At the end of a recent virtual town hall, Josh was blindsided by his new employer, his former boss, George. George accused Josh of poor productivity as well, citing his Microsoft Teams freaking green blob as proof. It occurred immediately following the two’s first-ever productive phone call. It demands hard scrutiny over managerial mindsets in distributed workplaces.
In one notable moment during the virtual meeting, George insisted that Josh explain why his Teams status showed him as being away from my computer. “Why does your Teams keep showing that you are away? Please explain,” he asked. Despite being on a call with George just an hour earlier, Josh expressed confusion over the status indicator, replying, “Honestly have no clue, but you know I am working, I just sent you the presentation for tomorrow.”
Josh tried to protect his productivity by claiming that he was really “cracking on all of it. He noted the importance of having literally just released a presentation that George had briefed him on earlier that same day. George was still not convinced, though, calling Josh a liar for saying he had been active. “Don’t try and be clever. Are you lying about doing the work?” George pressed.
The tension escalated as Josh reiterated that he had just sent the presentation and questioned the validity of George’s accusations. “How can I be lying when I literally just sent you the presentation that you briefed us on this morning? Been focusing on that so maybe my Teams went idle as I wasn’t talking to anyone else,” he responded.
Despite Josh’s clarifications, George concluded the conversation with an ultimatum: “Make sure it doesn’t go idle again. It is important.”
The exchange was so notable, it piqued the interest of UK career consultant Ben Askins, who posted it to Instagram when he got home. Askins criticized the management style showcased in the conversation, suggesting that evaluating employees based on their Teams status is misguided. “Judge your employees’ performance by their OUTPUT, not by their Teams Status,” he stated. In Askins’ view, these kinds of incidents point to a bigger problem rooted in stigma around working remotely.
“This is just a strange way to run things,” Askins concluded. He proposed a more straightforward approach for managers: asking employees directly about their daily accomplishments. “I know there’s a perception that people who work from home are not doing work but the easiest way to find out is just say, ‘What have you done today?’” he suggested.
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