back to article Microsoft tweaks Teams and Viva to help bridge gap between frontline workers and their managers, among other things

As the 1 February general availability of its Cloud for Retail nears, Microsoft today tweaked its Teams and Viva platforms and published a report highlighting the challenges it believes frontline workers face. Microsoft's definition of a frontline worker is, according to Jared Spataro (the company's CVP for Modern Work), " …

  1. Julian 8 Silver badge

    All I want from teams is......not to hog all the resources, forget everything else.

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      I want Teams to perish like IE 6.0.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        at least outlook complains that the teams plugin is a possibly suspicious package

      2. Hubert Cumberdale Silver badge

        I am Teams, and all I want is to go back in time and accidentally try to sleep with my mother so I can prevent her getting together with my father and then I'll fade from that photograph forever* and I'll never have been born and then this nightmare of my existence will never have happened.

        (*although the photograph will still inexplicably be identical in all other respects because something something macguffin)

        1. Hubert Cumberdale Silver badge

          (someone here loves Teams more than it loves itself)

      3. Ken G Silver badge
        Trollface

        Don't you mean to maintain an undead existence forever like IE6? Or Lotus Notes?

    2. AndrueC Silver badge
      Meh

      I'd like it to automatically 'focus' my colleagues' screen shares and to switch to full screen (a proper full screen) when one starts. I'd also like the searching facility not to be so damn useless (when you click on a found message you just get taken to the convo, not the message itself). I'd also like it to be easier to insert a code snippet instead of having to go through two or three obscure menus.

      1. spireite Silver badge

        Proper full screen is the biggest failing in Teams.

        Everything else I can cope with.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "a bad workman always blames his tools"... or as I call them - management! ;)

  3. Andy E

    Two points....

    1) What is an "employee experience platform"?

    2) "folks who were not able to go home and did all their work in person" - I don't know anybody who doesn't do their work "in person". I think the bosses would get upset if we got someone else to do it for us.

    I need a beer.

    1. Tim99 Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Two points....

      An upvote and a >>======>

    2. Hubert Cumberdale Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Two points....

      Actually, I think many bosses would insist that it was technically possible for us to get someone else to do the work – otherwise, how would they avoid the inevitable IR35 problems that would ensue from insisting that we were "contractors" and avoiding paying employer's NI and giving us holiday rights?

  4. jake Silver badge

    Hands up everybody flashed to ths clip ...

    https://youtu.be/6wchqfLA5d0?t=99

    That's Microsoft, in black, taking the bag with the valuables in it ... Note the look on the front line worker's face a couple steps into attempting to use the provided tool ...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's have a better experience then ..

    Jitsi Meet server on Linux: check

    Firefox browser: check.

    Done.

    Anything else I can help with?

    :)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If you don't feel particularly valued, don't worry

    Management are going to shit more Microsoft crap on your shoes from 30,000 ft. I hope you're feeling better now.

  7. Mike Lewis

    Common enemy

    The only bonding I felt with my peers while using Teams was against the common enemy: Microsoft. After we switched to Zoom, we could resume our usual infighting.

  8. EricB123 Bronze badge

    Dream a Little Dream on Me

    "Want a pay rise and paid leave?"

    Wasn't that Peggy Lee?

  9. laughthisoff

    What features?

    Is it just me, or does this article say "there are new features" ... and then not actually tell you what they are (or even provide a link)? Kinda pointless.

  10. Lazlo Woodbine

    I've still no clue what Viva is.

    All I know is the email I used to delete daily from Cortana is now from Viva...

    1. FloridaBee
      Facepalm

      I built a rule to shove that stupid Cortana email into Deleted folder without ever seeing it. The company I work for is insanely uptight about security (insurance/finance sector) yet they let Yammer and Cortana romp around in our systems like drunken lunatics. Sigh...

  11. spireite Silver badge

    Teams hate? Come on.....

    A former employer had Slack for the techs, and Teams for everybody else. Inevitably the techs had to use both.

    As one of those techs, I can tell you that I disliked Slack more than I dislike Teams.

    None of these types of platforms have any distinguishing features. They are all s**t in their own ways

    In both, dealing with your previous chats in a PITA, at least Slack you had true full screen. In Teams - no chance.

    In fact Teams lack of fullscreen is the biggest issue on a laptop. Ordinarily, I'd have a 27" QHD, so I wouldn't care much. Travelling on small XPS, a presentation is like a postage stamp in comparison.

    Fix that, I'll be happy.

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