People working from home and using MS Teams - status changes to 'Away' very quickly...

dirtychinchilla · 10 Sep 2020 at 10:41

Garp said:
Nope, nope, nope, nope. Don't fall for that trap. They're not paying you for it, your mental health gets impacted (whether you recognise it or not), and your productivity overall diminishes. There are numerous studies that show how overall productivity drops when people are working more than 40 hours a week. After just a few weeks, the overall benefit has already gone and you're soon moving in to net-negative vs having just done 40 hour weeks.

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the point you're making here. My productivity has diminished and I'm aware of that part, but I was just expressing that compared to the OP, I'm not going to worry too much about my Teams status because if anyone contacts me and I'm free, I will pick up the phone

Participant · 10 Sep 2020 at 10:44

Participant said:
Lol.

I think the fact that I'm going to these lengths tells me I've got the desire to do something else with my life.

Whether that something is propelling 100 tonnes of aluminium through the air at 300 knots is a question.

Liking the paperclip (traditional methods are best) and macro ideas.

Well the animated PPT slide didn't work, I couldn't figure out the paper clip method, and the macro was beyond me.

I now have something heavy sitting on my Q key and Notepad open. I think that's cracked it.

robgmun · 10 Sep 2020 at 10:50

Lysander said:
Some context? What does your company do? Is there a specific reason why people must be on-hand so urgently throughout the working day? If not, your management style belongs in the 1970s. Companies these days tend to treat their employees like, you know, actual people.

EDIT: Oh. lolz.

Turns out Arsonist was joking but there definitely one guy who used to be on these forums who was exactly like that. I don't know if he still posts here but he did come across as an ******** boss when talking about his workers.

Theophany · 10 Sep 2020 at 11:15

I used to leave a roll of coins on a key on my laptop with a Word document open before going out on the lunchtime lash. I think my best effort was coming home to a laptop that was totally locked up, but had managed to get to 25 pages of the letter 'l' repeated.

lurkio · 10 Sep 2020 at 13:06

I use an exe created by autohotkey , it presses a key every 2 minutes ... and just repeats forever

Participant · 10 Sep 2020 at 15:28

lurkio said:
I use an exe created by autohotkey , it presses a key every 2 minutes ... and just repeats forever

How are people running all these random exes on corporate machines

Josh · 10 Sep 2020 at 15:32

Any half decent client side CMDB will pick them up straight away too, mad.

Just set yourself to 'Busy' - it doesn't time out.

Nasher · 10 Sep 2020 at 16:22

Participant said:
How are people running all these random exes on corporate machines

You could also use a keyboard with programmable macros

the-evaluator · 10 Sep 2020 at 16:40

Josh said:
Just set yourself to 'Busy' - it doesn't time out.

It does time out. At 16:25 I set myself to busy:

About 8 minutes later after not touching the keyboard or mouse:

Previous versions of the client let you control when it would switch status to away, helpfully they've removed it. I had a call with my Microsoft account manager last week and mentioned it, apparently they've had a lot of comments and are encouraging people to use User Voice to comment. I haven't looked for the thread but I'm told there is one.

Josh · 10 Sep 2020 at 17:09

the-evaluator said:
It does time out. At 16:25 I set myself to busy:

About 8 minutes later after not touching the keyboard or mouse:

Previous versions of the client let you control when it would switch status to away, helpfully they've removed it. I had a call with my Microsoft account manager last week and mentioned it, apparently they've had a lot of comments and are encouraging people to use User Voice to comment. I haven't looked for the thread but I'm told there is one.

Well **** - I'll go back to starting a call with myself as the only participant then.

Good heads up though, ta.

Theophany · 10 Sep 2020 at 17:18

Participant said:
How are people running all these random exes on corporate machines

Unless you work for an IT company, most corporate IT departments are no more sophisticated than your average subreddit. They'll set some fairly loose security privileges on the network, but I never had a corporately issued computer that didn't have admin rights, which is absolutely mental.

I remember pioneering working from home at the company I was working for around 2013 by just using TeamViewer to dial into my work machine from home. Worked great for years until IT decided I was due a work machine upgrade, saw it on my hard drive and got very mad about it being used without a license, but also not mad enough to make a huge deal of it because they were embarrassed they hadn't noticed an awful lot sooner!

Participant · 10 Sep 2020 at 17:22

My solution:

...with Notepad in focus.

This time it definitely works. Now I can nip out to the shops, or do some exercise, or whatever without anyone thinking that they're unable to contact me because I'm away. This means I can do more work and be more productive, hurrah!

BUDFORCE · 10 Sep 2020 at 19:05

4 AA battery pack connected to a motor. Rest your mouse on that and watch it vigorously beaver away all day

Participant · 10 Sep 2020 at 19:19

Looks like a powered nipple clamp.

Theophany · 10 Sep 2020 at 19:32

BUDFORCE said:
4 AA battery pack connected to a motor. Rest your mouse on that and watch it vigorously beaver away all day

I could just use something from my girlfriend's bedside drawer then?

Participant · 10 Sep 2020 at 22:13

Mushy Peas said:
I could just use something from my girlfriend's bedside drawer then?

Or your mum's

Theophany · 10 Sep 2020 at 22:25

Participant said:
Or your mum's

you grossly overestimate my mothers sex drive, but ok.

Scam · 10 Sep 2020 at 23:07

For all the people tricking Teams into thinking you're actually there.. clearly no one ever contacts you otherwise you'd be rumbled quite quickly :confused:

I quite happily set my status to Busy 99% of the time, and Away at lunchtime, whether I'm going for a walk to the shops, eating downstairs, watching the TV (one benefit of WFH)...

Participant · 11 Sep 2020 at 06:31

Scam said:
For all the people tricking Teams into thinking you're actually there.. clearly no one ever contacts you otherwise you'd be rumbled quite quickly

That's not the case. Two points:

1. If your status is busy, it's not unreasonable to ignore contact as you are after all...busy. Anyone who gets the hump that you're not replying immediately when your status is busy, can carry on thinking their request is more pressing than whatever I'm doing and see how far it gets them!

2. I could be on my phone using the teams app but away from my laptop; as soon as my laptop detects inactivity, I'm no longer busy apparently, even if I'm sending messages and making calls whilst at the park, out for a walk, etc.

BUDFORCE · 11 Sep 2020 at 07:52

Scam said:
For all the people tricking Teams into thinking you're actually there.. clearly no one ever contacts you otherwise you'd be rumbled quite quickly

Nah, because I have teams logged on my work phone at the same time as the laptop. So I leave my mouse wiggler on, then just go downstairs/garden etc.

If I get a message I'll hear it on my phone either reply on that or just nip upstairs and they are none the wiser.

Annoying thing is I always used to work from home and get left alone and it was fine, then this virus thing hit an all the useless idiots from head office now working from home, they've made everyone get teams and they are keeping an eye on people.