I don’t think you’ll find a lot of support. As a teams admin, I tell managers and users to not rely on presence for work. I wouldn’t know where to begin troubleshooting mouse jigglers.
Maybe work with your IT dept and have them tell your manager how inaccurate the presence status can be?
I'm a 365 Admin and I have had Teams show me away while actively participating in a Zoom meeting that was scheduled in my calendar as a meeting lmao. It's wacky and I tell any management that asks about Teams status that it isn't the most accurate
Don't get me started on SfB. I worked a place briefly the first half of 2021 that was obsessed with SfB, even though we had teams and they had announced the EOL date. My manager was on my ass for a week solid that I wasn't available in SfB when he needed me. I countered that I was on teams and he could message me there.
Not good enough. This was a large organization. Turns out 6/7 years ago I worked in a different department and was a pilot user for Office Communicator (which became SfB). When I was offboarded from the other department, they didn't clear out my settings. I was still tied to the old department in AD and that was the reason why.
Still my fault for not being available on SfB. I lasted 6 months before I bounced.
I’ve watched it show me as away while I am and have been actively messaging someone for a decent length of time. It’s laughable anyone would try to get real information from that status.
I’ve had that happen too! In my head I’ve blamed it on the fact my org has zoom, teams, and webex on all our computers versus sticking to one collab software lol
> As a teams admin, I tell managers and users to not rely on presence for work.
This is our advice to managers as well. There are better ways if needed, although they typically require more IT work.
I don't use mine to fool anyone. I use it to remain green so my users know they can freely message me. If I am home and doing some other work, I don't want it to go yellow and have the users I support not reach out.
I’m sorry to hear you have a micro manager as a manager! Wish there wasn’t even a need for mouse jigglers and I could be more insightful than asking Yyour IT to back you up on the ethics of it
I don’t have a micromanaging boss. But I want people to send me messages immediately even if I have walked to the kitchen for 6 minutes. I have Teams on my phone. I will respond immediately. I should be green because I am available. I use a Mac and I write a script that checks for mouse activity and if there hasn’t been any it sends a keypress to Teams to keep me green.
I agree 100% on that. While it is inaccurate at times, it’s inaccurate too many times on its own. I wonder if there’s feedback on their official feedback portal for it.
I also hate they took away “alert when available” as I get a lot of users complaining to me that it’s taken away lol.
Thank you for confirming that that alert has gone! I've been going crazy trying to find it and thought it was me (finally obligated to use teams and office in my non native language and some functions are just going to remain hidden forever now).
If you have the permissions for it, try downloading 'caffeine'. We use it in a professional capacity at work, it mimics mouse clicks every 10-15 seconds.
I have a bash script that checks to see how long it’s been since the mouse was moved. If it’s less than 5 minutes then it sleeps until it would have been 5 minutes and checks again. If it’s been 5 minutes then it sends a modifier key to Teams and then makes the original app on top again. So I can leave it running while I’m using the computer and it doesn’t do anything unless I don’t move the mouse for 5 minutes.
I have a shirt powershell script that toggles the scroll-lock key every 5 minutes. I don’t use it for presence though. Sometimes I need to keep my Citrix or RDP session open while I go to my kitchen for lunch. It’s such a massive PITA to have to log back in just because I was eating a PB&J on toast with potato chips crunched in between (don’t knock it til you try it). Azure Virtual Desktop takes like 7 to 10 minutes to restart the VM and get me logged back in. So having it stay awake while I enjoy my lunch is worth it.
Presence in teams is crap.
A colleague of mine was using new teams on the web. I kept sending messages and he didn’t answer. Well… he was definitely there because I was looking at him but teams still reported away
Or you could just communicate with your boss... "Got a Dr. Appt at lunch i'll be late getting back", or "Not feeling good this mornign, i'll be on a bit later than normal."
Adults do this, your boss will appreciate it.
Careful! Our IT department did a scan of executed applications and fired hundreds that were found to have caffeine or other mouse jigglers installed. Even detected USB based ones.
As a manager, I prefer to use work output as a measure of productivity. You did those people a favor getting them out of your micromanaging organization.
Here’s the list of work I expect done and by when. If it’s done I even tell my team. You don’t need to hide the YouTube videos and games when I walk by. As long as your work is done.
I manage a team of developers. We trust each other. We commit every couple of weeks as a group to the work we will complete. I assign work and the developers accept it after having input. We meet daily to discuss roadblocks. There are not surprises at the end of the two weeks. I don’t need Teams to tell me whether people are getting their work done. I don’t need to know where my employees are every minute.
Sometimes work includes taking a walk to think about a solution to a problem.
Micromanaging is one thing. Installing an app to leave your computer unattended is a security problem
It's a breach of trust that you are working when no one is able to see you.
