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.

If I’m going to have a nap (I have some health issues at the moment) I will put myself in a meeting with just me / share my screen to it stays as presenting / busy until I come back to my computer.

I work in a similar role, my team and I wouldn't take too kindly to forced 'Lego time'. But we have the flexibility to do what works best! Some of us like taking walks, others doodling, daydreaming (as mentioned in the article!) etc. Some prefer a big chunk of work in the day, 3 hour break in-between and carrying on at night. No issue as long as they make their scheduled meetings (which I as lead try to minimise). Teams availability isn't a measure of productivity and slacking is quite immediately obvious.

Roles focused on availability and communication however can't get away with that. Some Executive Assistants at work were always unavailable on Teams - they got let go in the latest round of redundancies.

@C8H10N4O2 you can say if you need more but on a general rule we have 2 breaks, lunch and then 10 mins to go
If I need more I just say I might be over my 10 mins today

Wouldn't need to be forced!!

Just being able to have time to problem solve in the best way possible without the worry of someone saying "what are you doing"

I have been known to be walking at the weekends and suddenly found a creative solution to a problem. I then ring myself and leave myself a message, Then I carry on with my day

I block out time in my diary that says 'deep work'. But my calendar isn't public to anyone except for my line manager anyway. So nobody cares.
Does your workplace really insist on people accounting for all their time, asking what they are doing?

Even in an office setting people go for walks etc.

I wouldn't worry about it if it's a few times per day, you're allowed loo breaks etc.
Having said that, we had new starters during the pandemic that were away a lot, and management did pick up on it and take action. Step one of the action plan was to account to management for exactly what they did all day, which fixed the problem as they were then at their desks working for most of the day.
I wouldn't change your settings to stop you showing as away when you're inactive, as colleagues might think you're ignoring their calls/chats if they call while you're "available" but you've popped to the loo.

@CalisthenicsOnDemand yes because my job isn't based on output, it's based on taking phone calls
So if I'm not doing that, I'm not doing my job

I don’t pay it any attention to be honest. No one pays it any attention, and as long as the work gets done my employer couldn’t care less - we’re treated like adults and trusted to manage our workload.

Buy a mouse mover, it’s a rotating pad your mouse sits on to keep it moving. But if you’re doing your work then I wouldn’t worry about it.

Open notepad and put something a little heavy on the space bar.

I’m a lecturer and do one day at home, the rest on campus. One day last year a student commented in a message about my status being “away” and that it looked “unprofessional” - I was teaching a class on campus, nowhere near Teams! I moved my status to “offline” then and have never changed it back. My manager knows I do a good job and pick up messages at all hours but screw students monitoring my online activity!

Ditto. 😬

Open PowerPoint and hit ‘present in Teams’.

All the tips and tricks are great - except when you’re showing as on a call/or green but messages aren’t picked up and calls go to voicemail !

I've WFH for a k'zillion years (possibly an exageration) on a self-employed basis way before it became an established 'way to work'. Forced into it due to caring responsibilities, but better than being unemployed; although decades of work experience and various qualifications (to Post-grad) have helped too.

Properly wfh involves being able to overcome any work-related difficulty from the comfort of your own home. And actually doing the work too. It really is that simple.

Are you the OP? I wasn't replying to you but to @cakeorwine
As I stated in an earlier post if your job is based on taking phone calls then you do have to concern yourself with availability. However, the Teams status is not the issue, but the speed of replying.

You can also add a message to the status instead of the dots, so say 'away short break' or whatever. The coloured dots are so unreliable nobody IME bothers

Would you really get in trouble if it went on yellow, even though you're doing your job? This is so sad!
I set mine to ''offline' purely because I don't want colleagues to know I'm around so I can actually do some meaningful work without being disturbed.

And I absolutely refuse to work if monitored by 'time' or any software; that takes wfh to a different level. Without any 'office running costs', some employers expect to oversee their employees as if they were present and sucking up office overheads. Which they don't.

Conversely, most jobs really do require some 'presenteeism', and since covid there's been a lot of piss-taking from all sides. Meanwhile the desperately seeking employment people are easy meat for the new-'employer'/charlatans, sucking what they can whilst producing nothing.

if you’re using a mouse jiggler just remember to unplug it or you’ll have a colleague mention how late you were working last night!

I had a manager who was obsessed with Teams statuses. To save her constantly moaning I just went into a call with myself (I sent a calendar invite and then kept scrolling back to the same one and joining the call). Thankfully she didn't last long.

I'm responsible for a team of circa 30 people. I haven't got time to monitor any of the their Teams status, however I do notice when work isn't delivered on time. Focus should be on outputs, not whether someone's mouse is moving all day (mine definitely doesn't as I spend so much time in meetings!).

Not mine. I was just thinking about the OP

I have a very relaxed boss who I know couldn't tell you what status I was in 99.999% of the time and if he did and he saw yellow he wouldn't care. So no I don't. I am also the same with the staff I manage. I see them as adults who can manage their day/workload as they see fit.

The influencers you see, could have very relaxed bosses like mine, make up the hours somewhere else (maybe by working into the evening), have one of those mic wigglers or are just lying.

Also, present your screen to nobody and set your status to available (instead of presenting). Keeps it green permanently.

Source: a member of staff I fired.

Put something small and heavy on the escape key, we call it the golf ball trick.
I have a full size keyboard and separate big screen so the golf ball works better on the big keyboard rather than the keyboard on the laptop.
It shows you as continuously "green" as long as the escape key is depressed.