If you don’t want your friends or colleagues to find out how long you are Away for, here is a neat little trick to hide that data from Microsoft Lync 2010. For example, as soon as you log out of Lync, it will display a message beside your name something like “Away 2 Hours”. With this trick, it will only display “Away” with no time whatsoever. This trick will also hide Offline time. Here is what you have to do:
Step 1: Click on the Relationship Tab from the main Lync Window.
Step 2: Under Relationship Tab, you will see several groups. Friends and Family, Colleagues, External Contacts, Blocked Contacts, etc.
Step 3: Now, decide on which contacts you want to hide your Away and Offline times from. Drag and drop those contacts under the External Contacts area. Voila, they will no longer be able to see your Away status with all the details. You can optionally add all your contacts there if you wish.
Please note that External Contacts will also have limited access to many other information about you. For example, they may not be able to see your phone extension number, organization unit you belong to, etc.