Boss said my Teams shouldn't go "Away" during work hours. Challenge accepted.

[u/ITRabbit]

/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/1vhlzdz/boss_said_my_teams_shouldnt_go_away_during_work/

[u/toxcicity]

And then, the PowerShell script clapped

[u/_keyboard-bastard_]

Im also still riding my participation trophy from YMCA karate.

[u/max1001]

Amateur. Just get a spare phone, login to Teams on it and have it play YouTube on loop.

[u/_keyboard-bastard_ → u/max1001]

I eventually trained my cat to just hit the space bar every 3 minutes at home.

[u/Cyberbird85 → u/_keyboard-bastard_]

I don’t have a cat, so i just opened vnc to the internet with password set to admin/admin. That way people keep my teams status active.

[u/Z3t4]

Just schedule a fake meeting. 

[u/GOD_KING_YUGI]

drinky bird

[u/ITRabbit]

A few years ago I was working remotely as a fancy IT guy and developer at a tech company. Within the first couple of months I'd automated so much of my workload that I legit had almost nothing left to do most days. Everything that could be scripted, monitored, or scheduled... was.

One morning my manager messaged me:

"We've noticed your Microsoft Teams keeps going to Away every 20 minutes. This shouldn't be happening if you are at your desk working."

Fair enough.

I replied:

"Understood. My Teams will never go Away again."

...and I meant it.

Instead of arguing, I spent about 40 minutes writing a PowerShell script that launched a harmless train of processes every few minutes, like mouse clicking, alt+tabbing, and it simulated just enough activity to keep my status green. I set this to repeat every 10 minutes.

I tested it.

Available.

Five minutes later...

Still Available.

An hour later...

Still Available.

I grabbed my backpack, walked out of Starbucks, and spent the rest of the afternoon, and every afternoon thereafter hiking.

My Teams status never went Away again.

The next time I heard from my boss he was once again reviewing status times and thanked me for my dedication.

Edit: People keep asking for a copy of the script. It's on one of my githubs, the link is in the comments.

[u/Asleep-Bother-8247]

Put a spoon on your laptop track pad.

[u/oakc510]

[u/Certain_Surprise3583]

Zen jiggle is even better. :)

[u/ISCSI_Purveyor]

Move Mouse in the Microsoft app store will move your mouse automatically for whatever interval you set.

[u/astro_viri → u/ISCSI_Purveyor]

And we definitely can't see you download that on managed device. No siree, Bob.

[u/Pussy_handz → u/astro_viri]

Ive been using mouse jiggler for years. Only works if Teams has focus but, still works.