# The People area

> The People area shows the people in your organisation, who is around right now and how your team is organised. Learn what each page holds.

Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/people-overview
Section: People and sharing > People
Plans: All plans
Updated: 2026-10-15

The People area is where you see the people you work with. It lists everyone in your organisation, shows who is around right now, and takes you to the organisation map and the organisation's settings.

Everything in it comes from your real organisation: its members, their profiles and their live status. Until you belong to an organisation with other people in it, the pages tell you what to set up next rather than showing an empty team.

## Before you start

- **Sign in.** The People area reads your organisation from your PlexiDesk account. See [Create an account and sign in](https://plexiidesk.com/help/account-sign-in).
- **Belong to an organisation.** Your Personal workspace has no team in it. Someone needs to create an organisation and invite you, or you create one and invite your team. See [Set up and manage your organisation](https://plexiidesk.com/help/org-manage).
- **Plans.** People Home and Directory are on every plan. The **Organisation** page, the **Organisation Map** and live presence (seeing who is online right now) are part of the Team plan. On other plans, **Organisation** and **Organisation Map** do not appear in the People menu. See [What each plan includes](https://plexiidesk.com/help/plan-features).

## Open the People area

1. In the menu on the left, below the workspace switcher, click the **People** tab. See [Desk, Office, People and Brain: the four areas](https://plexiidesk.com/help/plexii-areas).
2. **People Home** opens. The other People pages are listed in the People menu under **Apps**.

You can also press `⌘` `K` on a Mac (`Ctrl` `K` on Windows), type "people" and choose **PlexiPeople**.

## What is in the People area

| Page | What it shows | Plan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **People Home** | The People area's dashboard. It starts with the **Team status**, **Standup**, **Today's agenda** and **Recent activity** widgets, and you can arrange it like any dashboard. | All plans |
| **Directory** | Everyone in your organisation on one page, with how many are online, a search box, who is around right now and a link to the organisation map. | All plans |
| **Organisation** | Members and roles, invitations, company working hours, offices and each person's profile. | Team |
| **Organisation Map** | Everyone by office, on a world map, by reporting line, and how the team's working days overlap. | Team |

### People Home

People Home is a dashboard, like Home in the Desk area. Its main widget, **Team status**, shows the four counts, the people directory and who is around. Click **Customize** at the top right to move, add or remove widgets. See [Team status widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-team-status) and [Customize your Home dashboard](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-customize).

### Directory

The **Directory** page, titled **PlexiPeople**, shows the same information as the Team status widget on a full page:

- **The counts.** **Total people**, **Online**, **Away or busy** and **Offline**.
- **People directory.** Everyone in the organisation, with the people who are around listed first. Each row has the person's photo or initials, their name, their job title and department (or their role, such as **Guest**), and a status label. Type in **Search people by name, role or team** to find someone by name, handle, job title or department.
- **Around right now.** Up to eight people who are online or in a focus session.
- **Organisation map.** On the Team plan, **Open the organisation map** takes you to the map.

If you belong to more than one organisation, a menu at the top right switches the page between them. On the Team plan, **Organisation map** at the top right also opens the map.

### Organisation

The **Organisation** page is where an organisation's owners and admins invite people, set roles, add offices, set working hours and fill in profiles. Members can see the page and edit their own profile. See [Set up and manage your organisation](https://plexiidesk.com/help/org-manage) and [Offices, working hours and profiles](https://plexiidesk.com/help/org-offices-hours-profiles).

### Organisation Map

The **Organisation Map** page, titled **People Map**, places everyone by office and on a world map that shows where it is day and night, with each person's local time. See [People Map](https://plexiidesk.com/help/people-map).

## What you will see before your team is set up

The Directory, Team status and the People Map each tell you what is missing:

| Message | What it means | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Sign in to see your team** | You are not signed in. | Sign in. See [Create an account and sign in](https://plexiidesk.com/help/account-sign-in). |
| **Create your organisation first** | You only have your Personal workspace. | Create an organisation, or ask to be invited to one. On the Team plan, **Open Organisations** takes you to the Organisation page. |
| **No teammates yet** | The organisation has no members to show yet. | Invite people and give them profiles. On the Team plan, **Invite people to your workspace** takes you to the Organisation page. |
| **Could not load your team** | PlexiDesk could not reach your organisation just now. | Check your connection and click **Try again**. |

## Tips

- **Check before you reach out.** The status labels tell you who is online, in a focus session or busy, so you can leave people who are concentrating alone.
- **Fill in profiles.** Job titles and departments make the directory searchable by team. An owner or admin can fill them in for everyone, and each member can fill in their own. See [Offices, working hours and profiles](https://plexiidesk.com/help/org-offices-hours-profiles).
- **Hide yourself when you need to.** On the Team plan you can appear offline at any time. See [Presence and your status](https://plexiidesk.com/help/people-presence).

## Common questions

**Why does everyone show as Offline?**
Seeing who is online right now is part of the Team plan. A person also shows as **Offline** while PlexiDesk is closed on their computer, or while they have chosen to appear offline. See [Presence and your status](https://plexiidesk.com/help/people-presence).

**Why are Organisation and Organisation Map missing from the menu?**
They are part of the Team plan. If your organisation has turned them off for you, ask an administrator. See [What each plan includes](https://plexiidesk.com/help/plan-features).

**I belong to two organisations. Which one does the Directory show?**
It starts with your first organisation. Use the menu at the top right of the page to switch. To change the workspace you are working in everywhere in PlexiDesk, use the workspace switcher. See [Organisation settings and switching workspaces](https://plexiidesk.com/help/settings-organisation).

**Where are chat, calls and meetings?**
They are in the Office area, under **Communicate**. See [PlexiiChat](https://plexiidesk.com/help/chat-overview) and [PlexiiMeet](https://plexiidesk.com/help/meet-overview).

## Related tasks

- [Team status widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-team-status)
- [People Map](https://plexiidesk.com/help/people-map)
- [Presence and your status](https://plexiidesk.com/help/people-presence)
- [Set up and manage your organisation](https://plexiidesk.com/help/org-manage)
- [Organisation settings and switching workspaces](https://plexiidesk.com/help/settings-organisation)
- [Desk, Office, People and Brain: the four areas](https://plexiidesk.com/help/plexii-areas)