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Sneaking in a work from home day could soon be a bit trickier thanks to a new update coming to Microsoft Outlook.

The email provider is rolling out a new feature that will allow users to spot which of their co-workers or colleagues is currently in the office, and therefore possibly free for a quick meeting or able to reply to a message.

The update will use the Work Hours and Location information stored within Outlook to offer up this information, meaning there may be some awkward conversations if your colleagues believe you to be in the office.

In its entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the company notes that the feature will be "always on", meaning there may be no getting around what it represents as your office presence.

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[-] king_tronzington@lemm.ee 187 points 5 days ago

Wouldn't your coworkers already know you're working from home by, you know not seeing you at the office?

[-] afk_strats@lemmy.world 127 points 5 days ago

When I worked in an office, most of my team was in other offices across the world. But we had to be in the office for that TEAM BUILDING

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 37 points 5 days ago

> Go to the office

> All meetings are on teams because half the team works on other offices.

[-] imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee 18 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yup.

Daily stand-up meeting

On the phone because we're decentralized

Everyone's actually sitting + hardly anyone's even paying attention because they're at their computers

[-] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Even if the whole team is actually in the conference room…it’s one dude with a laptop who struggles to get the display working for 10 min then proceeds to just read the PowerPoint out loud.

None of this required me putting on pants or being part of traffic.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 39 points 5 days ago

Yes, pleb, build that team 🤡

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

"Sent from my yacht"

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 days ago

That's... incredibly dumb.

[-] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

Even worse, it's completely real. It was the common situation for me before corona. Also driving an entire day for a 1 hour meeting.

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[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 18 points 5 days ago

If your company is nationwide and has offices all over the country and you work on a distributed team where some people are on the west coast, some are central, and some are on the east coast. In this such event, none of your teammates will physically be able to tell if you are in the office. That’s what this feature is for.

So we can all continue to work from home, from a prescribed office of our employers choosing.

[-] king_tronzington@lemm.ee 28 points 5 days ago

Ahhh the gigantic benefit of seeing a cubicle in the background of your zoom. Thanks Microsoft

[-] Fester@lemm.ee 18 points 5 days ago

We’re concerned that your home doesn’t look soul crushing enough. Please upgrade your home office by installing fluorescent tube lights and covering your walls with rough faded blue grey cloth, or we’ll need you to come into the office.

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[-] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

What? How would this change anything in that scenario? You're still doing a video call if you want to talk to them.

[-] themadcodger@kbin.earth 11 points 5 days ago

Welcome to the nonsense that is corporations.

[-] faltryka@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

My “office” is a network of interconnected multi-story buildings. It’s actually really convenient for me to know if I need to go meet someone in person or just use video.

Sometimes we have a room booked ahead of time and I learn they are wfh when I get to the empty room.

[-] king_tronzington@lemm.ee 20 points 5 days ago

That's just poor common courtesy by your coworker. If you have a physical room booked and they are WFH they need to tell you so you don't waste your time. You shouldn't be relying on teams status

[-] scytale@lemm.ee 11 points 5 days ago

Yeah, that’s what the meeting invite RSVP is for.

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[-] orclev@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

Sounds like all the meetings should just be done by video and nothing would be lost.

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[-] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 points 5 days ago

It's already started for me today. Teams now snitches on those who are remote and there's no way to shut it off. My status is no longer just "Available", it's now "Available, Out of office". Fuck Microsoft!

[-] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 25 points 5 days ago

soon "Available, Out of office, Single, Virgin, Allergic to milk"

[-] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days ago

This is because you’ve accepted a meeting that happens at a location not in the building; for example, someone else’s PTO reminder that they’ve invited you to. Decline that invitation, and you’re fine.

[-] gmtom@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Do you not have a work VPN?

[-] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 7 points 5 days ago

Fuck the technocrats.

[-] Goun@lemmy.ml 67 points 5 days ago

Boy I hate MS, and I hate Outlook, and MS Teams, and offices, and companies, and work..

Yet, I'm failing to understand what I'm supposed to be angry about here, can someone help?

From what I understand, you set the work hours and people will know if you're working or not based on that..? It doesn't sound too controversial to me.

Do people stay home without telling anyone and they wont be able to do that anymore? Or what?

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 30 points 5 days ago

It very clearly says it'll be using your work hours and location information. MS is turning your hardware into a GPS tracker for your company.

[-] Mbourgon@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago

Except since there’s no actual GPS tracker, it uses your IP address. Microsoft thinks I live in either Virginia or North Dakota or Florida, depending on which part of the company’s VPN I connect to.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 11 points 5 days ago

MS is turning your hardware into a GPS tracker for your company.

I hate to break it to you but they are logging your location every time you log into their hardware... if you are using your own hardware, stop being an idiot and make your daddy buy you equipment required to do your job for him.

