Non-working hours not maked as busy

[OhioYooper]

If a user has defined specific working hours in Outlook, why are the
non-work hours not blocked out as "busy" or "out of office"? It is
extremely annoying to be invited to meetings that go beyond, or start
before, your work day. The person calling the meeting can't be blamed
as they get NO feedback from outlook about your schedule. Is the only
work-around to schedule a recurring item that starts at the end of
your day and ends at the beginning? But now I have 2 calendar entries
for every day! Aaagh! At least Lotus Notes got this right.

Is there a way to have non-working hours display as either "busy" or
"out of office" or "unavailable"?

Matt

P.S. I'm using Outlook 2003

 

[BillR [MVP]]

I think the onus is on you to check the meeting before you accept it.
You might be able to code something in to alert you to meeting request that
extend outside your working hours. Check with the Outlook programming group.
Other than that your idea could be used.
I can see the logic to the way Outlook does it - we are often busy outside
regular working hours and Outlook isn't solely intended for use in a strict
working hour environment. Having said that, the functionality you are
looking for could certainly be added.