263
submitted 2 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 6 points 2 months ago

And this is why I haven't installed Teams on my personal computer. If it was less invasive, I would, but it's just potential bossware masquerading as "productivity tools."

That shit stays on my work computer, and I just VPN into it.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 8 points 2 months ago

I'm not putting any work stuff on by home computer. I'm not giving work admin rights to that.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It should be noted that work location is a self report tool designed to make collaboration easier so colleagues can know where you are and potentially align their work from home schedules with yours.

It isn't a spy tool that tracks where you are. It's basically just an optional tag that you can add to your calendar if you want.

We use a slack app for the same purpose, and it works great.

[-] gdog05@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

It's not just a self reporting feature it seems. Our IT accidentally turned it on (as I understand) for a day by adding building info to one of the supervisors account. It then showed if you were in the same location (building) than your supervisor.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Do you mean it used the information from AD/Entra or was it tracking you?

[-] gdog05@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I do not know if the setting is an Entra setting, I don't have access. I'm just friendly with IT. This is what I believe they were talking about given their description. But not tracking, no. It's basically a here/not here situation. You're either tethered to local networking or not.

[-] candybrie@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Do VPNs make that feature kind of pointless? We can't access most things from home without going through a VPN. Every where I've worked (and gone to school) was like that.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

At a lower level your IT dept logs the IP address you’re accessing m365 resources from.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

Yes the security logs absolutely log that, but I haven't heard of HR forcing IT to actually use those logs for discovering where people work.

We don't give a shit and have better things to do.

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

Technology

60016 readers
3504 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS