Anyone else snoop on MS Teams Last Online?

[MicrosoftTeamsTwat]

Obvs inspired by an active thread where the poor MNetters DH is being taken for gross misconduct as he’s been found to be not logged in for +2hrs a day…

I will admit to often looking on my ahem less performing team members when they go amber on WFH days and it’s always ‘LAST SEEN 2 HOURS AGO’ at like 3pm in the afternoon, and it’s always the same people consistently throughout the day, they must work (be green/red) 3 hours max a day…and I always wonder how they get away with it - although if the other threads anything to go by perhaps no one will for much longer.

Will absolutely caveat this post with the fact that I definitely sometimes take a slightly longer lunch, and also put the washing out, see you chores and generally make the most of WFH on those days but genuinely I’m never offline more than an hour a day, so I do get a bit peeved that my team mates just seem to get away with it.

Sooo..

YANBU: Everyone checks their lazy colleagues last online and wouldn’t be sad if they were pulled up on it
YABU: Be prepared to suck up others workloads as companies aren’t pulling up their employees..

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…?

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.😀

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.

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.

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.

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

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 🙂

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.

Thank you.
Genuinely thought that bit went without saying!

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.

Despite what I posted previously, chatted to DH and he said his company have just put 2 people on suspension. Their software looks at multiple things - number of clicks, screen scrolling, speed at which emails re processed (ie are they actually read), number of emails sent, first log-on v. last logged activity, engagement with other company-provided software (MS word, exel etc) as well as Teams engagement.

I find that quite frightening, personally.

It is frightening and bizarre as it demonstrates nothing about output. It just encourages performative working.

Online presenteeism

It's a shame this kind of toxic and infantilising behaviour has found its way on to online working culture.

Bet these kind of companies have retention problems if the treat their employees this way.

And yet he often spends hours working outside of his company devices with impunity?

How long were they monitored for? If they looked at my activity for 2 months they would probably suspend me.

However, they would need to do a full investigation inducing mapping against diary and anecdotal, including with manager.

They would quickly realise I had Covid but unlike my colleagues did not take a full week off, rather I tried to honour as much critical work and some calls as needed and ended up not being online an awful lot over 2 weeks.

DD had multiple hospital appointments due to a nasty injury she suffered, she was also at home for a week due to it. I've been on two work trips, where I did not log on much once on them. I also took PTO a few days.

So all in all - my activity is shockingly low but I think my output strangely enough has just about made the cut.
Sometimes it's circumstantial.

Who monitors this? Does IT monitor it for the entire company? What are the steps? Consulting the manager, telling staff you're monitoring them? Start an investigation?

Why do people work for such toxic employers?

I don’t understand this. I only open TEAMS if I am attending an online meeting.

A lot of my working day is spent thinking and problem solving, talking to people on the phone or travelling to see them face to face.

Even if I had a whole day working on emails, my TEAMS wouldn’t show anything if I didn’t log into it/open it surely?

Why wouldn’t you just connect a big screen to your laptop or log in through your PC?

I didn't even know you could check last status. Have never thought to look.

Must admit we use Teams a lot

I work with a global sales team and the European finance team and service about 60 members of staff. Often you can tell someone has been waiting for you as the second you go from orange to green you get a call.

I am pretty conscious about being "on green" although no-one has ever mentioned anyone not being on green.

All jobs are different and all workplaces are different.

At mine - if you are at an external meeting, reading docs in hardcopy etc, it is normal practice to mark that in your calendar so your colleagues are aware. Or you might let your immediate team know.

If you don't do that and aren't contactable, that's not great as our work can be unpredictable and moves fast. It's simply part of the job to be contactable. Not in a super controlling way like you can't put some washing on, make a cuppa, or go to the loo kind of way. But it's not the sort of workplace where you can just disappear off and read things off line for hours without letting someone know.

I am quite senior and I get lots of control over my diary and time and so do my immediate team but in our line of work, it isn't just about "output", it's also important to be accessible.

So, yes, I do keep an eye on this with my team and am going through performance management with my PA at the moment - it's just one of the issues but one is that she isn't responsive when I message her during the day (I suspect mouse jiggler but it doesn't really matter why, she needs to pick things up for me quickly and she doesn't).

You don't understand that other jobs use Teams in a different way?

At my place we all have Teams open all the time to keep in touch with the team. It's always pinging with someone asking a question, asking if someone can assist with a piece of work, reception asking if you're free to speak to a client etc. It replaces the conversations you'd have in person if you were in the office.

We have some wfh skivvers. One phones me to find out if there was a system problem…three hours after the system shut down. This a system they should be spending all day in!

Another answers email and returns calls in a couple of 20 minute bursts throughout the day. Can’t get hold of her outside those windows.

I fucking love this and will be telling everyone I know about it.

@MicrosoftTeamsTwat Can you share a screenshot of where to find it?

As the director of 37 subsidiaries and an average working day of 14hours for 15 years, including board meetings, travel and logged on hours at weekends and during family holidays, yep. Without impunity.

Thanks @AhBiscuits no I had no idea people had to work like that.

I would go insane with that level of interruption and contact. I am sure some people enjoy it though, but definitely not for me.

Feeling very grateful!

Totally agree. As a leader, I have told my team that I don't really care if they take longer lunchbreaks, pop offline to put their washing out or clock off a bit early when it's sunny etc.

What I care about is whether they are delivering on the work that they are employed to do, and whether they are contactable when they need to be.

I'm clear about what is expected of staff in terms of outputs, standards and objectives, and as we work hard on ensuring that these expectations are realistic, I absolutely expect people to deliver. But how and when they do the work is up to them...if they're superefficient and able to deliver the work to a high standard within fewer hours than most, then frankly, good for them.

My staff are all adults and I employ them because I trust them. I don't have the time or the inclination to micromanage anyone, but if they fail to deliver on what they're supposed to do, it will quickly become evident in any case.