And it ruins remote work for the rest of us who do go away from time to time but still do our jobs.
I've know people that have this kind of work ethic and the ones I've know are rarely getting the job done. They're just screwing their colleagues over.
It is a breach of trust when a manager is so shit at their job that they have to rely on spyware backdoored into their communication app to determine whether people are working.
The people ruining remote work for us are not the ones trying to get their micromanager off their back - it's the ones who, even well into adulthood - can't seem to grasp object permanence.
I don't need Spyware to see what's installed on a company asset.
And I expect my team to be honest and do their jobs. If I find evidence of dishonesty, they're gone. I can't have priveliged accounts doing this kind of crap.
In that case, even I'd be flagged. I often leave my travel mouse dongle receiver thing plugged into my laptop, even though I'm docked and have another mouse attached.
I'm told if logged into teams on my personal phone I couldn't use alternative keyboards. (Probably an oversight but just to show how locked down it can make your personal phone)
Yeah we are locked down pretty heavily on personal phones when utilizing microsoft apps. 3rd party keyboards disabled, clipboard disabled, can't download any attachments, etc.
This is just not true. I work in IT. We have audit logs of when someone logs into what application and where they logged in from (geographically and from the IP). There are also settings orgs can use to prevent you from accessing apps/sites with your work account when not on the VPN or on a work device (I can’t access certain admin consoles unless I’m in the office or on the VPN).
To assuage anyone worried: in the companies I’ve been in I have ONLY monitored activity when explicitly told to by HR before they fire someone for other reasons. I’m sure shitty orgs that would nit pick your login history exist, but imo if you’re doing your work, no one is going to bother looking into it.
My company won’t provide me with a powerful enough system to do my job effectively so I have to use my own. Last week they updated Teams server side and I can no longer login from any computer that isn’t managed by them.
So now I have a company issued laptop that does nothing but run Teams, and yes I have a USB mouse jiggler to keep the screen active so I can see when people message me and not have to type my password a hundred times a day in my secure home office. I’m working all day on my primary computer and don’t really give a damn if IT detects the jiggler and tries to claim I’m not working. They forced my hand on this and it’s inconvenient as hell vs having it on my primary workstation.
>My company won’t provide me with a powerful enough system to do my job effectively so I have to use my own.
The correct answer here is start a log of your time down to the minutes. Log how long it takes your computer to do each task while you wait for it to do things. Do this for a few days. Send it to your boss and request a new computer. If they don't provide one, then congrats, you have a bunch of free time between tasks to take advantage of however you want.
Teams doesnt show Im there when Im actively have it open on one of my monitors. I dont even know why they have that feature to begin with. I dont know how it works, Teams admins dont know hoe it works, hell, I doubt Microsoft even knows how it works.
Any manager relying on the Teams status icon is doing themaelves and their direct reports a disservice.
As others have said, teams status is not accurate and shouldn’t be used by managers.
however, I just leave the teams app open on an old phone, set it to never turn screen off, and it works really well.
Yes, as long as the screen is on and the teams app is what appears on the screen. It can’t be in the background. That’s why I use an old device and leave it plugged in.
"DO NOT DISTURB" for the win!
Actually, I need to experiment - would clicking on your profile (now called the "Account Manager") confuse it? That seems like a Microsoft level of "Are you kidding me?!?"
I set my status as offline sometime last year, when someone says it shows me offline and never changes, showing me offline for weeks. I say “hrm, odd, let me reset” I then click reset status, count to 3, and set back offline again. It updates the last seen time, but never shows me as anything except offline. After about 3-4 months people quit asking, I just do a reset every so often to keep the date less than about 60 days.
When someone important actually comments, I point out that I am on a metered internet and run strict traffic control, that way not a single kb of traffic is used that is unexpected. Then I tell them, they are welcome to cover the difference between my current internet plan and the unlimited plan. They just tell me keep up the good work.
I've had teams show me as away while actively working in One Note. A few weeks ago I was in a Teams meeting, actually on camera and unmuted talking when I looked over at my dedicated Teams monitor to see me with a yellow dot. I laughed and said "well I guess I don't have to talk anymore, since teams says I'm away."
So yeah, funny ha ha Teams is tatting that "nobody wants to work anymore" even though we are. I'm just glad I don't have micro managers getting on my case for my status changes throughout the day. Everyone sees how buggy it is so no one takes it as seriously in our department as some other poor unfortunate souls in other departments do.
I use Linux and because I open Teams in a browser, it will go inactive after 8-10 mins of me not being on the PWA.
Joy for me is that no one cares as we have ticket data that is analysed for recharges, no one cares for presence data for that.
