there is a hack for this, just do a search. Also vb has this bult in just look at the vblogo that is lit up or dimed on peoples postbits it may not say status but its similar.
in postbit template variable "$onlinestatus" is where the status of user is displayed. And its content is compiled from templates "postbit_offline" and "postbit_online".. Just customize them according to your needs..
send my explanation to him. He just needs to click "modify Template" in Admin Control Panel, find the templates I referred above and edit them. Everybody can do it provided that he is familiar with HTML.. It's just basic HTML editing..