Anyone else snoop on MS Teams Last Online?

I mean I'd hope if a manager was concerned they would come to you to discuss it with you. If one of my employees was constantly away on teams when I expected them to be online answering stuff I would just ask them, I would absolutely not go to it to pull any records.

Thank you.
Genuinely thought that bit went without saying!

That thread unsettled me a bit. The nature of my workplace means that we use multiple devices and anything that requires internet access is done on my personal device, so I feel a bit nervous about what could be inferred from how often I'm logged in on my "main" device, which frequently goes idle over the day.

As for Teams, I have a separate device that is just for Teams, and this one I only switch on if I have a Teams meeting.

I think this (that happened to the OP's DH) would only be fair if they analysed the records of ALL employees, including when in the office, because I think the average office worker spends at least a combined 2 hours per day chatting with colleagues, making coffee and taking extended bathroom breaks.

They could do, yes. An old colleague of mine bought one for just that reason.

It's effectively a USB mouse, as far as the system is concerned, so it'll work on anything that accepts one 🙂

@Bobbotgegrinch my hack too but for Slack which is what we use.

My old boss had a thing about being away on teams, which was annoying as I'd quite often map things out on paper before starting work on them.

So I just chucked teams on my phone and set the screen not to turn off, it doesn't set you as away as long as you have the app on screen on your phone.

Job done.

I use it to see who in my team or another team is online if I need to contact them, and sometimes I’m nosey but within my team we have to spend days in the office doing a task which means we can’t use the laptop for 50 minutes at a time multiple times a day, or we have to meet clients (often with a drive of several hours) - hence it’s not unusual for someone to be showing that they aren’t online for hours or even a whole day. It doesn’t mean they aren’t working.

Plus for a while last year my Teams went weird. I would be in a team meeting with my colleges and despite that being a Teams meeting I was showing as having been offline for 3hrs. By the end of the meeting it said I had been offline for 4hrs. I’d had several other Teams calls with colleagues in that first 3hrs that I was supposed to be offline as well. So I don’t read much into it tbh.

If any of them are slacking, I’d go to IT to run a check on their actual activity (I know you know that!).

Sorry but this is just ridiculous advice.

If you think someone is underperforming you review their work outputs/products. If they are up to scratch in quality and quantity you don't have a problem. If they are not up to scratch you review with them and give appropriate help, advice or warning.

What you don't do is waste time based on misunderstanding of how a common piece of software works. If "IT" gave random employees or managers details of someone's online activity based on their nosiness or inability to manage staff I'd expect them to be up on a disciplinary as well.

Thanks. So pp can also use it to make work think they are actively online/ at their desk when they are not?

Does it only work on PCs or maybe it includes laptops which have a mouse attached?

Not asking for myself, I am self-employed and judged on output.😀

Oh yes, teams as a means of communication if you are actually using teams is fine…but as a stand alone means of communication it is poor. Very poor indeed. I not longer work full time, and when I do work, as with many, I’m paid for what I know not what I actually do. So this whole whose online whose not as a measure of productivity is laughable. Some of my clients, usually banks, don’t allow the use of teams on security grounds so I could be on a call for an hour via zoom and show as offline on teams. What does that tell anyone using teams that’s useful…?

I look at it before messaging someone to get an idea of whether they may respond immediately.

Even that doesn't mean they will. I had messages come in yesterday, but some I ignored while I was going through something with my manager, and some I ignored while I was writing some documentation. I read them later at the end of an activity, rather than break my concentration and focus.

I have no idea what my Teams status was showing - I know it goes to red when I've got a scheduled meeting, but I haven't looked to see what it does at any other time. I do quite a lot of work on non-Microsoft applications, sometimes have impromptu face-to-face meetings which don't need a laptop, and do some work on paper, because I find it's a different thinking process from on screen.

I suspect my Teams status won't always accurately reflect my working status and therefore assume it will be the same for others. Likewise I my previous role, where we used other tools than Teams (doing the same things) it wasn't always accurate - people coulasshow as out of office, even when I was communicating with them because they were actually in the office.

In my experience, you don't need Teams or other messaging tools to know who the reliable people are and who are the slackers in a department. I've been asked in interview how I manage WFH, as people can be distracted by laundry and so on. I point out I've been WFH for years (or hybrid, at least,) since before covid, so I'm used to working at home, and people can slack off in the office too - it's not location specific. I don't think most managers would mind the odd load of washing being dealt with as long as the work is being produced. It's when non-work activities are being down instead of work rather than as well as work that it's a problem, and you shoukd have tools other than Teams to pick that up.

I have a government job, so I use a work laptop for teams and working on my job. It stays green all the time regardless of whether I'm using Word, Excel or Edge for accessing online programs and sharepoint. Its connected to two screens for easier viewing.

If any of them are slacking, I’d go to IT to run a check on their actual activity (I know you know that!).

