a day you leave unselected isn't treated as closed: Swimlane can act at any hour on it. If you need a day completely quiet, pause your campaigns for that day.
• Windows can't cross midnight. An End Time earlier than the Start Time (for example 22:00 to 02:00) never opens.
• Turning the switch off clears the days and removes all restrictions. Click Save to apply it.
• Stay realistic. A window close to your real working hours in your real timezone is the most natural pattern. A 24-hour window removes the protection.