Pulled up on my teams light

[outlanderish]

I work from home full time with occasional travel. My employer allows either a half hour or one hour lunch break, based on personal choice. I typically don’t take a formal break instead, I take brief pauses throughout the day (e.g. five minutes here and there to make a coffee, play with my dog, or put a load of laundry on), while otherwise remaining at my desk and working.

Recently, my manager called me to ask why I appear “orange” (away) a lot during the day. I explained that I take small, informal breaks rather than a long formal one. She told me this was unacceptable, even though my approach has not negatively impacted my productivity. In fact, I’m often more efficient this way. I also need to get up regularly as it hurts my back sitting for a long period of time

Other colleagues especially smokers also step away from their desks regularly, but it seems to be accepted for them.

You should really take at least a half hour break, it’s good for you and the law. That said, I’ve wfh for years and do the same as you. I much prefer to take a few mins here and there to sort housework, and I prepare lunch and eat and work instead

I’m not sure how you approach this with your manager, if they aren’t happy with your approach to work then you should really take at lest a half hour break

Reading the number of posters using jigglers etc just supports the narrative that many homeworkers are skiving half the day

Given that the primary purpose of them appears to be deceit that would hardly be a surprise, @TheWeeDonkeyFella

Nobody in their right mind is going to object to - or probably even notice - an occasional 5 minute break, so the gleeful recommendations rather suggest that something else is going on

We have no idea whether this manager is micro-managing by watching what colour of teams or whether this manager has become concerned about the level of productivity Op has or that there have been a number of times recently that the Op has been unavailable for 15+ minutes during the day when she's needed on an urgent matter and those have meant he has gone to check the situation.

Are you saying that, as a manager, the latter two things should be ignored?
Or if you had someone whose output was less than others or people were complaining that they were regularly hard to get hold of, that you'd say, "it would be micro-managing to talk to them about it"?
It's easy to say "I would never do that" when your team is not giving any cause for concern. As a manager, you should be stepping up if a member of the team is causing issues because it's not fair on the rest of the team.

We have no idea whether the Op is working hard and been unlucky in being spotted away, or whether she's working half her allotted hours and expecting others to pick up the pieces.

It's in that context that I said it's interesting that the response is how to fool the system.

You don't know if your manager is pulling other people up. It's about your work and how often you are inactive. You need to check out what is custom and practice and what is acceptable re micro breaks away from the screen for your eyes and back. You have to have at least 30 mins lunch break so now she's noticed she's addressing this I suspect your performance isn't as you think or it wouldn't be noticed.

Stick yourself in a meeting with yourself and then change your status to green. That's what I do. My computer goes to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, so stops it doing this and makes me look busy.

I explained that I take small, informal breaks rather than a long formal one. She told me this was unacceptable, even though my approach has not negatively impacted my productivity. In fact, I’m often more efficient this way.

It's right there in the OP. This was not a conversation about productivity. It was conversation about presenteeism, using Teams status as an surrogate for availability.

I was coming on to say the same thing.

Are you sure there is no other undercurrent of manager thinks your productivity is low or you aren't performing in some way? If so try to address that with her rather than the Teams thing. WFH does require some mutual trust and you need to find out why she doesn't like your current approach to time management.

You could also ask for an Occupational health appointment for the bad back and get it in writing that you need regular breaks for movement and stretching. They can't argue with that.

I also have back problems and do something similar to you (though mines a needy indoor cat not a dog!), otherwise I siece up. The difference is I don't have someone clocking my Teams availability. Though I do have Teams for work on my mobile and can see messages and take calls on it wherever I am. I also don't change my status when taking short breaks - I can usually get back to my desk if someone calls without warning and am never away long.

Just download teams onto your phone and set your status as green

Nope. It's about deadlines. Are they being met? Yes? Then continue wfh.

No? They get your bum back in that office. Otherwise, it's simple presenteesim.

Silly question . How can she tell if you’re working but not on Teams? So a phone call, typing up notes etc ?

I would say it's more that the standard of work or output has dropped and so the manager has now been keeping a close eye on OP and noticed this. If she was a high performer the manager wouldn't care.

Not read all posts. If you click on the person availability colour on Teams you can make it red(busy) for the rest of the day. Additionally go into settings of PC and change the amount of time before PC times out and set to never.

Thanks for the responses. No, I'm performing well and above my targets. My manager and I get along perfectly well and do have a very open relationship. It's not often someone can't get hold of me. I just found it very bizarre and I believe my teams goes to Amber after 3 minutes of inactivity. I'm constantly stressed now since the chat to make sure I'm always on green. I know a few people who permanently have their status to offline so no one can track them.

You can also book yourself a meeting (entitle it 'busy') so you'll appear red

All of the different solutions to make you "green" and pretend you're working are very eye opening 🤣 not a good look for WFH!

Honestly, don't do this. If you are telling your insurers or GP that you are a non-smoker, then it could come back to haunt you.

As for taking breaks, I've never had so much time wasted as when I worked in an office, everything took so much longer - getting something printed, going to the loo, IT fails, people constantly interrupting or moving your stuff. Drove me nuts, the definition of hell is other people.

Occupational health. And if your back pain is made worse by your work, you can ask for adjustments to your schedule and to your workstation.

Ask her why your way of working is unacceptable. If your productivity is good and you’re working above target, what would she hope to achieve by changing things?

If she persists then I agree with going through your health and safety or OT department to get a note allowing you to take various movement breaks through the day.

(FWIW in a job after I finished uni, there were a number of smokers on the team who each took a fag break every hour, going down 3 flights of stairs to go outside and smoke. It probably took them at least 15 minutes each time, and some of the non smokers started taking the same time to do things like go to get coffee. Management didn’t like this but it was blatantly unfair that some people were getting breaks that others weren’t.)

With anything like this, I’d always assume that this has come from someone above your manager, and all she wants is to be able to report your justification back. She probably hasn’t been sitting watching your online status: someone above has probably had nothing better to do so has decided to “audit” how much work the WFH team does. I wouldn’t assume that this only you.

Doesn't stay red if you're not at your computer unless you're in a call. I block out time to do things, but if I go make a cuppa, by the time I'm back it's amber or my screen has locked itself from inactivity. Same thing happens if I'm physically in a meeting on site, unless I'm working at the same time (which I'm usually not as it's rude, but occasionally we're having a problem I need to keep an eye on even in meetings).

I agree, but there are some managers who do and I would argue are bad managers.

Which are justified when the manager is picking on OP for being inactive for 3 mins.

Definitely. Micromanging at its worse.

Are you going to talk to your manager about it?

All of the different solutions to make you "green" and pretend you're working are very eye opening 🤣 not a good look for WFH!

Which are justified when the manager is picking on OP for being inactive for 3 mins.

Not really, @One3C
When things seem odd or wrong, the solution among most people is to discuss it rather than make things worse with deceit