To not block this work WhatsApp?

Sorry - just seeing the update (but it didn’t look like it was posted by the OP).

Time to get HR involved. She complained that “the team weren’t being receptive” to her, after she had a falling out with them? You could knock me over with a feather for that brainwave!

Does everyone have access to a work phone? If they have a personal phone and use it for work purposes, can they claim back costs of monthly bills (either a full month or part)?
If people either have the use of a work mobile or can get your company to pay towards their phone bill, then she could get a work smartphone and get WhatsApp on it.

She has made a personal choice not to have a smartphone. This is outside of your control and you could investigate what the corporate policy is for smart devices.

Sorry to hear this, but it was always going to go this way 😔

Her going off sick is probably a good thing for you. It's likely to help you get HR on side.

The WhatsApp thing seems simple to me tbh. Either it's allowed by your company and she has no leg to stand on. Or it's not and needs deleting. Pick one and tell her that's it.

Good luck though, she sounds a a right PITA.

Not exactly a surprise. HR is your best bet and a managed way out. Leopards/spots/change etc etc.

Ah OP it was always going to go that way from your opening statement. I’ve had one of these and I speak from bitter experience.

Have you got HR on it? She sounds like an extremely difficult person to manage so you’ll need good support to process her out.

Just a quick update.

She ended up falling out with two members of the team about this, logged a grievance with a contractor on our team (who was damn good as well) he left because he couldn't be arsed with the grievance processes and then she went on the sick with stress for a month. Fanfuckingtastic.

When she came back she complained that she felt the team weren't being receptive to her.

not the wisest, especially as you will sometimes have the management spooks so to speak

I wish you could just tell these whiners to fuck off.

We have a work WhatsApp chat. It's used for stuff like
Did your system just crash and throw you out?
Bloody train is late again.
Look at this weird thing I saw.
Does anyone want to go for a pint on Friday?

Everyone is in it. Many don't use it. My boss said she keeps it on mute most of the time.

In my last job we had the main WhatsApp chat, the sub chat that omitted the managers so we could complain about stuff and the sub sub chat which was just the trusted inner circle where you could really let loose 😆This was probably not a wise thing.

have they explained why they dont have a phone that has wattsapp ?

The OP has better things to be doing with her time than debating and handholding the new team member. So it is about creating degrees of seperation in what she needs to get involved in.

It is possible that the other teammates dont like the new employee and as a result are excluding her and if there is a complaint the OP will have to manage that if and when it happens.

(And techical point for employment bullying needs 2 points of conflict to provide a pattern)

Its more effective if OP rolls out the company policy which will be "dont be mean to anyone from work (in or out of work) and whatsapp it not to be used for company business and dont be slacking off on SM during work hours"

Once she puts that out in the training space she stops the employee from having a reason to complain about the conduct of the other team members as a group of employees. If they are on whatsapp it is 100% personal as the company dont use whatsapp.

I agree that the new employee is self excluding so the OP can say "new employee are you saying that you are objecting to other employees enganging in a conversation when you are not in the room (so to speak)".

As it stands the new employee could (in theory) start requesting the OP to produce transcipts of what the employee group is recording to prove nothing is happening rather than the new employee needing to come up with the proof of (i) a teammate is on whatsapp and (ii) its a group which was set up to exclude her or is talking about her.

There’s zero work related on it Op says and no requirement for complainer to join. She just doesn’t want anyone else to use it.
As long as everyone knows she’s not on and teams or email used for all work purposes and official social events then it isn’t complainers business.
It’s occasionally convenient to be able to text Colleagues as a group.
Used 2 times in bland circumstances isn’t an issue.
I set off from home on office days without logging on from home first. I’d appreciate a heads up to wfh office flooded to save me a drive. If complainer doesn’t want that she can drive in and see note pinned to door or message on teams when she has driven in.

If your workplace does not provides work phones to employees it is unreasonable of them to expect people to have a personal mobile they are wiling to use for things such as work meetings and work matters in general...

Use Teams or Outlook calendar to book meetings. There is no need for WhatsApp.

I don't want everyone to have my personal number and I certainly don't want work-related chats popping up in my personal phone and intruding on my personal life.

