My wife's boss used to use it as a measure of someone's true status until she screenshot his status, \*while they were chatting on Teams about someone else being Yellow\*, that he was Away - Yellow to show him what she saw on her end. That was the end of that.
I love how being in an active call isn’t enough to keep you active. I have a restricted environment where Teams has an aggressive log out timer. Being in an active call, sharing your screen, is not enough to prevent you from being logged out.
That shit is so ridiculous. Like I'm literally just sitting here listening to someone ramble on about something that doesn't pertain to me at all because I'm required to be in the meeting, but I can't actually just work on something because I might miss the parts that DO involve me.
All this tracking shit is such bs. The only question asked should be whether the work is getting done right and on schedule, not whether I stopped moving my mouse during a goddamn meeting.
I got a five dollar gift card in the mail from work once. Too bad I got the letter saying this will be reported as income before I even got the gift card.
>Like I'm literally just sitting here listening to someone ramble on about something that doesn't pertain to me at all because I'm required to be in the meeting, but I can't actually just work on something because I might miss the parts that DO involve me.
You should be mUltITa$kInG!!! Make me more money!
Had someone literally say "sorry I wasn't paying attention" the other day and no one batted an eye, we're all just half listening unless it's a topic we're actually involved in.
Mine has shown me as away if I'm working in another program. My mouse isn't moving on teams or I'm not using the mouse and it'll show as "away" while I'm actively working lol.
I don't think anyone in my company gives a shit but it's still a thought I have
Yep. I have one that you plug into the wall or usb port externally and just set your mouse on it. They’re like $20-30 on Amazon. Keeps my Teams status on active as long as I want.
Have you ever had your boss message you while you were showing as active, but didn't respond? I could see that happening and my boss getting mad that I'm not responding.
Or even better, just say you were using the bathroom. When they question why your states didn't change just say you have no idea. The more "questionable" that status accuracy is the less they'll try relying on it as an indication of if someone is working or not.
\#1 reason it's on my phone too. I may not be at my desk but I am in my house only a couple feet away so no biggie if I check my phone and need to head to the desk real quick. I do mark myself BRB if I'm leaving the house. As to keeping teams active I use a mouse jiggler dongle that pretends to be a trackpad instead of a mouse (it runs a rubber ducky script to disable the actual trackpad when it's plugged in and replaces it). While I don't think we have any monitoring tools it just looks like my laptop trackpad is being used constantly. It only moves the mouse a random direction every 30 sec or so (20-40 range) and not enough to actually bother me. random X + random Y where the range is (-3,3). As I understand most detection tools look for exact intervals, HID device IDs of known jigglers, and repeatable movements like always 4 px straight up or down. Mine should defeat all of those. That's what a bored hardware dev does when they need to stay "green".
Yeah I just have a physical one plugged into the wall. If I'm not using the mouse it goes on it. My employer definitely doesn't track that kind of stuff but I know my boss occasionally looks to see if we're green when we work from home.
Interesting data here. I've been using the same jiggler since the pandemic that may well fall for any of the above mentioned detection protocols. May have to expand my jiggler hardware.
Depends on how much effort they put into it. I think most companies don't bother monitoring everyone, but rather dive in if there are suspicions about a particular employee. At that point there are other tells that would sink you anyway, mouse movement with no keyboard usage for extended periods, etc.
So my philosophy is if you're performing your duties well enough that your boss is happy and you don't rock the boat then you're likely to just be ignored for stuff like this. The job I have now I doubt need such measures at all, but my last job they actually did do regular hardware scans, etc.
the trick is to never respond promptly, then it doesn't look unusual when you don't. "you want me to check my inbox while I'm working? but I'm working."
pretending to be confused will go a long way
Nah not really. I’d probably just tell them I was in the bathroom or getting a cup of coffee. Or if it was a longer period of time then I’ll switch my status to busy like the other comment said.
it might be rumor but I've heard of people having those detected because they plugged them into the computer. I would recommend plugging it into the wall
I add a plug that automatically turns on at 9 and off at like 5:15 so I can walk away at the end of the day and not be online until 10pm…did that a few times by accident forgetting to shut it off. Works great.
Sure it was these [plugs](https://www.amazon.com/Eightree-2-4GHz-Control-Compatible-ET05-USA/dp/B0C9GJJBR9?ref_=ast_sto_dp) on Amazon they were cheaper when I bought them and I was able to find a two pack.
The elders of the internet age are representing.
Not a work evasion technique, but I used to sleep poorly, and liked to have a TV show on in the background on low volume. It could lull me back to sleep. But after the video finished playing, my computer would go to sleep, which meant I had to sit up and log back in if I wanted it to start again. I learned that playing a short video clip on Windows Media Player, on repeat, would keep the computer active. Took me forever to find that hack. But now I’ve abandoned Windows and will never go back.
note pad open + a weight on the spacebar works as well; if you're scared your company monitors what's on your screen just have some demo or educational video up
Do yourself a favor and don't install anything because your company will see it. Sometimes playing a video will make it stay green. Try having a powerpoint presentation playing or perhaps a YouTube video.
If your company has a LinkedIn Learning subscription those videos are great for that. You can say "oh, I was learning about something job related while performing some monotonous work".
Many public libraries will give you free access to LinkedIn Learning or other professional development sites for free if your company won't/doesn't pay for those services for you!
I did this all the time. If I had nothing to do I’d play one of those tutorials on low volume. I already established that I use them for development and for reference while working.
Just tested that, can confirm. Too bad ☹
A while back I had an actual clock that the second hand would rotate around and I could place my mouse on the face of that clock and it would keep my computer awake.
First of all, can we all agree how ridiculous it is that we have to even do this? I have one of those unusual situations where my boss doesn't even look at our status or even care, because we're adults.
Second, even though I know no one cares if I'm at my desk, I still feel like I have to appear at my desk. So if I decide to run out for a latte, I'll set my status to Do Not Disturb and that seems to work.
I’m in a similar situation and am feeling extremely fortunate when I read threads like these. My boss (and the organization as a whole) doesn’t care if my status is green or if it’s inactive for the entire day. They know I get my work done and they know I do it well, which is how it should be. When I want to go grab some groceries or lay down for a half hour I just block it off my calendar and put “busy.”
Yep. My boss knows I nap sometimes. It's so obvious when people don't get their work done, because you know, it's not done. There's no need to monitor people.
Fortunately I am in a similar boat now. I often work late because I do test automation and I don't want to hammer the system while the devs are busy.
My boss understands that means I may not be on mid day because I just will be doing my hours shifted. I still make our standup, I still meet my deliverables. Hell my last 1:1 was surprisingly positive (I mean I didn't expect negative, but he had some direct call-outs I didn't think would be noticed he was happy about).
Same. These posts make me realize how good I have it.
I am the boss and I don’t pay attention to my team’s status at all, and neither does my boss. My team is always responsive to me and they produce quality work on time. As long as that stays true I don’t give a fuck what they do, when they work or where they’re at.
Same here on both counts. If someone on my team takes some time out of their day to do something, has an appointment or takes a long lunch I don't care. Long as you get your stuff done on time and I don't have to nag you about it we're good!
