You have six weeks left to secretly work from home.
getty
Microsoft is about to make it much harder to convincingly work from anywhere but the office. The tech giant confirms it’s rolling out a new Teams feature that will automatically detect your work location based on your Wi-Fi connection, potentially revealing remote work arrangements to employers.
Location Tracking Delayed, But Still coming
The update, initially slated for January, was then pushed to Febuary and is now expected to be fully rolled out by mid-March. Microsoft did not provide a reason for the delay, according to UC Today. The feature will apply to Teams for both Windows and Mac desktops.
Will Teams tell my boss where I am? Microsoft says the feature is opt-in, off by default, and won’t track location after working hours, clearing the data at the end of the workday.
However, don’t celebrate just yet. While the feature will be off by default,”tenant admins” – essentially,IT departments – will decide whether to enable it and require employees to opt-in. this means your employer could mandate location tracking, regardless of your personal preference.
The Trust Factor in Hybrid Work
The controversy surrounding this update highlights a growing tension: the balance between employer monitoring and employee trust.As UC Today points out, auto-setting work location seems like a simple user experience betterment on the surface.But it taps into a deeper concern about how much control companies should have over where and when employees work.
“On paper, auto-setting work location sound