I don't think it was the old team that was the problem.

not sure why you are saying nope - I think you might be misunderstanding...

sure, if there is an official need to communicate then the company makes sure that everyone can partake - but if members of a team wish to chat to each other on whatsapp, they are adults and are allowed to do that...

quite frankly to call that bullying by exclusion is a little bit OTT - if 3 people in a team wish to go to the pub - it might be bullying to not allow a 4th member to come - but it would not be bullying if they opened it to all and the 4th member chose not to... similarly if 3 people wish to chat unofficially on whatsapp - and are happy to include the 4th member - but that person chooses not to have whatsapp, it is not bullying to carry on - they have the choice to join in and choose not to take part...

it is bullying by the team member to tell others that she doesn't wish to use whatsapp and therefore they are not allowed to!

Nope it the company are conducting company business on tec an employee is not obliged to provide personal non-company assets to do their job, it remains up to the company to provide the tec. (The employee should not be expected to "pay" the company to work there)

As the OP's company has opened the can of worms it is up to the company to "review" the use of tec and either limit it to what is currently on offer ( delete the old group) or offer the employee access via company provided tec. (This will only create more problems as employee will reject the tec)

The OP can point out that the employee should not make "request" instructions across teams and needs to communicate directly with the OP. Again doing this across the team as a training exercise limits the employees ability to say the OP is bullying or being mean etc.

Bullying by exclusion is a company problem so the OP would be foolish to "authorise" any sub-groups or imply such unofficial groups have company approval. The OP just needs to cover her obligation as employer and remind all the employees that a communication policy applies to all work related communications. If not the OP ends up playing whack-a-whatsapp with HR.

So she got moved from another team to yours for not being able to gel with the team, as a way of "managing" her behaviour? Did they discuss certain of her behaviours with you before they moved her across to you? It sounds like they may have just moved her problematic behaviour on to you! She's probably not happy being moved across teams and suspects its being discussed on whatsapp which she's not part of. Are you sure there's not another whatsapp group your team uses that you're not part of? Also not coming in to the office when you expect her to is not on. Did you call her at home then? Its tough to manage someone who feels unwelcome but whose behaviour already may alienate her from her work colleagues. It sounds like something HR may need to get involved in if you cant resolve this.

I’ve just looked back at ours and there’s nothing work related or concerning at all.
A few holiday pics (again done when not on work laptop)
Several is anyone struggling to get logged on - it helps if you know if it’s just you (so perhaps your broadband) or work server end. If you can’t get on you can’t send via teams chat.

We have a WhatsApp for team we are all in apart from one person (their choice).
We use Teams chat or email for any work communication or for organising Christmas do so no one misses out.
It’s used very infrequently. A few new baby pics, thanks for my leaving present type posts - they won’t have access to work IT if on maternity or left.
Handy way to message team in emergency eg Motorway crash jnc 10 if you know other colleagues heading in why have everybody stuck in traffic.
Booked team room wasn’t available - so quick message we are in x room. Otherwise everyone goes to booked room, not available, has to go to free room, log on laptop to see we are in x room, pack up go to x room. Saves 10 mins wasted time a person.
I think as long as not discussing work or leaving her out eg organising socials via it then fine to continue.

I'd advise her to quit being such a bloody snowflake.

you say you are not using it - so you might not be aware that actually you can flick a switch to choose whether Whatsapp has access to your contacts... so, sorry, you are wrong 😄

regarding OP - the team member is actually bullying here - it is not her role to tell you what the team can / can not do. She is absolutely fine to say that she feels left out - but she also has autonomy over deciding to fix that - she can choose to get a smart phone. What she does not have is any right to tell others that they are not allowed to chat via whatsapp - that is controlling and bullying.

She needs to be put back in her box - team members are allowed to talk to each other - group wide / individually / in sub-groups, no one member can dictate what they are allowed to do. Copy in HR, but simply remind her of her position in the team and that you will decide how communication takes place / remind her that all full team communications or official communications will come via Teams or email - through channels she has, but that sub-teams / individuals will be allowed to use whatever technology they wish and it is not for her to critique or decide...

She absolutely sounds like one of those people who just poisons any group she's part of. She'll never be happy, will find fault with one thing after another no matter how much you dance to her tune. Eventually she'll be managed out to another group where she'll complain about how horrible you all are!

If you didn't use the group chat might as well close it down as it would be quite a good defensive move if she claims bullying etc. But put in a formal request for an authorised group communication tool that works on phones and computers for future use!

I'm not using it - consciously. I've never come across a single other app as data-hungry. With every other social network I'm aware of, you have a choice whether or not you want to let it pry into your contacts or just import connections manually. Not with this one.

If she's already discussed falling out with multiple people this will just be one issue, once this is resolved there will be another and another- it's how some people are, they can't see themselves as the common denominator