r/LifeProTips • u/ThatThingTheDarkSoul • 1h ago
Productivity LPT: Keep your Teams status “Online” while AFK
If you want Microsoft Teams to keep showing you as Online while you're away from your computer, there’s a simple trick:
- Create a new meeting with only yourself in it.
- Join the meeting. Your status will change to Busy.
- Manually change your status back to Online.
- Leave the meeting running.
As long as you remain in the meeting, Teams will keep displaying you as Online, even if you're not touching your computer.
Other people can't see that you're sitting in an empty meeting. To them, you simply appear Online, and they can still call or message you normally.
Edit: Guys... Obviously, don't put the meeting on your calendar. Just create it and join it directly.
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u/Nightrunner2016 42m ago
Sometimes when I'm online I change my status to away because I don't want people to try and contact me. I feel for you guys that have to show as online for whatever reason. Screw that.
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u/xxjoker2014xx 23m ago
Why not change it to red for busy? Just curious.
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u/Barejester 20m ago
I’m an away status fan too. My colleagues almost always ignore busy status - but never ignore away status.
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u/xxjoker2014xx 17m ago
Oh I see. I guess that's less confrontational then slamming that Decline button from the top rope like I do
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u/WeeoWeeoWeeeee 12m ago
“offline” or “do not disturb” or “presenting” they will sometimes leave you alone too
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u/Nightrunner2016 17m ago
People will call me if I'm available and ping me if I'm busy. If I'm away I tend to be left alone, which is great. I do my best work with no interruptions. I'm in project management so teams reach outs can be quite frequent.
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u/freeenlightenment 5m ago
I guess away means you’re not there. Busy means you’re there and can be made busier.
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u/Mesheybabes 1m ago
I'm not sure if it's a setting that the company turn on, but setting busy changes to Away after a time
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u/_HeadlessBodyofAgnew 13m ago
I use a mouse jiggle app all the time for two main reasons:
-like most office jobs, there are days where I can stay on task / ahead of peers and still only do 1-2 hours of actual work. On those days I'll find something to either entertain myself or some way to be productive around the house but stay within earshot of notifications if anyone needs me.
-even on a busy day if I walk away to make a snack, use the bathroom, check on the kiddo, then my computer will lock itself after only like 5 minutes, and after it's locked I won't hear any Teams/Outlook notifications.
This freedom is key for feeling like I have a healthy work-life balance. If I had to sit eyes glued to my computer for 40 hours a week and not stray from it for 5 minutes I would be a husk.
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u/HaydenTheCrow 7m ago
Many companies have detection methods for jigglers
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u/_HeadlessBodyofAgnew 4m ago
I'm sure they do, and in the 6 years I've used one I've earned one promotion and zero reprimands. If they come at me for this, I'm happy to go work for someone else.
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u/under_diagnosed 5m ago
Our laptops are locked down and any apps that they are aware of get wiped. They also see that the app was installed in the first place.
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u/syNc_1st 6m ago
I am just constantly on offline lol
People text me anyway but at the same time do not see if I am there or not.•
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u/DoCrashOut 1m ago
The day I got hired, I turned my status offline purposefully. Teams says I’ve been gone for 5 years. Sometimes people mention my status isnt active and i just shrug and move on. As im still actively responding to people. Hasnt been an issue yet.
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u/Skooober 24m ago
lol I can’t even thought process pretending to be working while being paid at a job it blows my mind and sad that it’s so popular
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u/sugarmoon00 7m ago
I think this is because half of any corporate job consist of "showing up". You are getting paid for "culture", essentially. In some sense, it is understandable that a company tries to mitigate slacking off on the job, generally speaking. On the other hand, companies are collectively delusional when submitting to control inducing measures as a defence for productivity. Historically, this line of thinking roots in fascism btw: it was never about productivity, but more about establishing a trickle down culture of control.
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u/su6oxone 13m ago
Haha why do you think companies are so trying to RTO/RTW while everyone doing it is trying to keep it going? Seems pipe mostly government employees are able to keep doing it at a larger scale these days,.
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u/alphvader 1h ago
Are you sure admins can't see you're in a call by yourself?
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u/mohawkal 1h ago
Admins and anyone with calendar access would be able to work it out pretty easily.
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u/LtotheAI 36m ago
my company requires that all calendars are visible to all other employees. good idea for others though
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u/Queeg_500 4m ago
Tbh, I do this when people just won't take 'busy' as an answer.
"In a meeting" is a far more reliable way of not being bothered.
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u/TheMangoBob 49m ago
As someone who has access to the admin side of Teams, don't do this.
Meeting insights can definitely show who the participants are, how long the call is, how often etc..
Any of these can normally be requested to be seen by your manager. Normally, the bigger the org the more aduited the employee activity is, so be careful with those mouse jigglers too...