[-] Willy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 days ago

pssh I wish I could use my own hardware. even if you get a great machine at first they never upgrade. do it like phones where you get an allowance if you use your own for work. I'd dual boot and always have top of the line

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[-] TipRing@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

I am in the middle of trying to get e911 functional for Teams direct route calls, based of lis data, my Teams can't correctly determine the state I am in, much less my current address. It took multiple tickets to get our corporate headquarters to show up correctly instead of an address a half-mile away.

I forsee getting a lot of tickets from this feature.

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[-] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 14 points 4 days ago

And your VPN connection to work knows your endpoint...

Interestingly, there's another way of finding out if your coworker is in the office


just walk over to their desk.

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago

Outlook will soon know if you're properly dressed for work while you're WFH in case you're not. They will detect pink pixels on your camera. They will detect gurgling noises, thuds, clapping noises, spitting, long wave vibrations such as fun chair bouncing and short wave vibrations such as clipping your hair sounds. The future is worthless! I mean endless!

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 8 points 5 days ago

So what if my boss knows when I'm fapping. Why else would they have scheduled an "all hands"?

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[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 42 points 5 days ago

I don't pretend I am in the office when I am not. I don't even bother with hiding yellow. I am avaliable during business ours to get things done.

If there is nothing to get done. I am shoot shit with coworkers in the office or doing laundry at home. If you need me, ping me and I will magically appear to take care your needs.

Nice system, barely needs any management but they keep trying to "contribute" 🤡

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[-] I_Clean_Here@lemmy.world 27 points 5 days ago

Complete nothing burger

[-] lud@lemm.ee 32 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I don't get the problem. Isn't this the entire point of registering your work location in outlook? Why would you add it and be surprised if others can see it?

The update will use the Work Hours and Location information stored within Outlook to offer up this information, meaning there may be some awkward conversations if your colleagues believe you to be in the office.

https://www.techradar.com/pro/watch-out-microsoft-outlook-could-soon-give-away-when-you-re-sneakily-working-from-home

Microsoft 365 can help you manage and share your work schedule. New features allow you to specify more details about your work schedule: from where you’re working (remotely or in the office) and whether you work different hours on different days. In addition, you can schedule meetings with others based on their work location, view the work location on people’s profile card, and see your out of office time reflected in your location.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/set-your-work-hours-and-location-in-outlook-af2fddf9-249e-4710-9c95-5911edfd76f6

The upcoming update even allows you to not share your location (Again not sure why you wouldn't share your location since that's the entire point of adding your location but whatever): https://windowsreport.com/outlooks-work-hours-and-location-statuses-will-become-optional/

Am I completely crazy or is the article from tech radar complete bullshit?

[-] r0ertel@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

OK, easy solution: don't open outlook.

Most of the time that I'm in the office, my laptop is closed anyways, you know, for collaboration.

[-] 800XL@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

Look. You are incapable of doing work anywhere but the office. Your collaborations severely lack. Somehow tho, when the executive class spends 10 hours in email it's innovation. When you do it, you're unproductive.

[-] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

Interesting. Teams has been doing this for a few years now, so I assume it's the same functionality just transferred over to Outlook (which has been going through a massive overhaul recently). For anyone in an MS-based company with Teams being actively used, this is not a new thing.

[-] corroded@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

How does Teams give away your location? I've used it extensively, but I've never seen someone's location unless the enter it manually.

[-] gdog05@lemmy.world 21 points 5 days ago

It can be turned on by the IT dept in a large office. It has a different icon for in office network connection vs not. Not every IT dept uses it. Some treat other employees like adults, for instance.

[-] corroded@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

Having my status turn yellow when I so much as look away from my screen is bad enough. I really hope this "feature" stays off.

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[-] JWBananas@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago

Your M365 admin can already tell by your IP address. Just like they know when you're looking at porn when your IP randomly hops states for a little while.

[-] Blxter@lemmy.zip 17 points 5 days ago

Who be looking at porn on the work PC lol. For me I have to give a ' reason' to disconnect form the work VPN. I do do anything on work PC besides work tbh

[-] orclev@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago

Yeah, never use a work device for anything you're not actually getting paid to do. To do otherwise is just stupid. Save non-work stuff for your own devices.

[-] _spiffy@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 days ago

I use my personal computer as a work PC. But I run a VM for the work stuff. It's great.

[-] danekrae@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

You don't have to make things complicated here. If you want to tell people that you use Linux, just say that.

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No problem. Reroute that work email to Gmail servers and read that shit in a browser.

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 days ago

So they are using the information they have in Azure/Entra about where you login from and presenting it to other users through Outlook/Teams?

Seems fine as long as they don't include your exact address.

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this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
263 points (94.3% liked)

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