Mandatory work WhatsApp group chat

[Rich_AR]

Someone in another office (and another country) created a group chat for the team members. The team I currently work in is approx. 35+ strong across 4-5 countries. Not really wanting read half of the idiot comments, stupid pictures or amazing work ethic preaching, I exited the group promptly. Today I was re-initiated back into the group chat and informed it is "mandatory" for business continuity. As of now I've muted the chat, however the chap running of said chat group tried to call and message me separately asking why I'm not reading the messages.....

Anyone else have one of these?

[ecs]

Tell them they should be using Slack.

[P-Jay]

Oh god that sounds like hell.

Work supplied mobile?

I have to admit in the past when I've found work leeching into my private life I've taken to leaving my work mobile in the office and keeping a private one, a multi time-zone, round robin, whatsapp circle jerk would be more than enough for me.

[Tankrizzo]

Surely Whatsapp groups with that many people just become unmanageable. Slack is the way to go.

[Antony Moxey]

Did you tell him why you're not reading messages?

[fizzwheel]

If WhatsApp is in your personal phone then just remove that app, and say you don't use WhatsApp

If on workphone then I would check your company IT usage policy about use of WhatsApp - some places are tight like this and you might find use of that app is not allowed or its not allowed to be installed.

There is also whether WhatsApp is allowed to be used for "official company communication" if your company has a policy about monitoring this kind of thing then again you might fall foul of your IT Usage policy.

especially if person A says something to person B that offends them and then reports it to HR. Your HR team will be in a world of pain trying to pull back logs and prove anything...

But really WhatsApp for things like this. There are far better, Tools, Skype for Business, Yammer, Delve if your work is signed up for Microsoft 365 all far better tools IMHO for improving communication / working collaboratively etc

Personally I hate WhatsApp for anything more than a quick conversation like I might use a text for. Personally If it was my my personal phone i'd tell him to do one..

Can you not set something in the app to stop them from re-registering you for the group chat ?

[Rich_AR]

Yup it's a company supplied phone and I agree, something like Slack would be better. We're a huge company as well, so Skype, Yammer and MS360 is all in use as well.

Good points on the IT policy front, I'll look into that.

Edited by Rich_AR on Wednesday 8th February 09:39

[jmorgan]

Tell them they should be using tinder.

[p1stonhead]

Just turn off notifications. I do that for groups which I dont mind jumping into occasionally but dont need constant updates. I doubt anyone will pull you up for not actually reading it as long as you are in the group.

[austinsmirk]

jmorgan said:

Tell them they should be using tinder.

tell them you only use grinder.

[Jimmy Recard]

jmorgan said:

Tell them they should be using tinder.

Grindr, I think

[0000]

What's in it?

Is it just ephemeral stuff about people getting a cup of tea, or just important and thus infrequent announcements, or... hopefully not... both?

[Vaud]

Rich_AR said:

Someone in another office (and another country) created a group chat for the team members. The team I currently work in is approx. 35+ strong across 4-5 countries. Not really wanting read half of the idiot comments, stupid pictures or amazing work ethic preaching, I exited the group promptly. Today I was re-initiated back into the group chat and informed it is "mandatory" for business continuity. As of now I've muted the chat, however the chap running of said chat group tried to call and message me separately asking why I'm not reading the messages.....

Anyone else have one of these?

Tell him you agree that it should be for business continuity but you exited because the content was in breach of IT policy, pics, etc and not BC.

[MitchT]

ecs said:

Tell them they should be using Slack doing some work!

Fixed that!

Actually, reminds me of where I used to work ...

“Just calling to see if you got my Jabber message asking if you saw the email update about my post on Yammer highlighting the new cards in the backlog on Trello”

And where my OH works ...

She has to tweet on behalf of someone very senior, and then retweet the tweets from her own account, and her phone is constantly buzzing with Whatsapp messages. Fortunately she has a work phone so her personal one isn't polluted with this nonsense.

[Don1]

I would point out the InfoSec policy about storage and use of data, especially with GDPR on the horizon. If it is being used for BCP, then why is it being used now?

Microsoft Teams might help here?

[toon10]

We have a Whats App group titled "Not Work Related". We would never use it for work reasons, there are plenty of more appropriate collaboration tools (Yammer, SharePoint Team Spaces, Skype, etc.) Now I'm their manager and two of the members have left the business, it's not the right forum for work talk. I'd go nuts if my phone kept pinging for work chatter.

Our group only has 7 people in it and some evenings it's pinging away like mad. Mind, it is mainly used to show meme's, insults, jokes, photographs of our dinner or beer selection

[devnull]

Don1 said:

I would point out the InfoSec policy about storage and use of data, especially with GDPR on the horizon. If it is being used for BCP, then why is it being used now?

Microsoft Teams might help here?

This is (pretty much) a correct answer.

If this is indeed a company mandated order to use WhatsApp for company messaging, then if you really want to be an arse about it, you'd need to ask IT Leadership (or the CIO if the company is that large) about whether this fits in line with data protection and InfoSec policies. Bet you a fiver it doesn't.

Slack "solves" this problem, as does Microsoft's "me too!!" Teams app, but in all honesty it creates another set of problems rather than the usual marketing bullst about increasing productivity.

[Vaud]

devnull said:

Don1 said:

I would point out the InfoSec policy about storage and use of data, especially with GDPR on the horizon. If it is being used for BCP, then why is it being used now?

Microsoft Teams might help here?

This is (pretty much) a correct answer.

If this is indeed a company mandated order to use WhatsApp for company messaging, then if you really want to be an arse about it, you'd need to ask IT Leadership (or the CIO if the company is that large) about whether this fits in line with data protection and InfoSec policies. Bet you a fiver it doesn't.

Slack "solves" this problem, as does Microsoft's "me too!!" Teams app, but in all honesty it creates another set of problems rather than the usual marketing bullst about increasing productivity.

For GPDR - maximum (after all other approaches) for non-compliance is €20,000,000 or 4% of global annual turnover... tends to focus minds...

[Challo]

Whatsapp is great for groups of friends, but I would never use it for work. Why would you want to constantly distracted from work with it beeping. I have a smallish team of say 15 scattered around the globe, but use Skype or weekly Staff calls if we need to all be updated on something, certainly not whatsapp.

As someone mentioned is it related for work topics only or social as well?

[Don1]

Just looked at the OPs profile - UAE. GDPR out then, unless it's a EU based company.