---
title: "When the person who decides is not available"
description: "If nobody answers a card, nothing irreversible happens. Hand-over to another person is not published."
url: "https://docs.octo.ad/desk/when-the-decider-is-away/"
id: "desk/when-the-decider-is-away"
type: "concept"
audience: "team lead"
dateModified: "2026-11-06"
productArea: "the Desk"
surface: "the Desk"
keywords: ["the Desk", "approvals"]
---

# When the person who decides is not available

> If nobody answers a card, nothing irreversible happens. Hand-over to another person is not published.

## What is published

The decision owner you name. Decisions that matter arrive on the Desk, one card each, with the question and a recommendation first, options side by side and evidence attached; a card missing context is refused before it reaches the owner. If nobody answers, nothing irreversible happens: anything that leaves the organization, such as a message to a customer or a payment, waits for the owner's deliberate confirmation. Scheduled briefings list what is waiting on the owner. Every decision is recorded with who made it, when and what they chose.

## What is not published

How a card is handed to someone else while its owner is away is not published here. Ask the team.