Anyone else snoop on MS Teams Last Online?

We have to use VPNs, which drop outs frequently, causing us to be taken off the network, meaning teams will appear that the person is offline. We won't know until we need to access the intranet for something and then have to sign in, get a code sent to mobile etc etc etc.
I also noticed teams has a bug, my manager pulled me up once saying it showed I hadn't signed in until midday. I was very confused and assured him I was working.
A couple of weeks later, in a team briefing I noticed that he also was offline, despite being sat mere inches away from me and using his laptop for a presentation. He just hadn't opened the teams app on the laptop.
The whole software is unreliable and should never be used as an indicator of someone's productivity.

I use it to check if people are actively around or not and whether it's worth messaging them on Teams or if it should be an email or call or WhatsApp or whatever. I do also use it to check that one of my team who has a bad habit of working silly hours and burning out isn't online. If I see she's been active at 2am, for example, I know I need to keep a close eye on her.

This is why I have a mouse jiggler!

Unless your job involves constantly talking to people, how does whether or not you are on Teams demonstrate that you are working? My Teams goes off if I haven't looked on it for a bit but it doesn't mean I'm not working. Conversely you can just look on there every now and then but be putting your feet up. I sometimes set Teams to "away" so no one bothers me too.

Surely companies are better off looking at when someone physically logs into their laptop each day and their activity when logged on. That will tell them productivity, not an amber light system.
On most of these apps, Slack included you can pretend to be online.

Mine frequently shows me as away until I click into Teams to message someone then it changes back to green/available. Then next time I'm showing as "away" again. I'm in the office, so clearly, visibly working on my PC. I have no idea why the status keeps changing.

Yes and the same people log off early, log on late, disappear and don't answer their phones

Honestly, who gives a shit, as long as they're getting the work done on time & responding when needed it's not an issue.

My work laptop has all kinds of mouse issues so I sometimes switch to a personal one for certain tasks. Doesn’t mean I’m not working…

My Teams seems to drop out and show me as orange most of the time, even when I’m active on the laptop.

I’ve also seen colleagues as orange online when I’ve been sat next to them working.

No because I don’t have time for that and it’s not accurate. If a colleague calls me at home on my mobile, I can be talking for up to an hour but my teams will suggest I’m away. I also might be on site and in a face to face meeting - again, teams would suggest I’m away. I also might have printed some work out for proofing - again, teams would suggest I’m not working.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/5107524-gross-misconduct-hearing

No, I’ve seen people I’m working in the same office as have the ‘away’ icon despite being able to see that they are working.

It’s not accurate.

When people such as yourself do that, in my experience, your colleagues will end up having to field the messages that you should be dealing with because they are showing as available and online.

I have my Teams status set to permanently ’Appear offline’. My boss knows I’m very responsive so haven’t ever mentioned it.

I’m a lecturer, and a student commented to me that I had better watch because she could see my Teams status was orange - I was right there in the room teaching her class, just not at my laptop! After that I set it to grey/offline and it has been like that for a year now.

I wfh one day a week which is usually when I make lots of phone calls. So I could easily just be on the phone and not actively online for a few hours at a time. Plus I like to do some of my more creative planning by hand first so again would appear offline while doing that. Some days I'm less motivated and I might go and do something more practical around my house but then I make those hours up later in the evening or the following morning. I think that people tend to leave companies that are inflexible and that don't promote good work/ life balance so really I think the question you should be asking is whether your team are delivering on their targets and if their workload is handled properly. If it is, then i think it's good management to give them autonomy over that. I'd only pull them up if there were people who are consistently under delivering on targets. But I wouldn't necessarily use teams to do that, I'd use the targets themselves.

Anyone have the link to the other thread or know what it was called?

I set mine as offline/away as I prefer to prioritise my own workload and not have lots of interruptions. My manger is thankfully more interested in what I get done than what my status on teams is.

I always leave mine on 'appear offline.' Not many people in my work place use the Teams status. I keep my shared calendar up to date so people can see where I'm at.

We do about half of calls on zoom, so if we're using zoom it'll look like we're offline. Or if I'm on a telephone call my laptop won't be active. The teams status thing is not an accurate indicator of productivity at all.

Nope.

This is just an online version of presenteeism.

I'm a senior leader and wouldn't dream of doing so. I treat my staff like adults and that's how they behave.

Top tip to solve this problem if you have someone who checks your status.

Schedule a meeting with yourself and join and then minimise the window. Bingo you're show as busy and red all day.

I have as many problems when colleagues are in the office (we are all in different offices to each other) and they go awol for chats, walks, etc.

Good managers deal with the performance/motivation issues of individuals not lazily jump to blaming the location for all.

Also, my status regularly goes to away status when I am in a zoom call if I don’t touch my mouse or keyboard, which I regularly don’t do as I have wireless headphones so sometimes walk about the house while on the call, especially if I have been sitting down too much. (Off mute so I can talk freely, so I am fully focused on the call and not doing the vacuuming/dishes before anyone suggests it).

Mine goes amber if I'm in a meeting or a webinar and I'm not contributing - given that I'm often there to learn and/or take notes/do minutes, it's not ideal that it decides I'm not 'there' when actually I'm just not engaging with the computer mouse/microphone/keyboard. I'm still using the speakers! Still making notes!

It's a real bugbear for me!

If it seems someone has been amber a while I always have a look at the last seen 😅 Also note if people are logging on late, leaving early etc

Teams goes amber/away if you haven't been active in the laptop/pc it's installed on, so basically if you're not doing any work, it'll go to away. I don't understand how people have separate computers? Surely if you're on your companies network you wouldnt have a separate laptop/pc?? Don't understand how people's teams are going yellow of they're actively using the pc?
I'd say companies may start reporting on this in the near future to monitor productivity and just right, people are doing feck all, I know people in my company who set up meetings with themselves to get an hour of doing nothing! And they brag about it too