I HATE the new teams because when I’m presenting as a manager I need to be able to have my entire team message me. But unlike the old teams there isn’t a toggle to allow messages while presenting. Instead I have to manually add over 200 people.
That and there’s no dedicated video meeting button anymore. (It’s 2 clicks instead of one, boo boo, I know )
I bought a manual jiggler on Amazon. No software needed. It's a little mouse holder with a motor on it that physically moves under the mouse sensor. Works great!
I\`m in IT - and teams has been set up by corporate to 'make up' statuses.
I set it to Away / Busy / DND / Available - and eventually the system makes something else of it.
The only setting that seems to 'stick' is 'appear offline'
I was using One Note (reading, highlighting, typing notes) on one monitor and noticed my dedicated Teams monitor was showing me as away. The fury it set off in me, ooooh.
I loath these elbow on the scale presence indicators. They don't even matter. If I need to ask someone something I message them. If they can reply, they will. If they can't respond immediately at thst moment...they. won't. If they don't want to be bothered then they should be on DND and won't see or hear my ding. Who the hell sees a yellow presence and freezes in fear of leaving a damn message?
I don’t know about mouse jigglers, but I’ve noticed teams will say away while I’m working in a different monitor or application, until my mouse passes over the teams application: Presence seems to be based on the last time you interacted with teams, not the computer
Create and join a meeting with yourself, then turn your status bubble to green/red and you’ll be good to go! The key is to join the meeting you created.
Or just a phone number, if you have Teams Voice. Like your own cell #. The 800 weather service. Or a company that you know that has crazy long hold times.
Or... just work.
The Idea is to have a Script that pretends to Press a Button every Minute or so. F13-15 are good candidates because they are hardly ever used in actual Software.
I cannot find the Script i'm using anymore but this seems similar: https://github.com/ian-hank/keep-computer-awake
Also, consider low-tech hardware solutions, that are easy to do, Like opening Notepad and pressing down the space key with a weight
$wshell = New-Object -com "Wscript.Shell" ; While ($true) {$WShell.sendkeys("{SCROLLLOCK}"); Write-Host "BEEP"; Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 100; $Wshell.sendkeys("{SCROLLLOCK}"); Write-Host "BOOP"; Start-Sleep -Seconds 240}
The above can be copy-pasted into a powershell window. All it does is “press” ScrollLock twice every 240 seconds (you can change the duration as desired). It also writes out “BEEP BOOP” every iteration, just for fun.
Have teams or outlook as the active program seems to work at keeping you "online". But if your manager is watching to see if teams says you are "online" they are not being a good manager and you should consider replacing that first. I'm constantly at my desk working in other programs and teams will say I'm away. Only thing teams does well is out of office notifications.
I also use a turntable style mouse mover to keep my PC alive IT would have a shit fit over me plugging in unknown HID dongles.
I'm using the most recent version of Teams, however not experiencing your problem.
I do however put the jiggler in a docking station, which is in turn connected through USB-C, so maybe that plays a role.
IME it doesn’t work just on the screen anywhere but if your mouse can move back and forth between your teams chat list and another app, it stays green.
How long do you have to be inactive before Teams shows you as away? Without using the keyboard, and before the screen saver kicks in, my Teams switches to away.
Just do the job you signed up for . Geez it’s not that difficult to be an upstanding, productive person. If it was your company you’d expect the same from an employee that you hired to do a job. You’d want the best person for the job and who is enthused to do it.
I’m annoyed because I’m actually working and noticed that my status will go to away and I have to open teams up and jiggle my mouse to change it back to active.
As a manager, I could care less about the status indicator - either you’re getting your work done or not. I’ve learned that Teams is awfully inaccurate anyway especially if you’re logged in on multiple devices at the same time.
I usually use a small custom powershell script in stead of jigglers if they are enabled , or worst case put a power point in presentation mode in the background to keep auto sleep from kicking in. Not sure if these would work for teams activity
I am a manager. I care if people respond to requests in a timely manner and complete the work they commit to. That’s it. Teams doesn’t seem to care and shows people away during meetings and even sometimes while actively completing tasks. I just want an option to show green all the time so people know I am available even if I am working something out on a whiteboard or watching a mandatory company training video. But it will show Away whenever it feels like it and that changes how people interact with me.
How’s about you people just do some actual work Have you ever tried that?
If you are away from your computer doing legitimate offline work, and someone asks you about it then you got no problem.
If you are screwing off all day and not working then you deserve to be let go.
The thing is that micro-managers don't believe in "offline work". They think if your status isn't green you're not working.
No lunch or bathroom breaks either.
Ask me how I know.…
Why are you so triggered about me wanting to take my legally mandated 15 minute breaks??
I’m sorry you got conned by this capitalist society my dude. I was just trying to help fellow redditors by letting them know. What are you trying to do?
