Open Slack, step away for a ten-minute coffee, and come back to a grey dot next to your name. You didn't stop working — you just stopped touching your computer. But to everyone glancing at the sidebar, that dot says "unavailable."
How idle detection works
Status apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams don't know whether you're thinking, reading a printout, or on a phone call. They know one thing: when your keyboard and mouse last moved. After a few minutes of no input, the app flips you to "away." It's a proxy for presence, and it's a crude one.
Why the grey dot matters more than it should
Presence has quietly become a performance metric. Managers who can't see your work often watch your status instead. A green dot reads as "engaged"; a grey one reads as "checked out" — even when the opposite is true. That's not fair, but it's real, and it's why so many people have Googled "mouse jiggler" at least once.
The fix
The honest fix is a culture that measures output, not availability. Until then, a tool like Virtual Mouse Jiggler keeps your status accurate to how you actually work: present, focused, and not tethered to your desk for the sake of a coloured dot.