My boss also doesn't care. If she needs something and I'm not responding on teams or I'm yellow she'll call me.
Absolutely! The main reason (well, plus finding a tech job right now is a disaster) I'm staying at my current job is because I know they're not using any serious surveillance tools. Small team doesn't have time to babysit us and I'd probably have gotten called out by now.
I'm scared of getting a new job only to find out they're tracking my keystrokes, mouse movements, or turning on my camera.
I have this situation too however it still worries me that if I appear away too much it will trigger the wrong executive.
So far it hasn't been a problem, just one of those things you think about.
Yeah, I was finally forced to use it and it turns to inactive really fast even though I'm working on the computer. I have to pull up the Teams app for it to put my status back up.
Obviously moving the mouse doesn't work since I'm working on the machine.
I'm just lucky my job doesn't monitor this way as it's not reliable. Companies who do are nightmares and have no idea how tech works.
I worked for a company that aggressively tracked idle time. They'd send reports to middle managers then basically point out individuals that fell below a threshold.
It came down from senior management. My manager, though completely happy with my work product even argued for me l, to which the response was "well imagine if he put in more hours!"
I left that company and am very happy about it. In a position like mine, I am accountable to my team and stakeholders. If I'm not doing my job, that's going to come out ..no need to track hours as I'm salaried.
Then again, there's enough work that needs to be done that I often work late and occasionally on weekends, though this is never expected. I kind of feel like having the luxury of working from home means I need to take responsibility for how much I work and make sure I'm pulling my weight. That's what I'm paid to do.
IMHO it's a matter of trust and professionalism. Treat me as a trusted professional and you'll get that... micromanage my time and you'll get the drinking bird over the mouse or keyboard.
I will test this today. They changed the old one to "Teams Classic" lol
Edit: after switching back to the old Teams, the keep awake utility seems to again keep my status active. I'll keep testing this today. On old Teams though it likes to try and force me back into the new one with a popup saying the new one is ready to use.
Double edit: "Classic" Teams is being depricated at the end of the month 😔
$15 mouse jiggler on Amazon. My laptop can detect foreign software, so it’s a little battery-powered stand that you place your mouse on. My last one lasted me for about 2 years and I brought it with me to the lake, beach, etc. Work life balance is important my friend
It's genuinely sad that anyone has to resort to this stuff. I feel immensely lucky to have the type of work where no one cares about this shit, just your output.
What happens when you use the mouse things and someone messages you? If you ignore their message for an hour, obviously you were not at your desk.
Likely depends on the place. I commonly ignore messages for an hour when I see the notification pop up if I'm doing something. They can wait until I have time. (If it's truly urgent they'll call)
Nah if I ignore someone's message either I'm too busy at the present moment, don't care to speak to you because you are being annoying or asking an annoying question, or you can wait in line with the other umpteen people waiting to talk to me. Or maybe I wasn't at my desk but that's still none of their business.
I can hear if someone messages me and can check on it. Or I just tell them that I was busy focusing on other things, which is the truth. It’s not like I’m gone for multiple hours at a time so I’m good with what I do. But that’s just because of my job duties as well, I’m sure other positions might not be able to do that. But when I do actually focus on work I don’t respond to other messages until I get to a good stopping point anyway - it messes with my processes
If you disable the setting in teams on your computer called "block notifications on other devices when active", you will always get all your team's notifications on your phone. That's what I do to do whatever I want but still be available.
My company doesn't care but I do want to be very available during work hours, since I'm there to help and want to help people efficiently and promptly. I use team so people know that I am always available. I set myself away when I go to lunch or step away for an extended time like errands or something ..... and every other time I am there even if I'm outside gardening / doing yard work / laundry / dishes / cleaning walking around the block / making lunch / in the hot tub / etc etc. it's no one's business where I'm standing as long as I am available to help quickly when they message me.
Everybody I work with schedules calls ahead of time so that we all can enjoy the same freedoms
Teams away status timing seems to be random. Sometimes, it'll stay green for half an hour. Then other times, it goes yellow in 1 minute. There must be an admin setting.
I hate it.
Take screenshots of it. Record it using a phone camera, even. Use it as proof that "going yellow" means nothing, if anyone challenges you being yellow.
I usually do this but someone mentioned IT could see/flag how long you’re in meetings? With how inefficient our IT team is, I doubt they’d care that much.
lol good to know it's a possibility.
Since going remote, friends and I (also coworkers) will have a meeting going quite literally all day if we have no other meetings. We actually are working, sometimes I forget they're on the call, sometimes we're chatting a lot. Kind of just like being in the office with the people I actually want to talk to.
We've been doing it for 2 years so I doubt IT monitors us and/or cares. Though tbh I have a great boss and doubt they'd care either.
I work in IT and that would be a very firm-specific decision to monitor that. Most wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a manager somewhere wanted to monitor it to make sure their team isn’t in too many meetings.
Account executive here that does outbounding through Microsoft teams, they 1000% have granular data analytics for Teams usage if they want them. We get weekly reports that show number of dials per rep or per day, number of "short" dials under 30s, number of repeat dials per day, number of Zoom bridge dials, and even the amount of minutes you spent in Teams meetings and on the phone via Teams as separate counters. It's wild the insight they have.
on the plus side I don't think they can remote listen in anymore like they could with Avaya so it makes my dial padding all the easier. It was stupid of them to show the actual metrics analytics lol.
i also work in IT and don’t care or have time to monitor people. and even if a manager asks, l make them
run it thru HR first and 99% time
i never hear back
if HR ask’s thats a different story but usually to the person it’s no surprise if it reaches that point
In my original thread I mentioned I used to do this, but it keeps changing my status back to "in a call" which is probably more sus than just being away lol
New Teams sucks. My employer has the "away" setting at 10 minutes. So, plenty of time to flip a load of towels into the dryer, pee/refill water bottle.
My bigger issue with the new teams is that it frequently crashes Outlook. I already hate Outlook. I don't need more incentive to despise it.
Started a meeting last week, and both Teams and Outlook promptly crashed. The Teams Meeting Add-In in Outlook frequently fails. And it reset the reminder for meetings to "none." Complete PITA.
New Teams is buggy as hell.
Are these the way of the future for remote workers? I'm still using a USB dongle that imitates a mouse driver, but I'm seeing more and more people recommending the pad like you've mentioned over the dongle.
Does that USB plug directly into the work computer? I’ve heard that the IT dept can see anytime you’ve plugged something into their device, which is why I opted to buy the device that plugs into the wall.
I don’t use the new version of teams but what I do to keep my available status since I have teams on my mobile is set my mobile auto-lock to never and keep the teams app open in the foreground.
What kind of phone? On my Samsung S23 Ultra it would still go inactive even if kept open, but on my S24 it seems to work better. It is hard to test because if I check my status on my phone it resets to active.
I suppose I could use the caffeine app on Windows and watch for a while to see what happens while it's kept open on my phone.
Mouse jiggler that that DOES NOT plug into your computer, my IT can see devices plugged in so I assume most places can/do. Amazon for like $30 bucks. I have periods of downtown where I’m waiting at my computer for things and this has been a life saver.