I really wouldn't do this, it's such a difficult disciplinary route for all the reasons people are giving. It is much easier to discuss recent missed objectives and set out a performance improvement plan. Make sure objectives have extremely clear measurable criteria, and follow up hard. I had one team member like this who absolutely turned everything around, just really needed help in understanding expectations and how to achieve. I've also seen truly lazy ones before and they tend to move themselves out once they get onto a PIP and see the game is up.

Just because they arent on teams doesn't mean they aren't working

Are you sure? Teams definitely goes amber if I have been working on word on my computer.

I hate that there are people out there who take the piss when wfh and ruin it for others. Really hope it doesn't go away again because it's so beneficial for most and saves us so much money in travel too

I absolutely do more work when wfh, log on earlier, log off later, sometimes in the evening will log back on if everything in the house is done and kids in bed just to finish up some stuff.
If im in the office, because of the commute I'm straight out of there the second the clock hits 4 and I won't turn on again when home.

Teams for us will show active/amber depending on computer activity. You don't need to be on teams.
Unless in the office and in a physical meeting it should really always show green if working
However in saying that, the team I manage I wouldn't stress if they were away for a bit as long as the work was being done.
If work was being missed and it was constantly showing them away then I'd be concerned

During the pandemic we were all encouraged to take time from our desks and had many walking, running and exercise challenges with leaderboards. Whilst we don't have the focus now, I would not be bothered if someone took a longer lunch break so they could cook, eat, and walk outside or run an errand.

The other thread which was deleted about the disciplinary mentioned the manager suspected low performance so checked the online history. As someone responsible for a team, I definitely do not have such invasive access to my team.

I wonder if even the C-Suite can request hours someone is online at my company. We are often travelling, at team offsides, half business reviews, quarterly business reviews, for our own team and we sit in others. If these are in person, the team are certainly not on their laptops. People can often be travelling back to back for events and such. It would be pointless.

Not RTFT, so following points probs already raised.

My Teams status is often attached to my mobile app for some weird reason - people can see me typing in the chat on my laptop while I’m still showing as away. I have to log out and back into Teams on my phone to temporarily sort this.

Even when that’s not the issue, if I minimise Teams and Outlook on my desktop and work in Word or something similar, I show as away. If I’m researching potential event spaces or writing a press release/comms plan/slide deck, this can be for hours.

If I’m being super unproductive and just chatting to colleagues on Teams about TV or gossip etc, I show as green.

I have regular slots of blocked out time in my Outlook diary to stop others from putting in calls when I need time to focus on something as my diary is insane. These invites usually default to including Teams call details and so I appear as red during those slots.

So I don’t think you can use Teams last active status as a guide really.

I manage a team and I can hand on heart say that I do not have time to be checking when they were last on Teams. I get why you do it but it seems a bit of an unproductive use of your time, OP 😁. If any of them are slacking, I’d go to IT to run a check on their actual activity (I know you know that!).

I have suspicion some people showing online at my place have mouse jigglers or just open word documents and put something weighted on the keyboard so they stay online, as if I try to call or message them they won't reply for a long time.

Years ago I had a colleague that wrote a script to keep his PC busy while he was away from his desk or having a kip. A quick Google brings up a fair few hits on similar tools.

I have a remote desktop which I generally use for most of my work (more software on it). Only open Teams on my laptop itself as the audio wouldn't work in the remote desktop.

Makes it look like I'm sitting idle all day even though I'm working hard.

Teams activity would be a very misleading measure of my actual work. I don’t sit in front of a computer every day all day and prefer to read hard copies of documents than stare at a screen. Luckily, where, when and how I work is more or less left to me.

I'm fairly senior in my organisation and would never use this function to judge if someone was working or not. I look at it before messaging someone to get an idea of whether they may respond immediately. Also would never bother with last online. My team are left to their own devices and they're all brilliant and productive enough. What do I care if they take some time out in the middle of the day to do something. They do a great job, and they're happy, that's all that matters!

People on MN are always claiming wfh is great and they do more than in an office.
But I go to an exercise class (shift work) some mornings and there are always people laughing that they are wfh.

They’re not talking about opening them, they’re talking about the feed where it shows you what other people have recently opened/edited. I don’t really know why such a feature exists but it does, and I have also found it quite illuminating at times!

I can understand if someone is not working to their targets and they always seem to be showing as away, but as long as people are delivering the work they should be on time and on standard then I don't really care.

Also, sometimes if I am watching a webinar or am on a zoom call my teams will show as away even though I am working, or if you are writing things down on paper or reading things out of books and making notes it obviously will show as away as you're not moving the mouse.

I think it's very unreasonable for managers or other team members to be bothered about the odd 20 mins here and there for that reason, and just because someone is always showing online it really doesn't mean they are working harder than someone who is showing as away for a few periods during the day.

I have suspicion some people showing online at my place have mouse jigglers or just open word documents and put something weighted on the keyboard so they stay online, as if I try to call or message them they won't reply for a long time.