Categories
Antiwork

Slack workarounds

Hello all, long time lurker of this sub, and discovered something from my work from home job that I thought would be appreciated, for everyone’s benefit. Not sure if it’s been discussed before on here, but if you have a managed mobile device, or a managed lap top/desktop, which is most of us that work from home, there are ways that your employers/managers can monitor if you’re inactive even if your company doesn’t require screen monitoring software. Enter Slack, a tool that many of us use. Know for non Slack users, there is a green dot next to your user in your DM channel that shows if you are active, and this dot appears blank if the app is not actively open and you are interacting with the mouse. Here comes the fun part. Most managed devices have an IT security feature that disables your ability to keep your screen…


Hello all, long time lurker of this sub, and discovered something from my work from home job that I thought would be appreciated, for everyone’s benefit. Not sure if it’s been discussed before on here, but if you have a managed mobile device, or a managed lap top/desktop, which is most of us that work from home, there are ways that your employers/managers can monitor if you’re inactive even if your company doesn’t require screen monitoring software. Enter Slack, a tool that many of us use. Know for non Slack users, there is a green dot next to your user in your DM channel that shows if you are active, and this dot appears blank if the app is not actively open and you are interacting with the mouse. Here comes the fun part. Most managed devices have an IT security feature that disables your ability to keep your screen open and unlocked for extended periods of time while inactive, even while plugged in, and most of the time after 15 minutes it will automatically either power down your device, or put it into a power saver/screen saver mode, which then means it shows your slack as offline, even if your notifications are turned on and are able to respond to messages and notifications away from your work station. Obviously, this is a ridiculous thing that can be abused by managers and employers to determine how much you are actually in front of the screen working, without actively telling you they are watching you. I’ve only found one workaround, which is set my lap top touchpad to “click by tap”, and am actively looking into products that will tap my touchpad at even intervals, indicating mouse activity. Use this information as you will.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *