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.

It depends on the job, surely. With some jobs being present and available is the job.

It all sounds very micromanaging. I’m part of a totally virtual team and we are trusted to do our work to the required deadlines. When and how we do that work is up to us. My project is quiet today so I’ve done some washing and been out to get my hair cut. Later on I’ve got a teams call that I’ll join when out for a walk. Tomorrow is a different matter and I’ll be lucky to get a lunch break.

We regularly have messages popping up on the group chat saying people are taking their dogs for walks or going to the shops.

But we all get our projects completed on time so nobody really cares whose light is what colour on teams.

Tried to edit as quoted wrong post!

I don't think this question would be asked unless you're already a cause for concern in their eyes about productivity. I've never checked my teams online status - but I would do if they weren't producing enough. Is that a possibility?

Mine sometimes goes orange because I'm reading (articles and papers), which is part of my job. Depending on the author of the paper, it might be easier to print it and review it because I can find errors and reword things easier on paper than on the screen.

Your boss would hate me.

It's really dystopian, isn't it?

no no.. this is Mumsnet where EVERYONE works solidly, all day, every day never having a moment downtime ... ever.

you shouldnt have been so honest

I think as others have said if the work is getting done it’s unlikely to be a problem. It might be that 5 minutes here and there adds up to more than 30-60 mins.

Mouse jiggling will only show that you’re not working to the expected standard. If you were, there’d be no need to mouse jiggle. This is what gives home working a bad name and as others have said many employers have systems in place for this. It doesn’t sound like you are the sort of person who would need to do this so don’t jeopardise your employment. Explain to your manager that you find it more beneficial to take smaller breaks and see what she says. If she says though that business need means one longer break then I think there isn’t much you can do apart from toe the line and look for another job that might be a bit more flexible.

And somehow manages yo be on MN during the working day. So, either these are people without jobs, who aren't really qualified to comment or.....

Completely agree and I can understand why those who can't WFH resent those who can when reading stuff like this. So many posters on this thread essentially confirming they are not actually working when wfh.

Also sounds like OP may be taking far longer time out than an odd five minutes here and there.

Check the law on rest breaks and also your contract and hr policy, then you will be able to put forward a flexible working arrangement if you do need to take many 20 minute breaks.
You can't just say, well other prople probably do take coffee breaks or that you are spreading your allocated lunch hpur across the day as they can easily push back on that and say it's not their policy.
You need to understand the facts and policy amd contract and then go back to them with what is your preferred flexible working style, to cover your own back and get your manager to back off. Otherwise, it can become their bugbear and they won't let you alone about it.

Absolutely. I'm pushing 60. If my employer thinks they can track and trace me this way, they have a massive other think coming. I put in some ridiculous hours and don't get paid or take time in lieu.

There are loads of jobs out there .....

I suspect you're away a lot longer each time than you think
Hanging the washing, for example, would be about 15 minutes for me.

It's probably a bit like my 17yo who would say he worked for 2 hours so had a quick 15 minutes break when the reality is that he faffed for half an hour without doing anything, worked for nearly 40 minutes then played games for the next hour and a half.

Loads of people aren't actually working when in the office.... certainly not solidly all day.

(except on Mumsnet of course, where everyone is maxed out all the time)

Exactly this. If you were performing well then your manager wouldn't be pulling you up on it.

I just stick a bit of paper in the keyboard if I'll be away longer than 5 minutes.

I think it depends. My project manager is always "just popping away for 5 minutes". But in reality it's not unusual for him to be away for an hour or so at the time and sometimes several hours day in total, which means I (or another colleague) end up doing some of his job for him. Because we are professionals and understand the need to support each other, and also the thing needs doing.

From his perspective he's getting everything done that he needs to. From management perspective the project is on track. From mine and my colleagues' perspective, we'd quite like someone to actually pay attention to how much work he is doing.

(I also have a job where the list of things to do is longer than the time available, so the concept of things being "a bit quiet" is quite alien - I'd just be expected to pick up the next thing on the list if there wasn't anything specific to do on my current main project. So I find it odd that companies are happy for their staff to do "not much" rather than spending their time doing something else useful).

Jobs are all different, we don't know exactly what OPs is. Chances are if the manager hasn't been bothered before then it's because they've gone to message OP or had others saying they often try and she is away. Swings and roundabouts really, jobs where you should be available all day aside from a few mins here and there and lunch you'd probably finish on time everyday; yours is more flexible but I suspect in opposition to days like today where it's quieter you have some very long days.

The very existence of something like Team colours to monitor where people are at all times is a way to make people stressed, feel under surveillance, and feel they are supposed to be chained to their desk. What's wrong with sending an email or calling someone on the phone if you want to speak to them? We don't need to spy on each other via dystopian 'productivity systems'.

If an employee is performing poorly and is not suitably responsive to calls and emails, then you know you have a problem to address.

But preempting that workers will be slacking off before they have shown any sign of being a poor performer is draconian and in bad faith.

If you create a private Teams call, join it and then set your status back to Available, it should remain on green even if you are afk for a few minutes. I think putting a long YouTube video on in your browser also works (can obviously be muted).

I find this kind of micromanaging unreasonable as well, as long as you're getting your work done and are readily available when needed. Some people work better if they can get up and about regularly and that behaviour is hardly uncommon in offices. Unfortunately it does look bad to be "Away" a lot, though, even if nobody mentions it.

Yeah, there were too many piss takers in my husband’s workplace (inc many who installed mouse juggling software which was detected) and now they are all back in.

If the Teams colour is all that OP is being pulled up on, I agree with you.

But I suspect there is more to it than that - that she hasn't been available when people have wanted her, or other people have ended up picking up the slack and are fed up. Unless her manager really has nothing better to do than watch her Teams status all day. Which seems rather unlikely.

No, some managers are just useless and petty. I've had managers who want me to account for practically every minute of the day - no matter what my output was. I spent 45 minutes a day logging the tasks i was doing - which ate into the time of doing the actual tasks. Which I happily logged e.g. " 50 minutes of task x, to be finished tomorrow as stopped for logging of tasks"

it lasted 2 weeks .

I had a manager once ask me when I was going to make up the 20 minutes I'd missed after traffic was rubbish - and I said "I'm not" he said i had to, i told him i would not be doing that. He tried to insist. I refused saying I would not be staying late, would not be having a short lunch, would not be coming in early, unless the company was prepared to pay for my additional childcare as a result. He spent an awfully long time with HR over the next few weeks trying to get me to work back that 20 minutes. I never did.

There's a manager like this at my job. And the thing is my Teams light will sometimes turn orange when I am literally typing on my computer. So I don't think it's a great indicator of whether you're actually there and available.