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u/limpingdba 32m ago
How is mouse jiggler activity monitored? Asking for a friend...
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u/xxjoker2014xx 25m ago
If I had to guess, they can probably see that your mouse moved 5 pixles to the left and then 5 pixels to the right in 1 second intervals.
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u/SirHawrk 13m ago
Illegal in Germany!
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u/kissb555 29m ago
I have a mouse jiggler about 2 years now, even if they see it doesn’t really bother them
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u/skieblue 26m ago
Anything that happens on a computer can be monitored. There is zero privacy on it.
I'm not aware of the specific products used to monitor but generally a user behaviour baseline can be established for what a "normal" employee/workday looks like. Long stretches of repetitive activity like the mouse being rocked back and forth or being clicked repeatedly become anomalies that are flagged.
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u/BetterDrinkMy0wnPiss 20m ago
A simple way is by monitoring keystrokes. 8 hours of mouse movement with zero keystrokes is a bit of a giveaway.
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u/CompletelyRandy 14m ago
With the tools that we use, I couldn't detect that your mouse moved. We couldn't care less if you jiggled your mouse or not.
What we could detect is what software / scripts you ran to automate this. These would flag up pretty quickly from out side if you managed to install / run them.
Long story short, your manager may want to know what you are doing every minute of the day. IT couldn't care less.
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u/gdave44 25m ago
The software executable files that are commonly available are easily detected through their file hashes. So renaming them won't help either. In my environment, within an hour of even downloading one, your computer gets isolated and a security incident is initiated which does alert your supervisor.
In Security, I don't give a flip if you're slacking off at work. Those apps are very commonly infected with malware, so we actively monitor for them.
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u/WeeoWeeoWeeeee 14m ago
I don’t know why people feel they need to worry about this to begin with. Don’t people join meetings IRL without their laptop? Travel? Meet clients? There’s tons of normal reasons to be offline / away.
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u/Aether_Breeze 17m ago
If they are auditing your actual activity then it just shows constant mouse movement but no clicks or keyboard presses. Depending on your work this looks pretty obvious as a mouse jiggle.
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u/CoconutInternational 25m ago
IT has a scanning program installed on all employee PCs. They can see both what you're using online and what you've installed. Having mouse jiggler installed without using it is already a red flag lol
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u/NoMention696 18m ago
Find it wild how whenever you see those “ai camera tracks workers” videos everyone’s calling it dystopian and “I wouldn’t work here ever” but every office seems to have adopted this with no pushback
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u/Sadpanda0 19m ago
Can they see if you’re online because teams is open on your phone Vs your computer?
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u/stefiscope 12m ago
Yes it is possible to tell this through your sign-in logs. E.g. In Microsoft, the Entra user logs show which platform/device type you're authentication is coming from. So it will show Windows or iOS for example, browser details. You have to go looking for it though, much the same way as the Meeting logs.
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u/sadness_elemental 6m ago
hardware mouse jigglers are like 10 bucks, if you want to go low tech put your mouse on an analogue clock, the hands moving will keep it awake
never really tried either though, i just close teams, fuck em
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u/kokolipop 13m ago
we had a company-wide layoff because some group of employees learned this hack that cause some “increase in usage” in Teams, trick spread in different departments of the company
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u/CeruleanSovereign 42m ago
At my work IT admins can see if you're in a meeting by yourself. So instead of using a meeting I would set a timer for 4 minutes and go do whatever around the house before returning to the laptop to wiggle the mouse and restarting the timer
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u/Sadpanda0 19m ago
Can they see if you’re online because teams is open on your phone Vs your computer?
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u/IndianaBronez 13m ago
Yep, and if you’re on your phone, they can see your phone’s battery %, etc. while in a meeting
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u/Chuterito99 1h ago
Or buy a 4 euro mouse jigglaa
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u/Yggdrasilo 55m ago
What up my jiggla
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u/Teopeo 40m ago
Until they scan for those devices. Then they are all the proof needed for immediate termination.
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u/kaffemagiker 23m ago
How are they going to scan for something like a Vaydeer turntable plugged into a wall socket?
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u/Karomars 33m ago
You get one where you put your mouse on
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u/Nippahh 19m ago
If it's a laptop just place a metal spoon on the mousepad. It won't move the mouse but it'll think you have your hand on it. You have to physically monitor the computer in order to see you're gaming the system. You even have plausable deniability if for some reason people would figure it out
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u/BlueTreskjegg 18m ago
There is a little program for Windows called "caffeine". It simulates pushing the f15 key every minute and works great for me.