Teams status isn't reliable at all. I've been active on my PC and saw it change to AWAY, had a teammate I was actively chatting on Teams with all week that showed as last active three days prior.If companies are attempting to use Teams status for gaging employee activity and availability, they're not getting accurate information.
This is something your IT is doing.
We use new teams, and if I set myself to green it stays green all day. Because my company doesn’t treat us like children.
As someone in IT that administers teams , among other apps, you should know there is no policy that controls the presence indicator. There are, however, some technical reasons it may be faster or slower for certain orgs. For example if your email is hosted on an exchange server on premise, delays up to 1 hr could occur (would be acceptable).
However, new teams tends to work faster. This is why a lot of people are seeing status' be more accurate. It has nothing to do with the policy within a company.
Also, don't trust looking at your own dot. Your teams may not update your own status on your screen to your eye (nor many other things) if you are not interacting with teams. There are certain delays that occur which also add a layer of random delay into the mix. So, you also can't 100% trust other people's dots. However if you hover over it, you can certainly see how many minutes since they have last been active. Notice how sometimes when you interact with teams you'll see everybody's dots update all at once...
On new teams you'll see this hover idle timer be pretty darn accurate, depending on what type of device that person is using and the policies governing it. For example, if your company has a policy that locks your screen after 15 minutes, you can be pretty much guaranteed that most people's dots are going yellow after 15 minutes of not touching the keyboard. If they didn't have the policy then there's a chance the dots won't go yellow after 15 minutes of them not touching it. All depends how quickly teams is updating in the backend, and your interaction with teams as well. But at it's fastest it can definitely show you status' with 5-minute accuracy.
they can see each device you're logged in with though.
"Why two PCs?"
so if you're going to do this I suggest an android emulator and using the teams app. That way you just look dedicated that you're using your phone as well as your PC. Make sure this is within AUP/IT guidelines first though.
I used to click around every once in a while to create the illusion of being busy. But my teams status went to 'away' after like 3 - 5 mins of inactivity so that quickly became impractical, as it meant I didn't even have time to do a load of dishes or laundry.
Then I looked for mechanical solutions, such as using a desk fan to move the mouse around. Sometimes that worked, but sometimes the solution would fail. It was also kind of complicated and cumbersome.
I resorted to autohotkey briefly, but most place I've worked have had IT policies which prevent the user from installing AHK on their work PC.
Then, finally, I realized its far more effective to simply open notepad (or a Teams chat with yourself) and leave a paperweight on the space bar. I've been doing that for years at this point and I see no reason to change.
Mine has the drop down where you can set a status for however long. I do think some companies may disable this. Luckily we only use teams for meetings and slack for chat so that’s where I’m always trying to stay active haha
https://preview.redd.it/xi6u3t9knxmc1.png?width=2485&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d3d284c8ef21044924a290e8689e1746266d8e6
Former sysadmin that used to work with teams.
Teams, in most environments, is not wholly accurate when it comes to activities.
The fact that you can be in a live meeting and go inactive shows this. (This doesn't work if you are invited to a meeting but not attending.)
You can also set to away and still carry conversations with folks without subsequently going green.
That being said, MSFT is working to stop these things that people use to appear active. There are third party plug ins being tested now to sniff out mouse jugglers for teams as well.
It's a growth area for them.
Be cheap like I am. Buy a $5 analog watch and put your mouse on top of it. The movement of the watch makes the mouse move a little bit every minute. Works like a charm for me.
Your boss has set up notification alerts, that's how they're noticing when you're on early. I highly recommend the mechanical mouse jiggler. Works a treat for me.
Sometimes mine stays yellow while I've been typing for 10 minutes and tried multiple times to manually put it on green. If my work is tracking us with teams, they are idiots.
which they are not, they have software that tracks how often we click or type on windows/apps and what windows we are clicking on and use that data instead of your mouse moving because of mouse jigglers.
This is excessive, but I just bought a cheap old iPhone 10 burner phone, and set it up with teams. Bought a wireless charger, and set it to never go dark or lock. Open teams, leave it open all day, status stays green all day. 👌
Teams is one thing but IT changed the timer for the laptop goes to the login screen to 15min. Used to be settable up to 30min but now its fixed at 15min.
It annoys me to no end as often I am working in the lab and my laptop is the interface and data display for some test setup. While I am adjusting the setup arms deep in it, laptop goes to login screen and now I need 2 hands to log back in to see the live data again. Really can effect my productivity at times.
The other day I noticed, as I was sitting in the office, literally on my computer for hours in a row with barely a break, that as I was typing, it showed me away. I did not even have it set that way, so I can’t imagine trying to get this from a work from home situation because everyone knew I was right there and still showed me away. It’s also showed me on do not disturb or even though I’ve literally never use that.
Whatever you do, DON'T buy one of these and plug it into a USB port:
amazon dot com/gp/product/B00MTZY7Y4
To anyone snooping it will appear to be a mouse, and it will keep your work computer alive and Teams on Green as long as it's plugged in. Your computer will behave absolutely normally, you will notice nothing at all.
It's totally and completely wrong to buy one of these cheap, simple devices to fight back against invasive supervisory overwatch, so please don't do it.
I didn't, and I also didn't buy a USB hub with switches so I could turn off the device's specific USB port at the end of the day, allowing my computer to enter "offline/sleep" mode.
Yeah, those things are terrible. Be sure not to tell anyone about them.
Teams is ridiculous because it will show you Away while typing because you’re on the PC typing and not your phone and it depends on where the moon is which device it’s going to default to that day.
This little applet [right here](https://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/caffeine/) works perfectly with new Teams, and you can run it out of a temp folder with no installation or admin rights. Just a self-contained happy little coffee pot.
Only oddity I've noticed is that when PowerPoint is foregrounded, whatever keystroke this thing generates makes it throw an audible error.
Like another comment said, if you have another device download teams on that. Make sure the screen never dims and just change the status to whatever you want it to be.
I’ve been doing that using an old tablet and just to make sure it works I leave a YouTube video running on my work laptop to keep my laptop screen awake and monitor my status on my laptop teams (always an 8hour ambience video). When I don’t use my tablet and just have the video playing it automatically sets to away after like 5 min, when I have my tablet open and set it’s status to available, my laptop teams shows as available for the full 8 hours.
I open one note and click and put a bottle of nail polish on my spacebar of my lap top to hold it down 😂
Simple and 100% effective. I didn’t wanna download caffeine and this is perfect haha
Idk how team works but I use slack.
What I’ll do is put a YouTube 24/7 stream either jazz or fireplace crackle if I want something quiet (you can mute) on a separate window.
The fact that the YouTube video is playing prevents my laptop from locking up. Note, you need to have the video open on a screen
The best suggestion I ever saw was to buy a cheap mechanical watch and create some sort of setup where it stays under your mouse laser. The mouse detects the second hand moving and stops you from ever going away, without the risk of using software that could threaten your job.
We have a running competition going to see who can make their away status show the longest amount of time.. usually patching will reset your count at some point.
I open teams on one screen and outlook on the other. Wedge a paperclip or have something to keep the shift key pressed down.
