How should I deal with "online" status competition at work?

Question

Some of my coworkers seem to keep their online status as available until late at night, even when they are not working. I suspect they use some tricks to prevent their computer from going to sleep mode (like using something to keep a key pressed). This creates a false impression that they are working extra hours and puts pressure on others to do the same.

I don’t like this practice because I value my work-life balance and I don’t want to be distracted by messages when I’m not working.

How can I handle this situation? Sometimes I work or study offline on my own computer, but I’m afraid this will make me look less committed or productive.

Is it a good idea to follow the crowd and keep my status as available even when I’m not working?

Answer 1

This creates a false impression that they are working extra hours and puts pressure on others to do the same.

How do you know that? Where would that pressure come from?

I don’t like this practice because I value my work-life balance and I don’t want to be distracted by messages when I’m not working.

Then turn your status to offline when you are off the clock. If no one complains, you are fine.

How can I handle this situation?

Just ignore it. Focus on your own work. What other people do is none of your business unless it directly affects your work.

Is it a good idea to follow the crowd and keep my status as available even when I’m not working

You are overthinking this. Probably the only person who equates online status with productivity and overtime is you.

I've managed quite a few people and I couldn't care less about online status.

Answer 2

I have a few colleagues who do that sort of thing, and the same sequence of events tends to happen over and over again. Someone (generally working from another time zone) sees that employee X is online. They send X an IM asking for help with something urgent. After a few minutes with no reply, they send employee X their request via email. A few hours later, still no reply even though they show as online and available. That person ends up angry that they're apparently being ignored, frequently complaining to X's manager about it. In reality, X is asleep because it's 2AM local time and they're merely faking their online status. In a more extreme case, one colleague got assigned to a midnight conference call because the European sales manager "saw that he was always available at that time of day" and assumed he worked the late shift.

So yes, showing "online" all the time might make you appear like you're working, but at the same time you're giving a false impression. It's a very thin facade that might make you look slightly better, but as soon as someone tries to act on that information it quickly becomes worse than if you were just honest to begin with. IMO, the risk far outweighs any potential benefits.

That being said, don't assume that employees with "green" status at odd times are necessarily trying to game the system. I've used IM systems where someone was always listed as "green" whenever they were signed in on their mobile phone since they were technically able to receive messages. It didn't imply anything about the status of the person, only the status of the software.

Answer 3

This creates a false impression that they are working extra hours and puts pressure on others to do the same

Yup, you said it yourself: a false impression.

Don't fall for that pressure, as being "online" does not imply productivity.

I’m afraid this will make me look less committed or productive.

You know what, I'd even say the contrary: this [not being online all the time] could reflect more productivity on your part.

An example:

• Catiger3331 was online 7 hours today, and was able to finish tasks A, B and C.

• SomeOtherCoworker was online 14 hours today, and was able to finish tasks D, E and F.

Let's assume all those tasks have the same relevance and complexity. Thus, you were twice as productive as that other coworker, as you achieved the same in half the time.

To finish, I'd like to quote a comment from Keshlam which I completely agree with: "Unless your company is remarkably stupid, you will be evaluated on productivity, not on-line time."

Answer 4

Not necessarily a direct answer or advice, but I'll tell you what I always used to do in that situation.

My status was always hard-set to "away", and would thus never change -- even when I'd be chatting with people. If anyone were to ask why (though I can't recall anyone ever did) -- my response would be to simply minimize distractions so I could get more work done.

Effectively, everyone was used to me always being marked "away", and never paid attention to or bothered me about my status.

Of course, YMMV depending on position and seniority, but this worked for me (at multiple jobs).

Answer 5

Verify that they are indeed faking it first.

When COVID and WFH hit, a ton of people, including me, invested in setting up very comfortable home offices and, from taking to coworkers, they've found, as I have, that it's more convenient to do all their other computer activities there as well. Ever since I discovered the joys of cloud gaming, my own computer has been gathering dust and I'm "online" late into the night and so are my coworkers. Obviously this depends on company policy re: using work laptops for non work stuff.

Answer 6

Don't sweat it, it's irrelevant and no competent manager will notice or care.

That being said, if you do want to just keep up appearances, you can use Mouse Mover.

I'd recommend against it because you're helping this issue become entrenched, but if it's a fight you can't be bothered to have, there's your path of least resistance.

Answer 7

You need to consider a few things before deciding if you want to maximize the online status figure.

• Does management track this? I have known of at least one company that did track this. They expected you to be online during the core hours. They also were expecting it to be green if they sent you home early to do some work from home. They would complain if you didn't have enough green hours per day.

• Does having online status late into the night help? If the company is tracking this do you get bonus points for late night hours. Of course this can be hurt if they notice you don't respond to emails when your status is green.

The problem with the situation you have described is that it is easy to game the system. But it also has to be done in some cases. I had a project that I would periodically check on a long running process while I was working from home. The issue I had is would the system realize I checked for a few minutes every hour, or would the system decide that that small period of green wouldn't count. In my case keeping the system green did allow me to glance at the screen to see status instead of having to unlock the screen.

Keeping the system online, without doing work, or getting credit, is just for bragging rights.

Answer 8

How can I handle this situation?

You handle this situation by not worrying about the tricks others are playing, and keep doing what you are already doing.

Sometimes I work or study offline on my own computer, but I’m afraid this will make me look less committed or productive.

Don't be afraid that you will be viewed as less committed or productive. You are what you are. And hopefully your output indicates that you are a top-notch worker.

Also, don't assume that managers are fooled by silly tricks like these.

Is it a good idea to follow the crowd and keep my status as available even when I’m not working?

To me, it's a silly idea.

Work hard when you are actually working.

Answer 9

You can often find me online after hours, with the green color indicating that I am not only online but also actively working.

This happens because once I am done with my work and have done some biking, I code for my pleasure.

Since I do that on the same computer I often forget to switch my status off and usually realize I am "online" either when my eyes wanted to the lower-left part of the screen, or when someone pokes me wit a question.

The latter is very rare because people know I am off hours and even though I am technically connected does not mean I want to talk to them. For those who do contact me I just answer to sens me an email so that I can have a look at that the day after, when "at work".

This is to say: just make sure that there is competition in the first place.