Forum Discussion
Manage automatic creation of direct reports group
THANK YOU all for your feedback, please see an update in this new thread: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Groups/Update-Auto-creation-of-Direct-Reports-group-in-Outlook-MC96611/m-p/55318#M2740
Might be a good idea in theory, possibly for fresh tenants, but boy would this mess up my currently very clear organization of groups.
I already have department groups that mostly represent hierarchy structures, no need for additional groups.
Also the documentation lacks many scenarios as already described above.
Agree with Ivan and others. Organizational opt-in makes more sense. However, i think I understand the drivers: Most managers will likely create a similar group on their own, and those who don't already have one (one of the conditions of this automation) are missing out on a key collaborative tool. I would venture that the majority of people to whom this would apply are not as engaged -- and Microsoft views this new feature as an engagement tool designed to nudge them in the right direction.
Whether opt-in or opt-out, you still have the ability to rename or remove the direct reports group. What the automation can't do for us is add any dotted-line reports or supporting personnel who may not formally report to a manager, but who are part of the functional team. So regardless of the provisioning process, managers should review and modify, as needed.
I agree that many managers will want groups like this. But would someone name their group "my direct reports?" I would hope that the name would be aligned with what the group does, not who currently at this moment in time happens to be the designated "manager." What happens when the "manager" leaves the organization but the team still exists? What if they forget to make a new owner for the group? Do the O365 Admins have the time to manage and govern all this? What happens when the manager changes jobs and now has new direct reports at the same company? How is the poor team member going to know where to store content when they are still getting the hang of OneDrive vs. team sites? There are just so many use cases where automatic creation of "direct report" groups doesn't make sense. It would be great if a manager could specify the creation of a group that includes her or his direct reports as part of Group provisioning and then configure it to include who else should be in it and name it at the time of creation, not after the fact. I agree with everyone suggesting this should be opt-in or one click to turn it off. It's very scary from a governance perspective!