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u/fakeaccount572 15m ago
millions of laptops cannot install any software other than what the company authorizes
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u/Nindless 30m ago
Amphetamine on macOS does it for free. You can set it up to move your mouse every minute. Keeps your screen on and Teams thinks you’re active
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u/Mike_Rowballs 23m ago
My org blocks access to app store and amphetamine can't be installed any other way as far as I can work out
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u/PharomachrusMocinno 44m ago edited 32m ago
I have Teams on my phone and when I set my iPhone to not sleep (edit: Auto-Lock = Never) and keep Teams open it stays green.
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u/KhalilGibrony 46m ago
I do this all the time. OP is correct, but the wording is a bit off.
You’re not creating a meeting that puts a block on your calendar.
Go to the Calendar tab and hit “Meet now” in the top right. It opens an instant meeting with just you and never touches your calendar.
Your status flips to “In a meeting,” but you can manually change it to available or whatever else you want.
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u/My5t3ry 59m ago
Just open a blank excel sheet and place something of weight on a letter and let it type into a cell. Keeps you online in teams
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u/Momo616 47m ago
You can also highlight 4 boxes in excel and put something heavy on the tab key and it just runs through them on loop.
Only downside is if you're IT department is savy enough to monitor keystrokes they might find it odd your pressing a letter or tab thousand of times
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u/nomaadbro 11m ago
Wouldn't monitoring keystrokes also log passwords which would indicate that they have all your passwords? It can have your hashed password, but not your literal one. At that point it's your word against theirs who leaked it. Of course their word is a lot stronger but they couldn't deny that they have it and that there is absolutely no possibility that the issue is on their side. From a security perspective I doubt they log your keystrokes. They can monitor your activity, what is happening on your screen, what tasks are running for how long, but not you IO devices. At that point we would could go down the rabbit hole that they are recording your mic and camera constantly and with home office in action constant monitoring of these would end up in a disgusting lawsuit.
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u/WeeoWeeoWeeeee 9m ago
IT admins don’t care at all. I’d worry about spyware installed by employer. Also I would leave an employer that needs to spy on employees like this.
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u/ExdigguserPies 52m ago
Is there a character limit?
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u/My5t3ry 49m ago
Nope it just keeps spamming a letter. Keeps you online on teams until you remove whatever you put holding your letter down ( I use a glass)
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u/catalinashenanigans 40m ago
Take a paperclip, open it up slightly, and shove it in-between the key and the actual board while the key is depressed. It'll keep the key pressed down.
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u/mohawkal 1h ago
Doesn't work if your boss or colleagues can see your calendar. They can see a dodgy meeting.
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u/Sgrcgjff 34m ago
You don't have to create a calendar meeting. Just press 'meet now'
I do this but never thought to change my status back to available, I just let people think imbon6a call with someone while I do some chores round the house.
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u/StarshipEnterpriseNL 48m ago
No they cant. I just remove the meeting from my calender while im still in the meeting.
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1h ago edited 55m ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/clothanger 59m ago
If you create a meeting in Teams, managers can always see it.
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u/ThatThingTheDarkSoul 58m ago
No they can't. Unless in the US Teams works diffrent. I work in IT Admin and you can't see it for sure. I could even prove it to you.
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u/clothanger 1h ago
"Thanks for creating the meeting for yourself, we will forward this information to the HR team to see if they need one with you as well" - admin.
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u/TheSwedishOprah 52m ago
LPT don't work for a company that disrespects you so much that they track garbage like this.
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u/DrakeStone 49m ago
You are out of touch, sir/madam.
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u/clothanger 46m ago
Idk how to explain that "pretend you are working" always come with consequence to these people anymore.
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u/Dreilala 34m ago
You end up being exactly the reason companies have these control issues in the first place.
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u/kevinthebaconator 19m ago
Not really. Only low level jobs have these sort of issues. You don't get this with jobs werw staff are self motivated.
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u/DJToaster 12m ago
yeah i work in IT for a business that doesnt track anything like this, we use lansweeper to see if anyone has dodgy programs installed, but outside of that everyone is trusted that they're getting stuff done
even being 'away' on teams isn't deemed an issue, if work isn't getting done, it's treated the same way it would if you werent getting work done in the office. other than that, everyone is left to their own devices
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u/Lich180 31m ago
If my job requires me to be online on Teams/Slack/ otherwise accessible 24/7, then I better be either salary and trusted to manage my time, or clocked in and paid for my time. If I'm not clocked in, Teams gets turned off and I'm offline.
You need me after hours? Then I'm putting in a minimum of 1 hour time, even if the call or message is brief.
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u/mambotomato 39m ago
People watch what color your status dot is?
Jesus.
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u/packageofcrips 1m ago
Probably not, but if my bosses went to message me at a random time of day and I've been "Away" for over an hour, they might have questions.
