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.

Yes I do agree with that.

I think this comes down to role, output and in office experience.

for me I know in the office we are meant to have a lunch break- so I have one at home, weather that be at 245 so I can pick the kids up or 12 so i can go for a walk- as I would in the office.

feeding the dog- under a minute task - no issue.
doing my food shop- not a quick task and not doable in my break- would I go the shop if in the office -if we ran out fo milk? Yes

if I have to do something like a vet appointment I ok
it with my boss and atart early if wfh - if in the office I would be allowed to go in work time - it’s just different as you need to be more accountable at home in my opinion.

if you’re at home you need to be in constant reach communication wise - as you would in the office, in my role. Also if the role is meant to be in the office then it is not a right to wfh, it’s a privalage and you need to remember that if the rules change - this is how I interpret it for my role

For the team I manage as long as by as out put is high and communication is good I do not mind flexibility but the job has to come first- if you struggle with performance you should be in the office to get support

You can set your teams to go yellow after a specified amount of time. So if you did it for 10 mins but still green when you get back that could be a suggestion.
Or keep note of how many 'short' breaks you are taking.
Hanging out washing isn't usually a quick job. Then you might play with your dog. I'll bet that's 20 mins before you realise.
Maybe take on other suggestions. As a manager I would prob think the same tbh

I think someone else from your team has noticed you are on amber a lot and asked the manager about it and depending on what's happening with that person your manager has to be seen to be asking about this and understanding what's happening. Otherwise it makes no sense ,you are performing well,you get your work done,you have a good relationship with your manager. My manager once randomly asked me to remind her about my working agreements re hours and parental leave. I assumed another team member had asked her about how I managed to be off work for so many weeks etc.

I think someone got sacked for this sort of thing recently?

Amusingly, my former micromanager’s demand to know what we were doing every minute of the day has spectacularly backfired - after we moved to a new directorate in a reshuffle, new manager wasn’t interested in monitoring our calendars and doesn’t agree that old manager should still be doing so (she made us reinstate her access to our calendars with a bollocks “safe working” excuse) - so his solution was for us to block all day every day as WFH unless we were out and about / in the office (and we now put “office day”) so always appear as red dots. It was his sneaky way of sticking two fingers up at her continually trying to micromanage his hands off management of us. It’s taken a year but we think she might finally have backed off…! Certainly nobody asks us where we are or what we are doing any more. It became obvious she was teams stalking me in my first week as I left my laptop open overnight in my home office and she commented that I was working late / at it early doors so I realised she was spying… never had a manager like it in 25 years!

Or just do your f...ing job!

@Braygirlnow I do my fucking job very well thanks. Just because I make a suggestion to someone else, doesn’t mean I chilling out doing sweet FA! I frankly don’t have the time to mess around and I don’t skive off work thanks. Take yourself off and comment elsewhere, your judgement is not wanted here.

I can't believe the lengths people go to to not do any work! Unbelievable 😖

Tell then you've taken up smoking!

Sweet jesus christ 😫
people can do their work without being chained to their desks
unless your sitting on the shoulder of everyone doing their job you dont know what anyone does for their work

re word that- the lengths people go to to deal with micro managing people. busybodiess who have so little work to do they notice their colkegues teans lights.everyone works different as long aa the output is achieved what dies it matter

Maybe the output isn’t being achieved…

"Join a teams meeting with just yourself" "get a jigger" ....talking about playing with dog or putting washing out! And for this to be noticed it must be that op is "unchained " from her desk quite a lot, or it wouldn't be an issue.

Hit a nerve.

op states hasn't affected her output or productivity. as people have said teams lights it is not a measure of people's work. people suggesting booking meeting etc is push back to managers not treating people like adults and allow get on with work. in our work we have actually been told to block out time for their lunch and breaks so meetings don't get booked. I block out the afternoon of evey Friday in my calender- that allows no meetings to be booked. I can get on with my work also take a break if it means popping out to walk the dog etc. it doesn't affect my productivity at all. if we didn't have micro managers or managers that trusted their staff better or manged their staff better then people wouldn't need to come up with ways to mark their teams red

Your manager is a micro manager that wouid really piss me off

I am hybrid and work so hard and so much more productive working from home without distractions

We only have OP’s word for it though! Re her output.

We only ever do, ShockedandStunnedRepeatedly, and employees' views of their output can sometimes differ from that of the managers

IME most simply don't care so long as the work's getting done, but if it isn't that can be another matter - and while that's their job to sort out, it isn't always welcomed by those who think it clever to cheat

@Braygirlnow 🥱🥱🥱

yeah we do but you automatically presumed she wasn't doing her job aswell. and siad you could do your job
that's how mumnest forum works only hear one side
but as if you read the 13 pages of the forum then you would see that teams light is not a tool to measure output at all.

I have no idea what you are saying.