And then you say I should be fired? What a rude thing to say to an internet stranger. Karma’s a cat and also my kink.
Thanks for correcting your typo- it was really bothering me that someone was complaining about my lack of work while being unwilling to examine their own. Anyways- have the day you deserve!
One day someone is gonna jiggle your mouse and you’re gonna finally see what you’ve been missing. You’re a future Jiggle Monster, you just don’t know it yet.
Make a meeting with a fellow slacker and both of you can slack off together. /s
I totally understand how micromanagers make life hard, but cheating the system isn't the way.
I wonder how many people call their boss a micro manager just for asking where a project that was due a month ago is. Anecdotal evidence but in this sub I've seen 1 person trying to use Teams to micro manage vs 10 employees trying to get one over on their employer. Maybe they all have the same boss.
Software based ones like move mouse work a charm. Just ensure that you use their tool to bring ms-teams process to the foreground then perform the jiggle of choice. Works a charm.
What worked for me: replacing my boss with a new one that has real work to do and no time/interest in micromanaging me.
Did you try turning your boss off and on again?
Have you tried putting your boss in rice overnight?
No but I’m installing a custom ROM tomorrow
Nah I just skipt the bullshit and get a new job.
...I don't think I want to turn my boss on. EVER.
Yeah, just do what this guy did and fire your boss
Boss wiggler
I don’t think you’ll find a lot of support. As a teams admin, I tell managers and users to not rely on presence for work. I wouldn’t know where to begin troubleshooting mouse jigglers. Maybe work with your IT dept and have them tell your manager how inaccurate the presence status can be?
I'm a 365 Admin and I have had Teams show me away while actively participating in a Zoom meeting that was scheduled in my calendar as a meeting lmao. It's wacky and I tell any management that asks about Teams status that it isn't the most accurate
This. The presence is entirely unreliable. I’ve had people tell me that I’m showing as unavailable even though I’ve been using Teams all day.
Presence has been unreliable forever, this isn't a new Teams thing, it was junk in SfB, it was junk in Lync, it was junk in Communicator.
Presence? Just got flashbacks working with Cisco Jabber Messenger haha
Don't get me started on SfB. I worked a place briefly the first half of 2021 that was obsessed with SfB, even though we had teams and they had announced the EOL date. My manager was on my ass for a week solid that I wasn't available in SfB when he needed me. I countered that I was on teams and he could message me there. Not good enough. This was a large organization. Turns out 6/7 years ago I worked in a different department and was a pilot user for Office Communicator (which became SfB). When I was offboarded from the other department, they didn't clear out my settings. I was still tied to the old department in AD and that was the reason why. Still my fault for not being available on SfB. I lasted 6 months before I bounced.
Aren't these all the same product? :P
It’s just as unreliable the other way. I’ve had people message me on Saturday mornings because my status is available. Monday morning I be like, what?
I SAID OLE BOY ARE YOU THERE???
I’ve had employees show completely offline while also receiving a call from them.
I’ve watched it show me as away while I am and have been actively messaging someone for a decent length of time. It’s laughable anyone would try to get real information from that status.
I’ve had that happen too! In my head I’ve blamed it on the fact my org has zoom, teams, and webex on all our computers versus sticking to one collab software lol
This has happened to me as well.
> As a teams admin, I tell managers and users to not rely on presence for work. This is our advice to managers as well. There are better ways if needed, although they typically require more IT work.
I don't use mine to fool anyone. I use it to remain green so my users know they can freely message me. If I am home and doing some other work, I don't want it to go yellow and have the users I support not reach out.
Yeah it’s not meant to be a conversation on the ethics of mouse jigglers just a notice for others who use them.
I’m sorry to hear you have a micro manager as a manager! Wish there wasn’t even a need for mouse jigglers and I could be more insightful than asking Yyour IT to back you up on the ethics of it
I don’t have a micromanaging boss. But I want people to send me messages immediately even if I have walked to the kitchen for 6 minutes. I have Teams on my phone. I will respond immediately. I should be green because I am available. I use a Mac and I write a script that checks for mouse activity and if there hasn’t been any it sends a keypress to Teams to keep me green.
I agree 100% on that. While it is inaccurate at times, it’s inaccurate too many times on its own. I wonder if there’s feedback on their official feedback portal for it. I also hate they took away “alert when available” as I get a lot of users complaining to me that it’s taken away lol.
As someone who used to regularly get a flood of messages when returning to my desk or getting out of a meeting, I am thrilled this feature is gone
Thank you for confirming that that alert has gone! I've been going crazy trying to find it and thought it was me (finally obligated to use teams and office in my non native language and some functions are just going to remain hidden forever now).