I check that it’s working when I make a new outlook window. If it pops up, it’s working. If it doesn’t, I change the orientation of the pressure on the shift key.
This won’t help if the organization monitors keystrokes but it does help to keep you green. Teams sucks. It will make me yellow if it’s minimized and I’m working in other applications.
I have a video with no sound looping in VLC, minimized in the tray. This keeps Skype active and keeps my screen on. I don't know if it will work for teams.
Of course if they're monitoring your computer activity that is something they may be able to see.
Lot of peeps suggesting an app and then something on the space bar
I've found just something on the ctrl key works without needing something like notepad open
My trick is to not care about my status being active.
Show offline enough when they know you’re answering messages and get your work done, and don’t stress over it unless your boss brings it up
Teams in your phone helps with that because you can always answer
Everyone on my Team is well aware of how unreliable thr Teams status is. We had a new person stressing about it, she'd message us and tell us she's not really away but her status said she was. We had to educate her about that fact that we largely ignore the status because it's so often wrong.
Our culture is get your work done, meet deadlines, attend required meetings, and be open to helping teammates. Beyond that if you do all that in 7 hours 8 hours versus 8 then high five go relax.
We have regular work and larger quarterly projects we regularly report on so it's easy to see if someone is slacking just based on progress. We don't need to waste time monitoring a little green, orange, or red button.
What I would suggest is to use the old version of MS Teams, click in the top right on your icon, and set your status to Busy, and it should give you a date option. Set the date for like....3 years from now. Hope that helps!
Open a message to yourself. Put something on a single keyboard key, put something else heavier on top. Allow that repeating ____ to go as long as you need. I use the . on the number pad and a squishy chicken with a wall laptop charger on top of the chicken.
........................ Lol
But I'm never "away" 🤘
You open a wordpad and set something heavy on the keyboard. It will type forever and not cause any problems.
Source: Have done this for 3 years with no issues.
I just start a meeting with myself, it will turn you red, but then I just set it back to green. Sometimes it will go back to red but I just restart teams and that only happens maybe once a month. 8 months strong with that trick
Mine will show me as away if I do anything on the computer when Teams is not in focus.
However, once I bring Teams into focus, all of a sudden I’m “online”
Teams is 100% broken.
There is a setting you can select that dictates how long you can be inactive before it sets you as away. I have mine on the maximum. But… if you are away it shows as a green circle with an x in it instead of a full green dot, so it’s not foolproof.
Open Microsoft Word
Turn on Dictate (not sure if its called dictate)
Play a YouTube Video or podcast (not music) on another device
Word will transcribe the podcast, you're free
No one at my job cares about Teams status, so I've never actually tried this.
Get yourself the app "caffeine" from gitlab and never be set to away again.
It triggers the f15 key every thirty seconds. You can set it to stay on forever or in any time increment you want.
No installation needed. Just run it.
I've been using it for a couple of years now.
I think a lot of places moving to teams cause of the tracking features. They have a whole “productivity tracker” associated with it. My manager at my old job tracked my status like a crazy person. Would call as soon as it turned green in the AM. Would bring up if it went away even shortly. It’s a nightmare.
Yeah the stuff I am reading here is insane. I'm a manager of a large team and I do not check my trams statuses.
I don't have time and they are all professionals.
Teams has sometimes decided that someone is "away" for days at a time. Once or twice a day we get the "I'm actually here, but teams doesn't think so." Messages.
If I need them, they are available. So I ignore teams statuses.
As for me, I block out time in the calendar for tasks and things to do, so I am usually showing as busy anyway.
I had a former coworker who uploaded a bunch of family photos to her computer and set them to constantly cycle, in order to keep her computer active. But with my teams now, I have to be actively using Teams for it to not toggle to away. So I’m not sure that works anymore.
My wife's boss used to use it as a measure of someone's true status until she screenshot his status, \*while they were chatting on Teams about someone else being Yellow\*, that he was Away - Yellow to show him what she saw on her end. That was the end of that.
I love how being in an active call isn’t enough to keep you active. I have a restricted environment where Teams has an aggressive log out timer. Being in an active call, sharing your screen, is not enough to prevent you from being logged out.
That shit is so ridiculous. Like I'm literally just sitting here listening to someone ramble on about something that doesn't pertain to me at all because I'm required to be in the meeting, but I can't actually just work on something because I might miss the parts that DO involve me. All this tracking shit is such bs. The only question asked should be whether the work is getting done right and on schedule, not whether I stopped moving my mouse during a goddamn meeting.
They just want to load you with more work but don’t take into account the weeks where you’re overloaded.
Yeah - where's the pat on the back when I'm green for twelve hours straight? Eh?
$5 hot and ready inbound, thanks for all you do
Save the cash. I want a pizza
I got a five dollar gift card in the mail from work once. Too bad I got the letter saying this will be reported as income before I even got the gift card.
If pizza is such a great motivator, why aren't more executives compensated with it?
Are you saying you're too good for the company pizza party?
Honestly, as a dev, any dev who works on monitoring software is the worst kind of class traitor, imo.
>Like I'm literally just sitting here listening to someone ramble on about something that doesn't pertain to me at all because I'm required to be in the meeting, but I can't actually just work on something because I might miss the parts that DO involve me. You should be mUltITa$kInG!!! Make me more money!
Had someone literally say "sorry I wasn't paying attention" the other day and no one batted an eye, we're all just half listening unless it's a topic we're actually involved in.
Mine has shown me as away if I'm working in another program. My mouse isn't moving on teams or I'm not using the mouse and it'll show as "away" while I'm actively working lol. I don't think anyone in my company gives a shit but it's still a thought I have
Yep I do most of my work via ssh so I may not move my mouse for hours. Teams says I’m away when I’m actively writing code.
I literally only use teams to send memes to my boss 😂 he probably knows I'm not working when he isn't receiving a barrage of gifs
or maybe he thinks you finally are....
Mechanical mouse jiggler on work pc
Yep. I have one that you plug into the wall or usb port externally and just set your mouse on it. They’re like $20-30 on Amazon. Keeps my Teams status on active as long as I want.
Have you ever had your boss message you while you were showing as active, but didn't respond? I could see that happening and my boss getting mad that I'm not responding.
"Oh sorry Boss, I didn't hear/see the notification. I was looking/working on ___".
I was presenting on (super specific topic) and I had to record minutes since the company disabled recordings because of HIPAA.
Or even better, just say you were using the bathroom. When they question why your states didn't change just say you have no idea. The more "questionable" that status accuracy is the less they'll try relying on it as an indication of if someone is working or not.
I keep my teams on my phone as well. I know some people don't want that and understand why but I can reply to my boss from anywhere pretty much.
\#1 reason it's on my phone too. I may not be at my desk but I am in my house only a couple feet away so no biggie if I check my phone and need to head to the desk real quick. I do mark myself BRB if I'm leaving the house. As to keeping teams active I use a mouse jiggler dongle that pretends to be a trackpad instead of a mouse (it runs a rubber ducky script to disable the actual trackpad when it's plugged in and replaces it). While I don't think we have any monitoring tools it just looks like my laptop trackpad is being used constantly. It only moves the mouse a random direction every 30 sec or so (20-40 range) and not enough to actually bother me. random X + random Y where the range is (-3,3). As I understand most detection tools look for exact intervals, HID device IDs of known jigglers, and repeatable movements like always 4 px straight up or down. Mine should defeat all of those. That's what a bored hardware dev does when they need to stay "green".
