Teams to Alert Boss If You Work Secretly While on Leave

In a bold move to tighten remote work accountability, Microsoft is rolling out a controversial new feature in Teams that will automatically notify managers if employees are secretly working from home during scheduled leaves. Dubbed a "leave verification tool," it aims to curb the practice of disguising personal time as work hours, but it's already sparking backlash over privacy invasions.

The feature, set for imminent deployment, harnesses Teams' built-in activity tracking to monitor user engagement. According to details from Microsoft's upcoming update, it scans for subtle signs of productivity—like mouse movements, keystrokes, app logins, and even location patterns—during approved leave periods.

If discrepancies arise, such as an employee marked "out of office" yet showing home-based activity, an instant alert pings the supervisor's dashboard. "This isn't about spying; it's about ensuring fair use of benefits," a Microsoft spokesperson clarified in a statement, emphasizing that the system relies on aggregated data without real-time surveillance.

• Microsoft Teams to alert bosses if employees work while on approved leave
• New Teams update tracks activity of staff secretly working during leave
• Microsoft adds feature to stop employees from working while on vacation

How does it work in practice? Upon leave approval, Teams flags the status change. Periodic checks then cross-reference activity logs against the calendar. No extra hardware is needed—it's all powered by the platform's existing telemetry. For instance, if you're lounging in pajamas, firing off quick replies to emails from your couch, your boss gets a discreet heads-up: "Potential overlap detected."

Experts are divided. Productivity consultant Dr. Priya Sharma warns, "This erodes the trust that hybrid work was built on. Employees already blur lines between home and office—now, every click could be scrutinized." Privacy advocates echo the sentiment, likening it to "corporate Big Brother," fearing it could chill spontaneous work or even personal device use. On the flip side, HR leaders applaud it as a safeguard against burnout and inequity, especially in India's booming IT sector where leave fraud costs companies millions annually.

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The rollout comes amid a post-pandemic reckoning for remote policies. With over 300 million daily Teams users worldwide, including millions in India, this could reshape work-life boundaries. Will it foster transparency or fuel paranoia? As one anonymous tech worker tweeted, "My vacation just got a virtual chaperone."