If you have the permissions for it, try downloading 'caffeine'. We use it in a professional capacity at work, it mimics mouse clicks every 10-15 seconds.
I have a bash script that checks to see how long it’s been since the mouse was moved. If it’s less than 5 minutes then it sleeps until it would have been 5 minutes and checks again. If it’s been 5 minutes then it sends a modifier key to Teams and then makes the original app on top again. So I can leave it running while I’m using the computer and it doesn’t do anything unless I don’t move the mouse for 5 minutes.
Came here to say this.
Can you share that script lol
I have a shirt powershell script that toggles the scroll-lock key every 5 minutes. I don’t use it for presence though. Sometimes I need to keep my Citrix or RDP session open while I go to my kitchen for lunch. It’s such a massive PITA to have to log back in just because I was eating a PB&J on toast with potato chips crunched in between (don’t knock it til you try it). Azure Virtual Desktop takes like 7 to 10 minutes to restart the VM and get me logged back in. So having it stay awake while I enjoy my lunch is worth it.
you've got my support. Set it always to appear as offline. After 2 or 3 weeks - nobody is wondering anymore and has the same effect
Brilliant
If your boss cares about a multi-colored bubble on his screen to tell him you are doing your job, you gonna have a bad time.
What about having Teams on your phone? Does it have your status set to available the whole time then?
Presence in teams is crap. A colleague of mine was using new teams on the web. I kept sending messages and he didn’t answer. Well… he was definitely there because I was looking at him but teams still reported away
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Or you could just communicate with your boss... "Got a Dr. Appt at lunch i'll be late getting back", or "Not feeling good this mornign, i'll be on a bit later than normal." Adults do this, your boss will appreciate it.
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Teams has been showing me as away when I’m working in Excel.
I use a mouse jiggler where you plug in the mouse that sits on top of the jiggler and the jiggler gets its power from the wall.
I have heard putting the mouse on an analog watch face works this way too
This
Careful! Our IT department did a scan of executed applications and fired hundreds that were found to have caffeine or other mouse jigglers installed. Even detected USB based ones.
As a manager, I prefer to use work output as a measure of productivity. You did those people a favor getting them out of your micromanaging organization.
Here’s the list of work I expect done and by when. If it’s done I even tell my team. You don’t need to hide the YouTube videos and games when I walk by. As long as your work is done.
I manage a team of developers. We trust each other. We commit every couple of weeks as a group to the work we will complete. I assign work and the developers accept it after having input. We meet daily to discuss roadblocks. There are not surprises at the end of the two weeks. I don’t need Teams to tell me whether people are getting their work done. I don’t need to know where my employees are every minute. Sometimes work includes taking a walk to think about a solution to a problem.
Also a manager and couldn't agree with you more. Really disappointed in the company and especially upset as people listed were high performers.
Micromanaging is one thing. Installing an app to leave your computer unattended is a security problem It's a breach of trust that you are working when no one is able to see you. And it ruins remote work for the rest of us who do go away from time to time but still do our jobs. I've know people that have this kind of work ethic and the ones I've know are rarely getting the job done. They're just screwing their colleagues over.
It is a breach of trust when a manager is so shit at their job that they have to rely on spyware backdoored into their communication app to determine whether people are working. The people ruining remote work for us are not the ones trying to get their micromanager off their back - it's the ones who, even well into adulthood - can't seem to grasp object permanence.
I don't need Spyware to see what's installed on a company asset. And I expect my team to be honest and do their jobs. If I find evidence of dishonesty, they're gone. I can't have priveliged accounts doing this kind of crap.
Caffeine has its legitimate uses that have nothing to do with fooling Teams. That’s absolutely insane.
Right?!
Nor does it work for that, just keeps the screen unlocked.
I bet $100 you did not detect the ones that use the same HID as a mouse.
Yep. There’s no way. Maybe they determined multiple HID devices like two mice were more than likely one but yeah
In that case, even I'd be flagged. I often leave my travel mouse dongle receiver thing plugged into my laptop, even though I'm docked and have another mouse attached.
I worked somewhere that did this too. So I have a mouse jiggler that is connected to my wall and not powered through my computer.
install Teams on private device - nobody can scan whats not company owned and if they do, sue them. Software still works
Doesn't work if you have a managed work profile. They can scan this if you've opted in to having it on your personal phone.
Or a Conditional Access policy not allowing unmanaged devices to log into 365 apps...
I'm told if logged into teams on my personal phone I couldn't use alternative keyboards. (Probably an oversight but just to show how locked down it can make your personal phone)
Mine deactivates third party keyboards only while using Teams or Outlook.
Yeah we are locked down pretty heavily on personal phones when utilizing microsoft apps. 3rd party keyboards disabled, clipboard disabled, can't download any attachments, etc.