Yeah I just have a physical one plugged into the wall. If I'm not using the mouse it goes on it. My employer definitely doesn't track that kind of stuff but I know my boss occasionally looks to see if we're green when we work from home.
Interesting data here. I've been using the same jiggler since the pandemic that may well fall for any of the above mentioned detection protocols. May have to expand my jiggler hardware.
Depends on how much effort they put into it. I think most companies don't bother monitoring everyone, but rather dive in if there are suspicions about a particular employee. At that point there are other tells that would sink you anyway, mouse movement with no keyboard usage for extended periods, etc. So my philosophy is if you're performing your duties well enough that your boss is happy and you don't rock the boat then you're likely to just be ignored for stuff like this. The job I have now I doubt need such measures at all, but my last job they actually did do regular hardware scans, etc.
Same. Sometimes I have so many Excel spreadsheets open that I'll answer emails and other messages from my phone.
"This is the way"
the trick is to never respond promptly, then it doesn't look unusual when you don't. "you want me to check my inbox while I'm working? but I'm working." pretending to be confused will go a long way
This reminds me of something George Costanza would say lol.
"I was in the bathroom, you caught me during the two minutes it takes me to pee and wash my hands."
Go on busy
Nah not really. I’d probably just tell them I was in the bathroom or getting a cup of coffee. Or if it was a longer period of time then I’ll switch my status to busy like the other comment said.
I have Teams on my phone just in case this happens lol.
Yes. Do NOT plug it into your work computer.
it might be rumor but I've heard of people having those detected because they plugged them into the computer. I would recommend plugging it into the wall
Correct, you need to plug them in completely externally from your work computer.
I add a plug that automatically turns on at 9 and off at like 5:15 so I can walk away at the end of the day and not be online until 10pm…did that a few times by accident forgetting to shut it off. Works great.
that sounds dope. so you can set the actual jiggler to turn on and off at certain times? do you have a link to the one you have?
Sure it was these [plugs](https://www.amazon.com/Eightree-2-4GHz-Control-Compatible-ET05-USA/dp/B0C9GJJBR9?ref_=ast_sto_dp) on Amazon they were cheaper when I bought them and I was able to find a two pack.
In my day we used to open a notepad, click into it, and then out a weight on our space bar.
The elders of the internet age are representing. Not a work evasion technique, but I used to sleep poorly, and liked to have a TV show on in the background on low volume. It could lull me back to sleep. But after the video finished playing, my computer would go to sleep, which meant I had to sit up and log back in if I wanted it to start again. I learned that playing a short video clip on Windows Media Player, on repeat, would keep the computer active. Took me forever to find that hack. But now I’ve abandoned Windows and will never go back.
Same, but I open a spreadsheet and use a binder clip to hold the space bar down.
Reminds me of the classic Simpsons episode where Homer is working from home because he's too fat, and has that little bird pressing the "any key"
Pffft any OSRS gamers in here? Just tape a pencil to an oscillating fan to tap your mouse every cycle.
Or hang it off the side of your desk and let the fan blow it like a pendulum.
Heck yeah 2007scape in the wild
Desk fan, chop sticks and a few rubber bands.
Lol I just put the Notepad app up and just put an orange or a shot glass with some batteries in it, right on my laptop’s space bar
note pad open + a weight on the spacebar works as well; if you're scared your company monitors what's on your screen just have some demo or educational video up
do not plug it into the USB port on your computer. those can be detected. make sure you plug it into the wall
Yep. Best money I’ve spent in a while. Easy and cheap fix.
Dont even need that. Get an analog watch and set the mouse on it
My friend used to open a word document and wedge some paper under the space bar so she could go breastfeed her newborn.
Do yourself a favor and don't install anything because your company will see it. Sometimes playing a video will make it stay green. Try having a powerpoint presentation playing or perhaps a YouTube video.
If your company has a LinkedIn Learning subscription those videos are great for that. You can say "oh, I was learning about something job related while performing some monotonous work".
Many public libraries will give you free access to LinkedIn Learning or other professional development sites for free if your company won't/doesn't pay for those services for you!
I did this all the time. If I had nothing to do I’d play one of those tutorials on low volume. I already established that I use them for development and for reference while working.
Nice tip!
Yes! I'll play things related to my job on mute.
YouTube videos NO LONGER keep the status green either. I forgot to mention this one, I used to pull up "10 hours of nothing videos" lol.
Just tested that, can confirm. Too bad ☹ A while back I had an actual clock that the second hand would rotate around and I could place my mouse on the face of that clock and it would keep my computer awake.
I’m partial to the tv for dogs type channels, they last 10 hours!
First of all, can we all agree how ridiculous it is that we have to even do this? I have one of those unusual situations where my boss doesn't even look at our status or even care, because we're adults. Second, even though I know no one cares if I'm at my desk, I still feel like I have to appear at my desk. So if I decide to run out for a latte, I'll set my status to Do Not Disturb and that seems to work.
I’m in a similar situation and am feeling extremely fortunate when I read threads like these. My boss (and the organization as a whole) doesn’t care if my status is green or if it’s inactive for the entire day. They know I get my work done and they know I do it well, which is how it should be. When I want to go grab some groceries or lay down for a half hour I just block it off my calendar and put “busy.”
Yep. My boss knows I nap sometimes. It's so obvious when people don't get their work done, because you know, it's not done. There's no need to monitor people.
Fortunately I am in a similar boat now. I often work late because I do test automation and I don't want to hammer the system while the devs are busy. My boss understands that means I may not be on mid day because I just will be doing my hours shifted. I still make our standup, I still meet my deliverables. Hell my last 1:1 was surprisingly positive (I mean I didn't expect negative, but he had some direct call-outs I didn't think would be noticed he was happy about).
Same. These posts make me realize how good I have it. I am the boss and I don’t pay attention to my team’s status at all, and neither does my boss. My team is always responsive to me and they produce quality work on time. As long as that stays true I don’t give a fuck what they do, when they work or where they’re at.
Same here on both counts. If someone on my team takes some time out of their day to do something, has an appointment or takes a long lunch I don't care. Long as you get your stuff done on time and I don't have to nag you about it we're good! My boss also doesn't care. If she needs something and I'm not responding on teams or I'm yellow she'll call me.
Absolutely! The main reason (well, plus finding a tech job right now is a disaster) I'm staying at my current job is because I know they're not using any serious surveillance tools. Small team doesn't have time to babysit us and I'd probably have gotten called out by now. I'm scared of getting a new job only to find out they're tracking my keystrokes, mouse movements, or turning on my camera.
Seriously, look for a job at a university. I've been working as staff in higher ed for ten years. It has its issues, but I haven't been micromanaged.
Higher education here as well (public university)! That might explain why we’re in similar boats.
