The lag means you are either always "away" and cannot play when it is your turn. or it is just really slow and you don't get a chance to move or attack.

It happens to me too. Its "turn shift": you see you have to play, but in fact next player's turn is running. And in your turn you couldn't play (not allowed) and it give you the "away" status.

Hard refresh will help.
When the player after you already refreshed in this situation, you can see, that your turn's time is running while he is playing.

It also means you have to refresh constantly sometimes, and that's a drag. Can the developers not do anything about this?