Microsoft Teams - saying good morning

[natel]

We had a new manager last year. A few months ago the manager insists on everyone using Microsoft Teams in the morning to ‘check in’ and say good morning to see everyone is ok. Some of us stopped using it as one colleague who was moonlighting never went on there as they were not working so why should we. We feel it is micromanagement to see we have logged on by 9am. The manager is saying we have to use it again.

It is clear if I am working as I have to respond to manage the team inbox so they always see my replies as I have to email to advise I will action the enquiry.

Anyone else have to do this? Other teams at work do not do this.

Wowzers! I think you and your team are being silly & over dramatic. Imagine causing this much fuss over appearing “online” on Teams 😂

Although, if you don’t like it, raise it with your managers manager or look for a new job!

If you're in an office people can see you, if you are working from home I think people say hello at 9:00 and then go and have breakfast / go shopping / housework / go back to bed etc.

I can see why they’ve done it, it’s to create a team feeling and make sure everyone feels connected and knows each other properly.

if it was 10am though I’d feel happier, I’m working but not always presentable at 9am.

IME using Teams to say good morning to each other is completely normal. We have done it for years. It helps us actually feel like a team and not just random people doing tasks. Although, no one ‘has to’ say good morning on the morning thread many people do. And then we use that thread for a little bit of back and forth during the day to stay connected.

It depends on your office culture as to if this is micromanagement or just basic team building for work from home staff. A teams channel where everyone says Hi and shares any vital information isn't a bad thing. But if it's a case of its 9.02am and you haven't said hi you're being hounded for not being online, that's a very different thing.

We use our channel to say hi, where we are working for the day (which office, from home, out on visits etc) and my standard is 'in meetings/working on reports so please email me if you need me as unlikely to answer calls' just sets the expectations for the day.

We don't do this - team spread across the country - but we do have a chat on Signal on our personal mobiles from time to time!

I couldn't be doing with an enforced morning chat, feels forced, but to each their own. Could you set up a channel on Teams for this rather than individually message your boss?

I've had work places where I've had to do this and work places where I haven’t. As long as it's a 5 minute check in and doesn't go on for hours, it's fine I think. In principle, no different from saying morning when you arrive at the office and having a brief conversation while your computer boots up.

The issue is the moonlighting colleague, and your manager needs to deal with that as a separate issue. Although a check in might be one way of monitoring their attendance.

Yes we do this, say good morning and what we'll be doing today. Started in COVID and still doing it even if we've gone into the office that day.
It's part of our safe and well procedure

It feels a bit enforced friendliness, and I agree that it’s partly so that your manager can make sure everyone is around.

BUT, you’ve said that you had (have?) one colleague who was moonlighting and not working, and as a result of that lots of you stopped using teams at all. So unfortunately there’s a precedent of someone actually not doing any work, and without people showing up on teams it’s harder for the manager to know what is happening.

Better to have one rule for everyone to try to change the culture away from possible moonlighting by a small number (which pisses everyone off). Sure your manager can tell if you are responding to emails but maybe not for everyone.

I have worked in a handful of different places over the past 5 years and I felt more connected in the places where everyone took a few mins to say hello etc and maybe a ‘I’m in office/hime/visiting client xyz’. where I work now, there is nothing and I feel rather isolated. I try to encourage my team to use it but they don’t and often their teams status says offline.

It sounds a bit annoying, but not an unreasonable request in my opinion.

Very normal, at my place you just write it in the chat.

We do it. And mention if we are working from home or the office. Or if we’re traveling or on leave or working remotely or something (just the first day).

Yes just say hello. You're working what's the big deal? If there's someone not pulling their weight that's a performance issue but doesn't mean the rest of you should stay off teams. I'm on teams all the time. I often set to appear offline or do not disturb to stop people bothering me. I'm senior and my outputs reflect what I've done which is actually from really hard work.

Also you know most organisations can view every key stroke? If I want I can get a report on a team member that will show when they are and are not active.

Out of interest, what does such a report show?

Literally what was typed in the period you asked for or just generically that they were active ie typing, mouse clicks etc, or pages moved through etc?

This is a bit of a fuss over nothing. You're being asked to say good morning, not deliver a presentation at 9am every morning. It's part of your job now.

Honestly, I wonder how some people deal with real, actual problems sometimes.

See, that's all in my calendar, so I wouldn't expect to have to tell anyone - you'd see my calendar.

We don't have a morning chat, but the expectation at our company is that everyone is logged into Teams at all times, so contactable. Most people set it to open on start-up. Some of our departments use Teams all the time, others are less keen and avoid it like the plague.

Totally missing the point, but I struggle to understand why companies setup WFH and the just use it to mirror being in the office. It's too much like buying a company bus and then getting everyone to push it.

Reminds me of a company I once worked at that "had flextime". Which turned out to be you chose when you took your lunch between 9 and 5:30.

Anyway, if you are using online tools it's a good idea to ensure your status is up to date and correct. Along with your calendar.

In my last role, when we were all WFH due to the pandemic, we used to pop on and say hello when we started work, and a general short chit-chat - just like morning greetings and catch up when we were going into the office. I suppose it was a way for the managers to keep an eye on who was working, but it never felt like that.

We'd also use it for asking questions, or to have a grumble over a difficult telephone call, etc, and also for general banter or chat during the day. This included the managers.

In my new team, they only use Teams for "is anyone having problems with . . ." type messages. I barely know anything about my new team - I've been here 2 years now.

I miss the old team's way of using Teams. Due to the way the desks were set up in the office, it was quite cliquey, and you only really got a chance to get to know the people on your own bank of desks. But from the way we used Teams during the pandemic, I actually got to know other colleagues in my team, which would never have happened if we'd returned to the office.

I guess it's partly staff welfare- if one team member who lives alone had collapsed overnight for example, them not saying 'morning' might trigger the line manager to give them a call to check they are okay rather than not realising until days later,

I’m also back to say that Teams is what alerted me to a colleague “missing” back in 2022. I noticed she wasn’t online. I phoned, texted, phoned - knowing she lived alone and had no family in the UK I went to her house (near mine) and her neighbour said she was in A&E.

I was then able to speak with work, her mum and everything worked out ok. But it was Teams activity that joined the dots for us.

I wouldn't be happy with that. I'd see how it goes at first and give it the benefit of the doubt. But it does sound like forced chatter. My boss used to do this by asking everyone how their weekend was and would push for answers from people who had nothing to say, which meant people had to make stuff up. It soon stopped.

You are accepting a wage, do the job you are required to do. If your manager wants you on teams at 09:00 then that's what you have to do, if you don't like it leave and find job that works your way. As for feeling micromanaged, what you mean is you are not ready to start work by then.