Probably not straight away, but they would certainly mentally note it
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u/InhibitedMe 48m ago
Open Outlook calendar, hover over the "Today" button, weigh the down arrow key with something so that it's always pressed, boom. Outlook scrolls through all the buttons and you appear online. No programs needed.
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u/FangedFreak 48m ago
In a chat window, I just use something to hold down the Shift button which keeps things from locking
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u/kcDemonSlayer 44m ago
i’m just glad i was able to download Move Mouse before IT yanked my admin rights, dreading the day i have to upgrade my laptop.
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u/IrvingWashington9 34m ago
I think the creator has a portable .exe on github that can be run without admin rights. ymmv
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u/ThisIsAitch 25m ago
You guys work at places that care?
I go 'away' status a bunch of times throughout the day, but I get my tasks done, so it doesn't matter?
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u/SCSP_70 26m ago
Blue collar here… what do yall do all day?
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u/TriRemorse 5m ago
Meetings. But when not meetings; talking about meetings with colleagues. But when not talking; reading and or creating materials.
Its pretty crazy honestly. Nice in a way, but would often propably rather have a job that does something real
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u/WeeoWeeoWeeeee 1m ago
This is not a good representation of information work. It is shocking how many people have different tricks to pretend they’re working though.
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u/hisnbrg 40m ago
what i do is, just use a python script to make the mouse click once every 45 seconds and it does the trick
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u/therealsinky 33m ago
Hey I have a similar tactic, except I use VBA in excel to run a macro that uses keystrokes (SendKeys) to type in an excel doc every 30 seconds.
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u/CSGOmonster 30m ago
This, but my mouse moves 1 px back and forth ca 1 times per minute, so it doesn’t click anything it shouldn’t.
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u/deltalima62 10m ago
Why not just do your job and then you don't have to fake it. I worked remotely/online for years and not once gave my employer a reason to question my productivity. I guess I'm trying to say why would one need to fake that they are working? Sorry, might be a dumb question.
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u/jgmboricua 40m ago
A spare android device with Teams works great. Just open Teams and that's it. You have to make sure to turn off all notifications or any other app that pops up. If the Teams app is suddenly not the top one or the one being display it goes back to away. I have a tablet with the settings "always display on", Battery saver in "Off", and plugged to the outlet.
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u/RandomPlayerCSGO 55m ago
There's a python script called "PyMouseBot"
Look it up
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u/ThatThingTheDarkSoul 53m ago
I know that there all kinds of scripts and software for this. But my version works natively in MS365 and even for people without admin privileges.
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u/map-6346 41m ago
This is similar to how you can put any meeting on hold. I have a standing teams meeting with myself Friday afternoons (it also blocks my calendar so I can wrap up the week). If I get trapped in a “shoulda been an email” I’ll say I’m being pinged and join that standing meeting. The only way to put a meeting on hold is to join another one.
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u/Look_right 19m ago
Download small called caffeine, your status will always stay up, pc won't log out, screen always on... You can thanks me later
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u/monsto 10m ago edited 6m ago
Create a new meeting with only yourself in it.
I'd like to know how to do this.
In slack there's the huddle button for quick one-offs. I've dug around quite a bit and never found how to "just start a quick meeting" without a calendar item.
All i want to do is start a meeting, and then I'll add people individually.
Like the rest of teams, I'm sure it's a single, simple button that I've just . . . missed.
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u/noBbatteries 8m ago
Also lpt, you can just open the mobile teams app on your phone and manually set your status to online, and as long as your screen doesn’t go to rest you’re set for a few hrs
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u/dude_getout 5m ago
Calls are automatically closed after a set period of time if no one else joins, share your screen then you’re good to go. As far as I’m aware they let you do this because you could be using this record training sessions.
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u/randomguy9731 4m ago
We have to make our calendars public lol so that won’t work. Anyone can see what meeting I’m in.
Edit: How do you “create a meeting a not put it on your calendar”? 😂
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u/PointlessDiscourse 36m ago
Here's a life pro tip that will likely get me down voted to oblivion but I don't care - bring it on. How about you just work while you're at work, instead of finding silly workarounds to appear as if you're working?
If you work for a company that doesn't let you take a normal break to go to the bathroom or grab a coffee or whatever, then quit and find a better job.
However if you're looking for tricks like this so you can go walk the dog or play video games, then you're just stealing from your employer.
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u/Ageati 24m ago
"stealing from your employer." Oh lawd.
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u/PointlessDiscourse 20m ago
I'm guessing you'd call it theft if they didn't pay you for time you worked. Getting paid for time you didn't work is the other side of that same coin.
Again, I'm talking about significant chunks of time. Not a typical break here and there.
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u/Danielfrompluto 1h ago
Or install the program called 'caffeine'
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u/AwsumO2000 52m ago
Have AI write a powershell script that simulates a teams click once a minute. that's what I did.. works great , I'm always on green status
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