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An Anonymous Coward has submitted the following:
A December update to Microsoft Teams that will be disabled by default will reportedly track user location and report it if the feature is enabled. This will allow bosses to tell if an employee is in the office or working from home and set their status accordingly. It will also be able to tell if the user is not at their normal home logon location and provide evidence to employers showing the user's location. Workers who have been taking mini holidays while claiming to be working from home may be affected by this new feature.
The idea of the new feature is to eliminate confusion for bosses about where a worker is within the building and to see if they are working remotely.
But those who work from home argue it is an invasion of privacy.
"Micro management at peak? All online work doesn't need you to be in the office, we can do it from home," one X user said.
"Why is this needed?" another added.
Almost half of Gen Z workers surveyed (44 per cent) revealed last year that they took a secret trip, with most giving their workplace the impression they were working normal hours and using a virtual background in meetings to trick their employer.
Ella Maree, 26, started hush-tripping after Covid when her corporate workplace adopted a 3:2 work week, which meant she could work from home on Mondays and Fridays.
"Since travel options were limited, hush trips became my go-to choice," she said.
"I flew out Thursday evening and worked by the hotel pool, restaurant and room on Friday. I maintained the same level of productivity as if I were physically in the office or working from home, so really, a win-win situation.
"Most of my office work from home Friday, so really, I'm just making the most of our remote work flexibility."
Ms Maree insisted her boss "wouldn't mind" given workplaces are mostly connected online and that she was always getting her work done.
How many Soylentils still have the ability to WFH, either full-time or part-time? I thought one of the attractions of WFH is the ability to work when the hours suit you and not the standard 9-5 (for non-Usians). Would you consider working from a different location a breach of your contract?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 27, @03:33PM
Most of the office is now 50 percent work from home, except those who prefer the office and a minority who can't due to the type of work or have issues.
This won't affect me, at least not at first. Right now the VPN stores my IP so work already knows where I am. It is the extra layer of data being available that makes it different. Work will now be able to see my geo location, not jut an IP address. They could do this now, but this makes it available across the board and easily accessible.
The next step is to report on keystrokes, activity, slack times, action counts, menu hits, files opened and saved. It is all there in Windows 11 waiting to be collected. No doubt this will be next and will be used against WFH staff.