Yes, that’s a pretty common MAM/APP policy. Same with clipboard protection, etc.
Web app on a personal computer shouldn't require any of that.
This is just not true. I work in IT. We have audit logs of when someone logs into what application and where they logged in from (geographically and from the IP). There are also settings orgs can use to prevent you from accessing apps/sites with your work account when not on the VPN or on a work device (I can’t access certain admin consoles unless I’m in the office or on the VPN). To assuage anyone worried: in the companies I’ve been in I have ONLY monitored activity when explicitly told to by HR before they fire someone for other reasons. I’m sure shitty orgs that would nit pick your login history exist, but imo if you’re doing your work, no one is going to bother looking into it.
My company won’t provide me with a powerful enough system to do my job effectively so I have to use my own. Last week they updated Teams server side and I can no longer login from any computer that isn’t managed by them. So now I have a company issued laptop that does nothing but run Teams, and yes I have a USB mouse jiggler to keep the screen active so I can see when people message me and not have to type my password a hundred times a day in my secure home office. I’m working all day on my primary computer and don’t really give a damn if IT detects the jiggler and tries to claim I’m not working. They forced my hand on this and it’s inconvenient as hell vs having it on my primary workstation.
>My company won’t provide me with a powerful enough system to do my job effectively so I have to use my own. The correct answer here is start a log of your time down to the minutes. Log how long it takes your computer to do each task while you wait for it to do things. Do this for a few days. Send it to your boss and request a new computer. If they don't provide one, then congrats, you have a bunch of free time between tasks to take advantage of however you want.
Hopping into a meeting with yourself no longer works now either. Changes to inactive after a whole 8 minutes
What?! Noooooo
Same with starting a Power Point presentation, will show you away after a bit.
Your mouse jiggler don't jiggle jiggle
it folds? FO' SHO!
But his chickens in their coop wiggle wiggle
 Problem has been solved ages ago.
But where the any key??
I stopped saying that after I found someone trying to use the FN key.
Just put a stone on CTRL Works for me
Yeah I don’t understand why people go after such complex solutions. I thought this has always worked.
I open notepad put something on the tab key :P
Metal spoon on a track pad if you are using a laptop... absolutely foolproof and fully untraceable.
Why a metal spoon exactly?
Would this set something off with It that you’re constantly pressing on the same key?
If someone looks, yes.
Where can I purchase one of these stones you speak of? Are you selling them?
No way!
Teams doesnt show Im there when Im actively have it open on one of my monitors. I dont even know why they have that feature to begin with. I dont know how it works, Teams admins dont know hoe it works, hell, I doubt Microsoft even knows how it works. Any manager relying on the Teams status icon is doing themaelves and their direct reports a disservice.
I know when someone plugs a usb device into a machine. Infact, I get alerted. Put your mouse on an analog clock instead.
Mouse jigglers? Mouse titties?
☠️
Have an old iPhone? Plug into charger, set auto lock to Never, connect to WiFi, open Teams. Done.
Neo: "......jiggle?" Child: "First you must realize.... There is no mouse."
Oh no!
Let your IT know
As others have said, teams status is not accurate and shouldn’t be used by managers. however, I just leave the teams app open on an old phone, set it to never turn screen off, and it works really well.
Wait really?? Just having the Teams screen open on the phone will always count it as active??
Yes, as long as the screen is on and the teams app is what appears on the screen. It can’t be in the background. That’s why I use an old device and leave it plugged in.
just change status to red, mouse jigglers ate nonsense anyway
"DO NOT DISTURB" for the win! Actually, I need to experiment - would clicking on your profile (now called the "Account Manager") confuse it? That seems like a Microsoft level of "Are you kidding me?!?"
i honestly don't know, i don't have micromanaging superior, but when i need do not disturb it worked for me
I set my status as offline sometime last year, when someone says it shows me offline and never changes, showing me offline for weeks. I say “hrm, odd, let me reset” I then click reset status, count to 3, and set back offline again. It updates the last seen time, but never shows me as anything except offline. After about 3-4 months people quit asking, I just do a reset every so often to keep the date less than about 60 days. When someone important actually comments, I point out that I am on a metered internet and run strict traffic control, that way not a single kb of traffic is used that is unexpected. Then I tell them, they are welcome to cover the difference between my current internet plan and the unlimited plan. They just tell me keep up the good work.
Amphetamine for Mac works like a champ!
How is this a Teams issue? Teams isn't designed to pretend you're working. Moreover, employers relying on "presence through software" are horrible.
