Manager called out a remote employee’s Microsoft Teams status for going ‘Away’ every 20 minutes — his clever fix ensured it never happened again
Remote work comes with its own set of expectations, as one IT employee recently experienced. A Reddit user who goes by u/_keyboard-ba****d_ shared a post on Friday, August 7, 2026, revealing how one comment from his manager about being actively online pushed him to come up with a smart solution. The boss noted that the worker's status on Microsoft Teams kept switching to "away" during working hours. The latter assured him it would never happen again and used an unexpectedly creative approach to keep his word.
The employee shared that he had already automated most of his daily tasks within the first few months at the company, leaving him with very little manual work. He explained, "Everything that could be scripted, monitored, or scheduled" was done in that manner. Then one day, he received a message from his manager that read, "We've noticed your Microsoft Teams keeps going to 'Away' every 20 minutes." The boss emphasized that such a thing should not be happening if the individual were at his desk continuously working. Instead of arguing or debating, the worker created a script that kept his Microsoft Teams status permanently active.
"I spent about 40 minutes writing a PowerShell script that launched a harmless train of processes every few minutes," he noted. He set the script to trigger activity every 10 minutes before his status could be shown as "Away" again and tested it to make sure it worked. Even after an hour of inactivity, the status still showed "Active." In that moment, the employee decided he deserved a little break and stepped out of the cafe he was working from to go hiking that afternoon. From that day onwards, he reserved his afternoons for hiking. There was never any issue with his profile again. "The next time I heard from my boss, he was once again reviewing status times and thanked me for my dedication," he remarked.
Dealing with a difficult boss is not an easy task. This is what another employee had to face when his manager kept scheduling meetings during his lunch break. Even after the man raised the concern, the boss dismissed it, saying, "We’re all flexible here." The worker then decided to come up with a smart solution that would ensure he would not have to sit through long discussions. He began eating his lunch on camera during every call, making it difficult for coworkers to continue without distractions. "It escalated from there. I did ramen with the whole process, boiling water, cracking the egg in," he shared. Without a word, he got his break back, and all other tasks were rescheduled thereafter.
For more interesting stories, follow u/_keyboard-ba****d_ on his Reddit account.