Quick Answer: Managers can see current Slack presence (active/away) but not presence history or duration. Presence indicates recent Slack interaction, not productivity. Teams work better when presence is a communication tool, not a monitoring metric.

For presence scheduling tools, see Idle Pilot or start free.

Slack Presence for Managers

What Managers Can See

In standard Slack workspaces, managers see:

• Current presence status: Active (green dot) or away (hollow circle)
• Custom status: Text and emoji the person has set
• Timezone: If set in the profile

That’s it. No history, no duration, no activity logs.

What Managers Cannot See

Slack does not provide:

• Presence history (when someone was active/away)
• Duration tracking (how long they were active)
• Activity logs (what they did in Slack)
• Last seen timestamps (like some messaging apps)

Enterprise Grid plans with compliance tools may capture messages for legal purposes, but this isn’t presence tracking and isn’t available to regular managers.

Why Presence Isn’t Productivity

The green dot means one thing: someone interacted with Slack recently. It doesn’t mean:

• They’re being productive
• They’re working on important tasks
• They’re available to help immediately
• They’re at their desk

Someone can be:

• Green but unproductive: Scrolling Slack without doing real work
• Away but productive: Deep in focused work, not checking Slack
• Away but available: In a meeting but checking messages between topics

Presence as a Communication Signal

Healthy teams use presence to answer: “Is now a good time to reach this person?”

Green dot: Probably okay to message, may respond soon Away: Either not at computer or in focused work, may respond later

This is its intended purpose. Problems arise when presence becomes surveillance.

The Problem with Presence Monitoring

When managers treat presence as a performance indicator:

1. Trust erodes: Team members feel watched, not trusted
2. Gaming begins: People find ways to stay green without being productive
3. Focus suffers: Workers interrupt themselves to “check in” with Slack
4. Outcomes ignored: Activity becomes the metric instead of results

Building Healthy Presence Norms

Better approaches for managers:

1. Focus on outcomes: Did the work get done? That’s what matters.
2. Set communication expectations: “Respond within X hours” is clearer than “be green”
3. Encourage focus time: Let people go away for deep work
4. Model the behavior: Managers should also go away during focus time
5. Use status for context: Encourage status messages like “Deep work until 2pm”

When Team Members Use Presence Tools

If you learn team members use presence scheduling tools:

1. Don’t assume bad intent: Many use them for legitimate reasons
2. Ask about the why: Maybe your presence expectations are unclear
3. Focus on output: Is their work getting done?
4. Review your norms: Are you creating pressure to be always-green?

FAQ

Can managers see Slack presence history?

No. Slack does not provide presence history or activity logs to managers. You can only see someone’s current status (active or away), not when they were active in the past.

Does Slack track how long someone is active?

No. Slack doesn’t track or report presence duration. There’s no built-in way to see how long someone was active or how many hours they showed as green.

Should I be concerned if my team uses presence tools?

Not necessarily. Many remote workers use presence tools to signal availability during their work hours, especially when Slack’s automatic away triggers during focused work. Focus on whether work is getting done, not on surveillance.

For more on presence norms, see Slack Presence Norms or the presence scheduler hub.