Can you turn off idle in chat?

["G. Michael Carter" <mikey carterfamily ca>]

I have three computers in my office.  So depending where the IM is running it could say I'm idle for hours when I'm sitting right here.    Is there any way of turning it off like in pidgin?

Reason I ask, I used to have a boss who would judge if I was working or not based on my idle times.... I was fixing a critical issue on another computer, actually worked 15 hours that day.... but the boss said I didn't work at all because my idle time said 20 hours.... so I turned it off... now it looks like I work 24-7  

Needless to say I want to keep that practice.