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.
Wouldn’t your coworkers already know you’re working from home by, you know not seeing you at the office?
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
> Go to the office
> All meetings are on teams because half the team works on other offices.
Yup.
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.
That’s… incredibly dumb.
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.
I had to read this like six times, because it was so illogical my brain refused to comprehend.
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.
Ahhh the gigantic benefit of seeing a cubicle in the background of your zoom. Thanks Microsoft
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.
You can set a background as an image. And if you’re worried about it not being convincing enough, you can use a greenscreen
What? How would this change anything in that scenario? You’re still doing a video call if you want to talk to them.
Welcome to the nonsense that is corporations.
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.
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
Yeah, that’s what the meeting invite RSVP is for.
Does your RSVP have options for remote vs in person? My options are “accept”, “decline”, and “tentative.” If I want to tell someone I’m remote that day, it needs to be a separate message.
You can respond with a message included. If I see the location as a physical room and not a zoom link, I accept/tentative and add a comment that I won’t be at the office on that day/time and if we can do it online instead.
OTOH, you should hold calls and meetings in specific rooms - even if the other party is WFH, not in the open space, so…
Yeah, I only mark a meeting room if I’ll be in that meeting room, and I’ll only do that on the 2x/week when we’re expected to be in the office.
Sounds like all the meetings should just be done by video and nothing would be lost.
My co-workers are also rarely in the office, so it makes no difference. ;)
Maybe head honchos don’t go into the office all the time and aren’t aware if the lower managers are working from home potentially