To ask, if you work remotely/from home do you worry about your Teams status going yellow/'Away'

[88tthh]

I've recently started a work from home job and I get quite anxious about my Teams status going to the yellow 'Away' status, as I worry I'll get picked up on it or people will think I'm taking excessive breaks from my laptop.

For example, yesterday my status went to Away a couple of times when I went to the loo, and when I went and made a coffee. I get stressed and try and rush back to my laptop, as 5 minutes goes by so quickly. I know if I was in the office I definitely wouldn't be panicking about the amount or duration of toilet breaks, for example, yet at home I do. I also time my lunch hour down to the minute to make sure I'm back at my desk after exactly an hour (or sometimes less).

I follow some influencers online who have similar work from home jobs and I see them pottering around putting washes on and even taking quick showers during the work day, yet also spending their lunch hour at 1-hour exercise classes (so they're not doing these things during their lunch breaks). I guess the normal is probably somewhere between their approach and my approach.

What is the world coming to where people are buying things to move their mice while they have a poo

This is why I have stopped worrying about it. I am not using my keyboard/mouse 100% of the time while in the office as I am am sometimes looking through paperwork or in the toilet.

I regularly don't open teams when I am focusing on a piece of work. Not an issue at my place. My performance speaks for itself

Or so this and then go back and change your status to green and it stays that way.

Ah you need a jiggler, my friend has one and it jiggles the mouse every now and again! Think they are about £10 off Amazon!

I think my advice is around diary management.

Put all work related things in your calendar including the things that mean you cannot be disturbed (presentation, etc ) but mark them clearly.

If and when you need to step away - do just that - mark it as away. Change the status back when you have returned.

Re putting washes on etc - I block my lunch hour clearly and repeatedly. That is the time I put a
wash on or start dinner prep . I don’t spend the day whole day juggling my personal life - I am paid to work. I mark 30 mins for lunch and then another 30 mins for school pick up or a walk. This is clearly marked in my calendar. I also stick to these timings.

The idea that you can just flit around attending to your personal life while being paid like you are at work all day is a joke. Employers are will, can and do monitor your productivity.

In summary I think it’s the unexplained “Away” status for hours and hours that will cause problems.

Calendar up to date
Declare time away to your manager via calendar or just mentioning that you are stepping away
Be consistent
Be professional - 30 mins break is 30 mins

best of luck

We don’t use Teams much for meetings, but we have to be contactable on Teams at all times. You’d be in trouble if you turned Teams off and missed something urgent. Our Teams status isn’t monitored as such, though, but we do have a digital log that automatically records what you are doing every minute of the day. That is definitely monitored, and you will be in trouble if there is an issue with that - took too long on a project, too much unaccounted for time, etc.

I don't worry about it, and I've never known anyone else in my organisation worry about it either.

I'll quite often set my own status to Away whilst I leave to do something, then hours later realise it's still yellow whilst I've been working on the laptop for hours doh!

Makes for a quiet afternoon though!

LA - public sector - we can't make changes to any settings, only an ‘administrator’ (IT team) can, with an agreed request from line management.

And those same IT people can, if asked by HR, review everything you've ever written, said, done on your device, including teams. There really isn't any point worrying about it, if you've not got work to do (as happens in some jobs) you can't sit babysitting a laptop out of fear of a yellow dot on the screen!

Aw I'm LA too and we can for those two. I don't really leave my desk outside of tea break and lunch except to maybe nip for a pee, let the cat/dog in or out or answer the door to the delivery driver so its never been an issue but when I started there 3 years ago the girls on my team told me to adjust it.

No, within our team we've explicitly agreed that it's ok to have Away status. Being at the computer for hours on end is detrimental physically and psychologically.

I don't really worry too much. I do notice that my teams status changes to away sometimes when I'm working, which puzzled me tbh! I will have a look at how to change that setting.

I do sometimes go in a meeting with myself if I don't want to be disturbed for a while. Even on DND my "priority" contacts will ring, which is not helpful.

Everything goes in my diary, even personal apps, so people can see when I am available or not. I don't take the piss though, I only do those during my lunch hour.

I think tbh output/productivity is a better indicator than teams status of whether somebody is actually working or not.

We are monitored on another system so teams for me doesn't matter
But I have to be exact with breaks and lunch and time away to get a drink/toilet is less than 10 mins per 9hrs

What kind of work do you do? Sounds like brutal/inhumane conditions

No it doesn’t bother me as my conscience is clear, if my teams is yellow because I’m making a drink, answering the door, using the toilet, putting a wash on etc I know these are jobs that take 5 or 10 mins and I’m productive the rest of the time. No different to being in the office and making a coffee or having a quick chat with someone.

I would feel much more sneaky using a mouse jiggler or downloading software onto my laptop to make it look like I’m working!

If your employer and output is decent it’s unlikely they’ll be monitoring you. As a manager of people I only take notice of ‘away’ status when someone is clearly not working productively or is uncontactable a lot of the time.

@anonima customer service. Standard contact centre stuff really, have to be on the phone and not away from my desk

I just play a long play video (eg meditation) on YouTube and it stays green on Teams.

I think it massively depends on what job you do and how much you’re generally monitored/have targets for example in a call centre.

For me I probably show as ‘away’ more than I do busy / active but it’s not a problem for me or anyone else.

I could be ‘away’ from teams but that doesn’t mean I’m not working. It could mean I’m still sat at my desk but taking a call on my mobile, on a zoom call ( we use both teams and Zoom and I’m sure a zoom call will show you as inactive if you’re not moving your mouse) or I could be planning / prepping and tend to do this old school with a pen and paper before I try and design it on the computer.

As a PP said, if you’ve got nothing to feel guilty for, don’t worry. Do I sometimes put a wash out between meeting? Yes. Do I take in parcels? Yes. But I also get all my work done and more and will always work over my hours as I love and put a lot into my career.

I've never thought about it.

You need this

amzn.eu/d/3Sa5ZoB

I deliberately set mine to show me as away so I don't get pestered unnecessarily! I read and reply in my own time, but I don't notice anyone else's status at all.

No - not all of my work is Teams-based or computer-based. There are good work-related reasons why I am often away or offline.

Never occurs to me at all, or anyone else's. As long as I reply in a reasonable time and others do, don't care.

No, I have never worried about it or monitored my team.

However, there are some hacks. You can set your status to available or busy for a set period of time or simply go to PowerPoint and ‘present in teams’ this will keep you as ‘do not disturb’.

It's funny that you mention this, because we are now using the "new" Teams, and my status goes to yellow within about 5 minutes, and can't apparently be changed. With the old Teams I think it took about 15 minutes which I think is more reasonable.

However, I've just seen the post above about being able to change it. I have looked at the settings menu but will look again to see if the option "Show me as away when inactive" can be toggled off on mine.