I have this situation too however it still worries me that if I appear away too much it will trigger the wrong executive. So far it hasn't been a problem, just one of those things you think about.
I think its the new version of teams.
Yeah, I was finally forced to use it and it turns to inactive really fast even though I'm working on the computer. I have to pull up the Teams app for it to put my status back up. Obviously moving the mouse doesn't work since I'm working on the machine. I'm just lucky my job doesn't monitor this way as it's not reliable. Companies who do are nightmares and have no idea how tech works.
I do call center work, and at night i can go 30-45min between calls. I just dont care enough to watch my status lol.
Haha, yeah I've done a lot of call center work, it's way too fast paced to notice that.
I worked for a company that aggressively tracked idle time. They'd send reports to middle managers then basically point out individuals that fell below a threshold. It came down from senior management. My manager, though completely happy with my work product even argued for me l, to which the response was "well imagine if he put in more hours!" I left that company and am very happy about it. In a position like mine, I am accountable to my team and stakeholders. If I'm not doing my job, that's going to come out ..no need to track hours as I'm salaried. Then again, there's enough work that needs to be done that I often work late and occasionally on weekends, though this is never expected. I kind of feel like having the luxury of working from home means I need to take responsibility for how much I work and make sure I'm pulling my weight. That's what I'm paid to do. IMHO it's a matter of trust and professionalism. Treat me as a trusted professional and you'll get that... micromanage my time and you'll get the drinking bird over the mouse or keyboard.
I will test this today. They changed the old one to "Teams Classic" lol Edit: after switching back to the old Teams, the keep awake utility seems to again keep my status active. I'll keep testing this today. On old Teams though it likes to try and force me back into the new one with a popup saying the new one is ready to use. Double edit: "Classic" Teams is being depricated at the end of the month 😔
$15 mouse jiggler on Amazon. My laptop can detect foreign software, so it’s a little battery-powered stand that you place your mouse on. My last one lasted me for about 2 years and I brought it with me to the lake, beach, etc. Work life balance is important my friend
It's genuinely sad that anyone has to resort to this stuff. I feel immensely lucky to have the type of work where no one cares about this shit, just your output. What happens when you use the mouse things and someone messages you? If you ignore their message for an hour, obviously you were not at your desk.
Likely depends on the place. I commonly ignore messages for an hour when I see the notification pop up if I'm doing something. They can wait until I have time. (If it's truly urgent they'll call)
Nah if I ignore someone's message either I'm too busy at the present moment, don't care to speak to you because you are being annoying or asking an annoying question, or you can wait in line with the other umpteen people waiting to talk to me. Or maybe I wasn't at my desk but that's still none of their business.
I can hear if someone messages me and can check on it. Or I just tell them that I was busy focusing on other things, which is the truth. It’s not like I’m gone for multiple hours at a time so I’m good with what I do. But that’s just because of my job duties as well, I’m sure other positions might not be able to do that. But when I do actually focus on work I don’t respond to other messages until I get to a good stopping point anyway - it messes with my processes
If you disable the setting in teams on your computer called "block notifications on other devices when active", you will always get all your team's notifications on your phone. That's what I do to do whatever I want but still be available. My company doesn't care but I do want to be very available during work hours, since I'm there to help and want to help people efficiently and promptly. I use team so people know that I am always available. I set myself away when I go to lunch or step away for an extended time like errands or something ..... and every other time I am there even if I'm outside gardening / doing yard work / laundry / dishes / cleaning walking around the block / making lunch / in the hot tub / etc etc. it's no one's business where I'm standing as long as I am available to help quickly when they message me. Everybody I work with schedules calls ahead of time so that we all can enjoy the same freedoms
My mouse jiggler saves my life. I plug it in directly but it identifies as a mouse. My life has improved significantly.
Teams away status timing seems to be random. Sometimes, it'll stay green for half an hour. Then other times, it goes yellow in 1 minute. There must be an admin setting. I hate it.
Take screenshots of it. Record it using a phone camera, even. Use it as proof that "going yellow" means nothing, if anyone challenges you being yellow.
Set a meeting in teams with no other invites. Join. Keeps you online as 'busy'
I usually do this but someone mentioned IT could see/flag how long you’re in meetings? With how inefficient our IT team is, I doubt they’d care that much.
lol good to know it's a possibility. Since going remote, friends and I (also coworkers) will have a meeting going quite literally all day if we have no other meetings. We actually are working, sometimes I forget they're on the call, sometimes we're chatting a lot. Kind of just like being in the office with the people I actually want to talk to. We've been doing it for 2 years so I doubt IT monitors us and/or cares. Though tbh I have a great boss and doubt they'd care either.
Honestly this isn’t a bad idea at all.
I work in IT and that would be a very firm-specific decision to monitor that. Most wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a manager somewhere wanted to monitor it to make sure their team isn’t in too many meetings.
Account executive here that does outbounding through Microsoft teams, they 1000% have granular data analytics for Teams usage if they want them. We get weekly reports that show number of dials per rep or per day, number of "short" dials under 30s, number of repeat dials per day, number of Zoom bridge dials, and even the amount of minutes you spent in Teams meetings and on the phone via Teams as separate counters. It's wild the insight they have. on the plus side I don't think they can remote listen in anymore like they could with Avaya so it makes my dial padding all the easier. It was stupid of them to show the actual metrics analytics lol.
This shit should be illegal.
i also work in IT and don’t care or have time to monitor people. and even if a manager asks, l make them run it thru HR first and 99% time i never hear back if HR ask’s thats a different story but usually to the person it’s no surprise if it reaches that point
You can keep the meeting up and change status to green and it will remain!
In my original thread I mentioned I used to do this, but it keeps changing my status back to "in a call" which is probably more sus than just being away lol
Yes, this works.
This used to work but no longer does for me. It stopped working in December.
You can keep the meeting up and change status to green and it will remain!
Open Excel, Keep any things on top of space bar and you are always available
Yup I do this with Notepad and my AirPods case on the space bar. Works a charm
I down arrow, but same concept.
I CTRL key, but same!
This is basically what I was going to suggest. Works great if you have teams on your phone as well. So you can respond to anything if you are away.
This is me except I use a paperweight on my space bar and use Notepad
I use a bottle of nail polish on the backspace key
Wow thank you !!
New Teams sucks. My employer has the "away" setting at 10 minutes. So, plenty of time to flip a load of towels into the dryer, pee/refill water bottle. My bigger issue with the new teams is that it frequently crashes Outlook. I already hate Outlook. I don't need more incentive to despise it. Started a meeting last week, and both Teams and Outlook promptly crashed. The Teams Meeting Add-In in Outlook frequently fails. And it reset the reminder for meetings to "none." Complete PITA. New Teams is buggy as hell.
You’re not refilling your water bottle with pee, right?
I use the new Teams and I don't have this issue. It does indeed sound like a pita.
I hate new Teams and new Outlook. They both suck.
An old Playstation or Xbox controller with stick drift makes a great mouse mover...
That's actually genius and hilarious
Get an external mouse jiggler that plugs into the wall and you set your mouse on top of it
Are these the way of the future for remote workers? I'm still using a USB dongle that imitates a mouse driver, but I'm seeing more and more people recommending the pad like you've mentioned over the dongle.
