Winners & losers: The rise of remote work introduced a degree of ambiguity to employees' locations during conference calls on apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. An upcoming update for Teams threatens to eliminate any doubt by automatically informing employers when workers connect to office Wi-Fi.
A Microsoft Teams update planned for January 2026 will automatically update users' locations to indicate which building they are located in. Although the feature will likely facilitate office coordination, it could also help bosses enforce stricter surveillance.
According to Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 488800, the update will be generally available on the Windows and macOS versions of Teams next month. Automatic location updates will be turned off by default, with Tenant administrators deciding whether to enable it and require other users to participate. The feature informs administrators as soon as an employee connects to Wi-Fi in one of the company's buildings.
The conferencing functionality in Teams and similar apps has given employees the freedom to work from home or elsewhere, and potentially obscure whether they are in the office. The extra distance from supervisors and coworkers helps some users improve their work-life balance and makes taking breaks easier. A study from earlier this year indicated that the most productive workers spend nearly two and a half hours resting during an 8-hour workday.
Automatic location updates might improve coordination by showing who is in which office but could also inform bosses when they can physically reach employees. Some may also use the feature to enforce return-to-work mandates more strictly.
Workers and companies have disagreed sharply over whether working in offices is necessary, be it full-time or part-time. Surveys suggest that many workers would rather take pay cuts or quit than work in their buildings full-time. At least one indicated that employees feel more productive at home.
Different companies have taken different approaches to the issue. While Google is attempting to enforce return-or-leave policies and Microsoft is trying to be more flexible, the CEO of Dropbox believes that the world has irrevocably changed. Some worry that return-to-office mandates are an excuse for some companies to slash workforces, and location tracking could facilitate the practice.
Remote work has also brought more attention to the problem of the "infinite workday," where constant connection causes work tasks to bleed into evenings and weekends. Microsoft's own study showed that the problem erodes productivity by constantly interrupting employees' focus with messages, notifications, and meetings.