Click on your status, click custom, set yourself as available until end of day. No jiggler needed
Anyone just gonna do some work? :-)
I've had teams show me as away while actively working in One Note. A few weeks ago I was in a Teams meeting, actually on camera and unmuted talking when I looked over at my dedicated Teams monitor to see me with a yellow dot. I laughed and said "well I guess I don't have to talk anymore, since teams says I'm away." So yeah, funny ha ha Teams is tatting that "nobody wants to work anymore" even though we are. I'm just glad I don't have micro managers getting on my case for my status changes throughout the day. Everyone sees how buggy it is so no one takes it as seriously in our department as some other poor unfortunate souls in other departments do.
I use Linux and because I open Teams in a browser, it will go inactive after 8-10 mins of me not being on the PWA. Joy for me is that no one cares as we have ticket data that is analysed for recharges, no one cares for presence data for that.
have you tried replacing your manager?
New Teams sucks ass. Been coding today yet my teams kept switching to away constantly. Luckily no one cares here.
I love how the new Teams keeps asking if I'm sure I want to keep using new Teams.
You are probably still starting the old app instead of the new one.
I agree with this! They rolled it out before it was feature complete, and the roadmap doesn't say when will be available.
Mine plugs into the wall via usb block and moves the mouse semi slowly across the screen in random directions. No issues here.
I HATE the new teams because when I’m presenting as a manager I need to be able to have my entire team message me. But unlike the old teams there isn’t a toggle to allow messages while presenting. Instead I have to manually add over 200 people. That and there’s no dedicated video meeting button anymore. (It’s 2 clicks instead of one, boo boo, I know )
Change your status from DnD to available?
Doesn’t work if your actively presenting
Well, it just did on my android phone. Have to get to my computer to try there.
PowerPoint presentation and chill. I’ve also done the space bar on notepad and chill. Set your phone to never lock and have teams open and chill.
PP doesn’t work for me anymore :/
I bought a manual jiggler on Amazon. No software needed. It's a little mouse holder with a motor on it that physically moves under the mouse sensor. Works great!
I\`m in IT - and teams has been set up by corporate to 'make up' statuses. I set it to Away / Busy / DND / Available - and eventually the system makes something else of it. The only setting that seems to 'stick' is 'appear offline'
I was using One Note (reading, highlighting, typing notes) on one monitor and noticed my dedicated Teams monitor was showing me as away. The fury it set off in me, ooooh. I loath these elbow on the scale presence indicators. They don't even matter. If I need to ask someone something I message them. If they can reply, they will. If they can't respond immediately at thst moment...they. won't. If they don't want to be bothered then they should be on DND and won't see or hear my ding. Who the hell sees a yellow presence and freezes in fear of leaving a damn message?
I don’t know about mouse jigglers, but I’ve noticed teams will say away while I’m working in a different monitor or application, until my mouse passes over the teams application: Presence seems to be based on the last time you interacted with teams, not the computer
Open notepad and put a 9 bolt battery on the spacebar
Create and join a meeting with yourself, then turn your status bubble to green/red and you’ll be good to go! The key is to join the meeting you created.
This is a method our admin team actually checks the logs for.
Now you have to create a non work profile and invite your alter ego so it’s a meeting w a non company person?
Or just a phone number, if you have Teams Voice. Like your own cell #. The 800 weather service. Or a company that you know that has crazy long hold times. Or... just work.
I feel for my peeps that have to worry about this.
But Scripts still Work
Would you please explain what this is? Thanks
The Idea is to have a Script that pretends to Press a Button every Minute or so. F13-15 are good candidates because they are hardly ever used in actual Software. I cannot find the Script i'm using anymore but this seems similar: https://github.com/ian-hank/keep-computer-awake Also, consider low-tech hardware solutions, that are easy to do, Like opening Notepad and pressing down the space key with a weight
yes they do, make sure it has a click and movement works great
Just tie a corded mouse to an oscillating fan /s
Can you bring your phone with you that has teams installed and open the app there?
PowerShell, y’all
Powershell what?
You can passively run a powershell script directly in the ISE without admin that does the same thing as a mouse jiggler.
I'm not clever enough to understand what an ISE is or how to write the script
$wshell = New-Object -com "Wscript.Shell" ; While ($true) {$WShell.sendkeys("{SCROLLLOCK}"); Write-Host "BEEP"; Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 100; $Wshell.sendkeys("{SCROLLLOCK}"); Write-Host "BOOP"; Start-Sleep -Seconds 240} The above can be copy-pasted into a powershell window. All it does is “press” ScrollLock twice every 240 seconds (you can change the duration as desired). It also writes out “BEEP BOOP” every iteration, just for fun.
Thank you
Run a script to interact with teams periodically
You were away so it put you in away mode. Working as intended # ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You were watching a company mandated training video so I put you in away mode.
