Your Boss Has a New Way of Spying on You-And You're Not Going to Be Happy About It

"Recent polls from Gallup and Pebl suggest 90% to 98% of employees want to continue to work from home, or at least in a hybrid setup, but many employers are pushing back. Popular or not, businesses are tightening the reins on remote work-and it's about to become even easier for your company to track whether you're at the office. That's because there's a new feature being released on a program that millions of workers use every day to communicate."

"Microsoft Teams is introducing a new feature that automatically detects your office location when you connect to the company Wi-Fi. This tool is designed to help organizations verify employee attendance and track who is physically present in a specific building. Reader's Digest reached out to Microsoft for an interview, but the request was declined. But an email from a communications specialist at Microsoft's agency suggested the feature was intended to help workers locate and coordinate with fellow employees and then connect in person."

Surveys indicate a strong employee preference for remote or hybrid work while many employers push for more in-office attendance. Businesses are adopting tighter policies and new tools to monitor presence. Microsoft Teams will soon detect an employee's office location automatically when connecting to company Wi‑Fi and update work-location status. Microsoft presented the capability as assisting workers in locating and coordinating with colleagues for in-person meetings. Many employees view the feature as an invasion of privacy because it enables employers to verify and track who is physically present in specific buildings.

Read at Reader's Digest