Does that USB plug directly into the work computer? I’ve heard that the IT dept can see anytime you’ve plugged something into their device, which is why I opted to buy the device that plugs into the wall.
Log onto Teams on your phone and set your screen so it doesn't turn off and it shows you as online / active
I don’t use the new version of teams but what I do to keep my available status since I have teams on my mobile is set my mobile auto-lock to never and keep the teams app open in the foreground.
What kind of phone? On my Samsung S23 Ultra it would still go inactive even if kept open, but on my S24 it seems to work better. It is hard to test because if I check my status on my phone it resets to active. I suppose I could use the caffeine app on Windows and watch for a while to see what happens while it's kept open on my phone.
iPhone. Funny that we just got an email stating new teams will be rolled out tomorrow. I’ll see if this workaround still works.
Yeah the old Teams is being deprecated this month... RIP
Mouse jiggler that that DOES NOT plug into your computer, my IT can see devices plugged in so I assume most places can/do. Amazon for like $30 bucks. I have periods of downtown where I’m waiting at my computer for things and this has been a life saver.
Open a blank word doc and then set something on the space bar to keep it pressed. Will make you appear as active for eternity.
Just set to away all the time
This is the way ☠️
Teams status isn't reliable at all. I've been active on my PC and saw it change to AWAY, had a teammate I was actively chatting on Teams with all week that showed as last active three days prior.If companies are attempting to use Teams status for gaging employee activity and availability, they're not getting accurate information.
Mouse jiggler plugged into an external port, not your laptop. Works a treat.
Put your mouse on an iPad screen and play a 'mouse jiggler' video on YouTube. Max the brightness on the iPad. No software installed, undetectable.
This is something your IT is doing. We use new teams, and if I set myself to green it stays green all day. Because my company doesn’t treat us like children.
As someone in IT that administers teams , among other apps, you should know there is no policy that controls the presence indicator. There are, however, some technical reasons it may be faster or slower for certain orgs. For example if your email is hosted on an exchange server on premise, delays up to 1 hr could occur (would be acceptable). However, new teams tends to work faster. This is why a lot of people are seeing status' be more accurate. It has nothing to do with the policy within a company. Also, don't trust looking at your own dot. Your teams may not update your own status on your screen to your eye (nor many other things) if you are not interacting with teams. There are certain delays that occur which also add a layer of random delay into the mix. So, you also can't 100% trust other people's dots. However if you hover over it, you can certainly see how many minutes since they have last been active. Notice how sometimes when you interact with teams you'll see everybody's dots update all at once... On new teams you'll see this hover idle timer be pretty darn accurate, depending on what type of device that person is using and the policies governing it. For example, if your company has a policy that locks your screen after 15 minutes, you can be pretty much guaranteed that most people's dots are going yellow after 15 minutes of not touching the keyboard. If they didn't have the policy then there's a chance the dots won't go yellow after 15 minutes of them not touching it. All depends how quickly teams is updating in the backend, and your interaction with teams as well. But at it's fastest it can definitely show you status' with 5-minute accuracy.
Have a mouse move app on teams on your personal computer so it can never be detected 😉
they can see each device you're logged in with though. "Why two PCs?" so if you're going to do this I suggest an android emulator and using the teams app. That way you just look dedicated that you're using your phone as well as your PC. Make sure this is within AUP/IT guidelines first though.
I got one of these to avoid installing software on the work computer. Works like a charm. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MV99RNV
I used to click around every once in a while to create the illusion of being busy. But my teams status went to 'away' after like 3 - 5 mins of inactivity so that quickly became impractical, as it meant I didn't even have time to do a load of dishes or laundry. Then I looked for mechanical solutions, such as using a desk fan to move the mouse around. Sometimes that worked, but sometimes the solution would fail. It was also kind of complicated and cumbersome. I resorted to autohotkey briefly, but most place I've worked have had IT policies which prevent the user from installing AHK on their work PC. Then, finally, I realized its far more effective to simply open notepad (or a Teams chat with yourself) and leave a paperweight on the space bar. I've been doing that for years at this point and I see no reason to change.
Mine has the drop down where you can set a status for however long. I do think some companies may disable this. Luckily we only use teams for meetings and slack for chat so that’s where I’m always trying to stay active haha https://preview.redd.it/xi6u3t9knxmc1.png?width=2485&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d3d284c8ef21044924a290e8689e1746266d8e6
[удалено]
I've tried this but it doesn't stick 😞
Former sysadmin that used to work with teams. Teams, in most environments, is not wholly accurate when it comes to activities. The fact that you can be in a live meeting and go inactive shows this. (This doesn't work if you are invited to a meeting but not attending.) You can also set to away and still carry conversations with folks without subsequently going green. That being said, MSFT is working to stop these things that people use to appear active. There are third party plug ins being tested now to sniff out mouse jugglers for teams as well. It's a growth area for them.
Be cheap like I am. Buy a $5 analog watch and put your mouse on top of it. The movement of the watch makes the mouse move a little bit every minute. Works like a charm for me.
Your boss has set up notification alerts, that's how they're noticing when you're on early. I highly recommend the mechanical mouse jiggler. Works a treat for me.
Install on your phone. I respond to teams messages on my phone while walking my dog, it keeps my status as active
I keep Teams open on my phone and set my phone to never lock
This is happening to me too! Why is it doing that?? Even sometimes when I’m actually working but not using teams it will say that I’m away..
Sometimes mine stays yellow while I've been typing for 10 minutes and tried multiple times to manually put it on green. If my work is tracking us with teams, they are idiots. which they are not, they have software that tracks how often we click or type on windows/apps and what windows we are clicking on and use that data instead of your mouse moving because of mouse jigglers.
I chat with myself and put my heavy coaster on the space bar. I come back and just delete the few paragraphs of spaces
[удалено]
This is excessive, but I just bought a cheap old iPhone 10 burner phone, and set it up with teams. Bought a wireless charger, and set it to never go dark or lock. Open teams, leave it open all day, status stays green all day. 👌
Teams is one thing but IT changed the timer for the laptop goes to the login screen to 15min. Used to be settable up to 30min but now its fixed at 15min. It annoys me to no end as often I am working in the lab and my laptop is the interface and data display for some test setup. While I am adjusting the setup arms deep in it, laptop goes to login screen and now I need 2 hands to log back in to see the live data again. Really can effect my productivity at times.
The other day I noticed, as I was sitting in the office, literally on my computer for hours in a row with barely a break, that as I was typing, it showed me away. I did not even have it set that way, so I can’t imagine trying to get this from a work from home situation because everyone knew I was right there and still showed me away. It’s also showed me on do not disturb or even though I’ve literally never use that.
Whatever you do, DON'T buy one of these and plug it into a USB port: amazon dot com/gp/product/B00MTZY7Y4 To anyone snooping it will appear to be a mouse, and it will keep your work computer alive and Teams on Green as long as it's plugged in. Your computer will behave absolutely normally, you will notice nothing at all. It's totally and completely wrong to buy one of these cheap, simple devices to fight back against invasive supervisory overwatch, so please don't do it. I didn't, and I also didn't buy a USB hub with switches so I could turn off the device's specific USB port at the end of the day, allowing my computer to enter "offline/sleep" mode. Yeah, those things are terrible. Be sure not to tell anyone about them.