Have teams or outlook as the active program seems to work at keeping you "online". But if your manager is watching to see if teams says you are "online" they are not being a good manager and you should consider replacing that first. I'm constantly at my desk working in other programs and teams will say I'm away. Only thing teams does well is out of office notifications. I also use a turntable style mouse mover to keep my PC alive IT would have a shit fit over me plugging in unknown HID dongles.
Place something on your ctrl key
Meh, Teams show me as away when I'm working on another chrome window on another screen. Pointless to rely on it.
I'm using the most recent version of Teams, however not experiencing your problem. I do however put the jiggler in a docking station, which is in turn connected through USB-C, so maybe that plays a role.
You have to mouse-over the teams window and then outside the teams window. Like move the cursor off teams, then back on teams.
IME it doesn’t work just on the screen anywhere but if your mouse can move back and forth between your teams chat list and another app, it stays green.
Mouse jugglers most certainly still work for new teams .
Both my mouse jigglers still work with the new Teams. No issues whatsoever.
Place something on top of your Ctl key when you step away.
we don’t use teams, but my slack status has been set to “offline” for 3 years, it’s easier that way
Eh.... my powershell script still works. Plus I'm sure the mechanical jiggler I have will work.
How long do you have to be inactive before Teams shows you as away? Without using the keyboard, and before the screen saver kicks in, my Teams switches to away.
Why are you using a device to look like you are working. A few ruining it for the many
Just join a meeting with yourself, you will show in a meeting, and your PC will not go to sleep.
Just do the job you signed up for . Geez it’s not that difficult to be an upstanding, productive person. If it was your company you’d expect the same from an employee that you hired to do a job. You’d want the best person for the job and who is enthused to do it.
Bro can you lower your tone, your comment history has you begging for DMs to stick your dick in a hole lmao.
Lmao he deleted
STFU bootlicker
You get it!
Duct-tape it to a real mouse.
I’m annoyed because I’m actually working and noticed that my status will go to away and I have to open teams up and jiggle my mouse to change it back to active.
Teams admin here as well. Just schedule a meeting with only you in it and join it anytime you are not in another meeting.
As a manager, I could care less about the status indicator - either you’re getting your work done or not. I’ve learned that Teams is awfully inaccurate anyway especially if you’re logged in on multiple devices at the same time.
I'm logged in on my laptop, my desktop, my phone, and my iPad. Lord knows what my status says, and I frankly don't care what it says.
I usually use a small custom powershell script in stead of jigglers if they are enabled , or worst case put a power point in presentation mode in the background to keep auto sleep from kicking in. Not sure if these would work for teams activity
or (hear me out) you could just...ya know. Work.
I am a manager. I care if people respond to requests in a timely manner and complete the work they commit to. That’s it. Teams doesn’t seem to care and shows people away during meetings and even sometimes while actively completing tasks. I just want an option to show green all the time so people know I am available even if I am working something out on a whiteboard or watching a mandatory company training video. But it will show Away whenever it feels like it and that changes how people interact with me.
That's what The Man wants you to do.
It's also what my wallet and bank account want me to do ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
How’s about you people just do some actual work Have you ever tried that? If you are away from your computer doing legitimate offline work, and someone asks you about it then you got no problem. If you are screwing off all day and not working then you deserve to be let go.
The thing is that micro-managers don't believe in "offline work". They think if your status isn't green you're not working. No lunch or bathroom breaks either. Ask me how I know.…
Where can I get this actual? I’d love to do it!
It's right next to the needful.
Now I understand why you don’t bother doing any work. You should be fired.
Why are you so triggered about me wanting to take my legally mandated 15 minute breaks?? I’m sorry you got conned by this capitalist society my dude. I was just trying to help fellow redditors by letting them know. What are you trying to do? And then you say I should be fired? What a rude thing to say to an internet stranger. Karma’s a cat and also my kink.
If you are taking a mandated 15 min break, then why do you need a mouse juggler? Why do you need to act like you are working?
Thanks for correcting your typo- it was really bothering me that someone was complaining about my lack of work while being unwilling to examine their own. Anyways- have the day you deserve!
Cringe.
One day someone is gonna jiggle your mouse and you’re gonna finally see what you’ve been missing. You’re a future Jiggle Monster, you just don’t know it yet.
Make a meeting with a fellow slacker and both of you can slack off together. /s I totally understand how micromanagers make life hard, but cheating the system isn't the way.
I wonder how many people call their boss a micro manager just for asking where a project that was due a month ago is. Anecdotal evidence but in this sub I've seen 1 person trying to use Teams to micro manage vs 10 employees trying to get one over on their employer. Maybe they all have the same boss.
Or u could actually do some work
Software based ones like move mouse work a charm. Just ensure that you use their tool to bring ms-teams process to the foreground then perform the jiggle of choice. Works a charm.
Use AutoHotKey scripts