Anyone else snoop on MS Teams Last Online?

Even if they appear is 'my flux' which these things do sometimes and aren't marked 'confidential'?
(And yes, I know they can see if you open them).

Sometimes communication IS actually getting the work done e.g. in a middle of an event where there are technical problems.
The other ways of communicating is by email, which in my office isn't really used for things that you need an instant reply for. Then, there's whatsapp, but I find it intrusive to use people's personal whatsapps for work queries. We don't use the actual phone very much.

"There seems to be an assumption that everyone has a job where you need to be at your desk logged into a computer from 9-5 and if you aren’t then you’re slacking and letting the team down."

I have one of these jobs and I have the opposite experience. I think most MNers are in higher jobs than that where they have more control over their working day.

There was even a post in a recent thread where someone was arguing that adults at work don't suffer mindnumbing boredom and get to organise their own day the way they want to. I found that quite ignorant about the reality of a lot of jobs.

It might not be good for communication (which I’d disagree with, as there are plenty of other ways of communicating) but it’s certainly much better if you actually want to get work done!!

Same - as is my DH who is a snr director of a FTSE100 company! He sometimes prefers to read complex legal docs in hardcopy so would show as ‘off line’. Being on external telephone or video calls also wouldn’t show, nor would desk side catch ups or stepping into an empty office to have an impromptu meeting. I think employers (colleagues) who go down this route are laying themselves open for considerable grief - not every minute of the working day can be accounted for by Teams Log on data.

Did you realise 365 shows you who last accessed your files?

You realise that reading documents you aren't meant to be in is probably still a breach of the rules and could lead to a disciplinary, even if they haven't been locked down?

Agreed, results speak for themselves, or at least they should.

A fun feature of 365, for those subjected to it, is that you can have a mooch at the cloud-based files people have been working on recently. This applies to everyone, including the managers themselves unless privacy etc is configured properly (almost never).
I've found out a few interesting things over time by looking at what directors etc are up to 😛

It's clear from this thread that some people think that everyone has the same job and works in the same way.

News flash We don't.

I think you'd need to be notified that this was being done though.

I don't think it really works unless your job only involves online sessions. If I'm sitting with a client, I might present or might have my laptop off to chat properly. If I'm designing a solution, then I might be sitting on the sofa with blank paper drawing ideas. Conversely if I'm checking my calendar from my phone over breakfast or at the school gates and forget to switch off work apps, my phone's connection would show me as online for hours when I'm not working.

It's fairly easy to tell who is getting work done versue who is lazy, based on output. I don't actually care if my team go away for 45 min to do something anyway, I care if they deliver or not.

I have colleagues who do this. I've avoided contacting them on Teams as I thought they hadn't opened it. It's not good for communication.

This would make me nervous as sometimes people show as offline or away when they are not. We have IT issues too and have to log off and back in and it isn't our fault. I think it's a very lazy and unreliable way to snoop.

You should be looking at the work people are doing instead. If you are a manager and have no idea what your team does, it says more about how much work you do as a manager than your team. If you have to snoop to find out, you probably aren't working that hard yourself.

If your managers are using "amber" as an indicator of working rather than work outputs and quality of work then they are incompetent and are the staff who need replacing.

Everyone in our team works flexibly so as long as we hit billing targets and keep clients happy noone cares if you take a long lunch break or clock off early or take 20 mins randomly in the middle of the afternoon

Plus sometimes people are doing long chunks of document review or drafting and might choose to do that on paper, so not looking at their screen doesn't mean they aren't working

I think micromanaging people who are delivering the work is really unhealthy but if course if their are productivity issues then employers wouldn't be unreasonable to start to look at things like employees vanishing

I always think this on threads about work on here! There seems to be an assumption that everyone has a job where you need to be at your desk logged into a computer from 9-5 and if you aren’t then you’re slacking and letting the team down.

I have a job where even when I’m in the office I might be away from my computer for the entire day doing manual work. I sometimes come in late, sometimes work very late into the evening. I go out and meet with people, go carry out research in different places, attend lectures and events etc all as part of my ‘working day’. And then sometimes I’m at my desk fiddling with boring spreadsheets and showing Green on Teams all day, but those are definitely not the only days when I am truly working!

What is so hard for you to understand about jobs being different?

Not everyone does every part of their work on "the" company machine. Plenty of roles require use of multiple machines. Teams is also notoriously inaccurate recording last active time.

Oh and I set up meetings with myself - its the only way to get time and peace to do concentrated pieces of work. I also regularly set Teams to "away" for the same reason.

If you have so little to do that you are monitoring your co-workers you might find it helpful to ask for more work. IME this only arises where people are generally short of stuff to do.

It isn't accurate. It's more accurate on the Teams app, but not at all on the browser version - it only registers you present if you have the Web page open and active. So if your app isn't opening/ working and you're using it online it will show you as away unless you're actively using Teams.

Also, if my colleagues are delivering on their tasks and meeting deadlines while wfh, then I treat them as adults and trust them to use their time as they see fit. I'd only question their 'presence' on Teams if I already had concerns about how they're performing. I myself will sometimes dip out for a couple of hours, for example school appointments, and make up the time either early morning or late evening to ensure work is completed.

In terms of tracking key strokes, presumably they can only do this on their own equipment as it must be some kind of software? Anyone know.

I think I might start using my own laptop instead as this stuff grinds my gears. I’m another one who does the work but doesn’t worry about the hours

It would never have occurred to me, and in any case that is not how we use MS Teams. When it works as it is a sub-standard application in my opinion.

I don't understand how people have separate computers?

Because not everyone has your job.

Mumsnet is so funny, sometimes, assuming everyone has the same adminny/desk-based/"typing" women's job.

Half the posts on this thread only make sense if you believe everyone has basically that job.

Exactly.

I work in a team where TEAMS is a good measure of output as we need that to be running for our phone system to work.
If you’re away on TEAMS it changes you to away on the phone system and you don’t get allocated incoming calls.

We do have one or two members of the team that love to slack off when WFH. This has lead to a big lack of trust within the team and there’s a lot of watching what others are doing which is really quite sad.

It’s become quite the toxic team due to these one or two people, unfortunately we don’t have a hands on manager who is willing to properly address the situation with these two so there’s never ending griping and bitching in the team.

I absolutely hate it and want out as soon as possible. In our case it’s the lack of robust management that is causing the problem as the slackers know they’ll just keep getting away with it.

I have my lights turned off. Why doesn’t everyone do this? Buggered if I’m playing that game .