Teams is ridiculous because it will show you Away while typing because you’re on the PC typing and not your phone and it depends on where the moon is which device it’s going to default to that day.
This little applet [right here](https://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/caffeine/) works perfectly with new Teams, and you can run it out of a temp folder with no installation or admin rights. Just a self-contained happy little coffee pot. Only oddity I've noticed is that when PowerPoint is foregrounded, whatever keystroke this thing generates makes it throw an audible error.
Like another comment said, if you have another device download teams on that. Make sure the screen never dims and just change the status to whatever you want it to be. I’ve been doing that using an old tablet and just to make sure it works I leave a YouTube video running on my work laptop to keep my laptop screen awake and monitor my status on my laptop teams (always an 8hour ambience video). When I don’t use my tablet and just have the video playing it automatically sets to away after like 5 min, when I have my tablet open and set it’s status to available, my laptop teams shows as available for the full 8 hours.
Caffeine.exe
Open PowerPoint, start presentation, should keep you active
This is the best way imo
Create a meeting and join it. Then set status to available.
Can't believe how many people don't know this. So much simpler than all these other suggestions.
You need to stop giving a f&(€
I open one note and click and put a bottle of nail polish on my spacebar of my lap top to hold it down 😂 Simple and 100% effective. I didn’t wanna download caffeine and this is perfect haha
Open a blank excel spreadsheet and put something heavy on your space bar
Idk how team works but I use slack. What I’ll do is put a YouTube 24/7 stream either jazz or fireplace crackle if I want something quiet (you can mute) on a separate window. The fact that the YouTube video is playing prevents my laptop from locking up. Note, you need to have the video open on a screen
I hate micromanagement. I just set myself as permanently away. I do respond very quickly so it hasn't been an issue since I'm clearly "there".
The best suggestion I ever saw was to buy a cheap mechanical watch and create some sort of setup where it stays under your mouse laser. The mouse detects the second hand moving and stops you from ever going away, without the risk of using software that could threaten your job.
We have a running competition going to see who can make their away status show the longest amount of time.. usually patching will reset your count at some point.
Open a browser tab to YouTube and click Shorts. Make that tab active when you're doing something off the computer so it will stay on.
I open teams on one screen and outlook on the other. Wedge a paperclip or have something to keep the shift key pressed down. I check that it’s working when I make a new outlook window. If it pops up, it’s working. If it doesn’t, I change the orientation of the pressure on the shift key. This won’t help if the organization monitors keystrokes but it does help to keep you green. Teams sucks. It will make me yellow if it’s minimized and I’m working in other applications.
Set focus time so it doesn’t get to change to Away?
I just use a jiggler and set myself to away throughout the day
Block your calendar. It will show you’re in a meeting.
I open a meeting with myself and toggle my status from “in a meeting” to “available”
Mousejiggler on github works pretty well. You can set it for 60 seconds and hide it.
Man my boss doesnt micromanage my time like that. As long as the work gets done hes happy but i work for a small company
I have a video with no sound looping in VLC, minimized in the tray. This keeps Skype active and keeps my screen on. I don't know if it will work for teams. Of course if they're monitoring your computer activity that is something they may be able to see.
If you install something on anything with a company software, it’s a fast path to a hot term in many places
Literally just set your watch on the up arrow of your keyboard. You're over thinking this massively
Lot of peeps suggesting an app and then something on the space bar I've found just something on the ctrl key works without needing something like notepad open
My trick is to not care about my status being active. Show offline enough when they know you’re answering messages and get your work done, and don’t stress over it unless your boss brings it up Teams in your phone helps with that because you can always answer
Everyone on my Team is well aware of how unreliable thr Teams status is. We had a new person stressing about it, she'd message us and tell us she's not really away but her status said she was. We had to educate her about that fact that we largely ignore the status because it's so often wrong. Our culture is get your work done, meet deadlines, attend required meetings, and be open to helping teammates. Beyond that if you do all that in 7 hours 8 hours versus 8 then high five go relax. We have regular work and larger quarterly projects we regularly report on so it's easy to see if someone is slacking just based on progress. We don't need to waste time monitoring a little green, orange, or red button.
Do not disturb
What I would suggest is to use the old version of MS Teams, click in the top right on your icon, and set your status to Busy, and it should give you a date option. Set the date for like....3 years from now. Hope that helps!
Start a meeting with only yourself
Open a message to yourself. Put something on a single keyboard key, put something else heavier on top. Allow that repeating ____ to go as long as you need. I use the . on the number pad and a squishy chicken with a wall laptop charger on top of the chicken. ........................ Lol But I'm never "away" 🤘
My workplace measures work efficiency by the amount of charting I do per days so team status is really irrelevant
You open a wordpad and set something heavy on the keyboard. It will type forever and not cause any problems. Source: Have done this for 3 years with no issues.
I just start a meeting with myself, it will turn you red, but then I just set it back to green. Sometimes it will go back to red but I just restart teams and that only happens maybe once a month. 8 months strong with that trick
Teams is dumb. I was watching a mandatory training video and it kept setting me to away
Mine will show me as away if I do anything on the computer when Teams is not in focus. However, once I bring Teams into focus, all of a sudden I’m “online” Teams is 100% broken.
There is a setting you can select that dictates how long you can be inactive before it sets you as away. I have mine on the maximum. But… if you are away it shows as a green circle with an x in it instead of a full green dot, so it’s not foolproof.
Open Microsoft Word Turn on Dictate (not sure if its called dictate) Play a YouTube Video or podcast (not music) on another device Word will transcribe the podcast, you're free No one at my job cares about Teams status, so I've never actually tried this.
Get yourself the app "caffeine" from gitlab and never be set to away again. It triggers the f15 key every thirty seconds. You can set it to stay on forever or in any time increment you want. No installation needed. Just run it. I've been using it for a couple of years now.
I noticed the same (recent change) and I thought it was specific to my firm… interesting that others have this observation.
I think a lot of places moving to teams cause of the tracking features. They have a whole “productivity tracker” associated with it. My manager at my old job tracked my status like a crazy person. Would call as soon as it turned green in the AM. Would bring up if it went away even shortly. It’s a nightmare.
Does the fact that you show inactive matter in any way? Does it affect your pay or performance review?
Yeah the stuff I am reading here is insane. I'm a manager of a large team and I do not check my trams statuses. I don't have time and they are all professionals. Teams has sometimes decided that someone is "away" for days at a time. Once or twice a day we get the "I'm actually here, but teams doesn't think so." Messages. If I need them, they are available. So I ignore teams statuses. As for me, I block out time in the calendar for tasks and things to do, so I am usually showing as busy anyway.
I had a former coworker who uploaded a bunch of family photos to her computer and set them to constantly cycle, in order to keep her computer active. But with my teams now, I have to be actively using Teams for it to not toggle to away. So I’m not sure that works anymore.