Whatsapp

[Comefromaway]

Is there any way I can either stop people from whatsapping me or put something on so they know I don’t read it.

I use WhatsApp for just two things. To send photos/videos to my husband & kids as my work phone contract charges for sending photos. I am also in one group chat which is muted and I read it at my leisure.

During lockdown work colleagues have taken to whats-apping me instead of emailing or texting. I don’t want it. My notifications are set to mute on whatsapp but they all use it lots. I like to have set work hours and separate work and home as far as possible. Yesterday it appears people had forgotten I’d booked the afternoon off to take my son to enrol at college.

Also if they email me I have a written trail all in one place of things I’ve been asked to action & my response.

If you go into WhatsApp, then settings, then privacy and untick read receipts they won't know if you've read the message. Also at the top of that page it says "last seen" change that to nobody aswell otherwise they will see you are online.

Hope this helps. I also hate this whole being assessable 24/7 thing, it's very annoying.

Could you change your status on there to say “for family only”
I have the number of someone in a professional capacity and she has that as her status.

Thanks. It’s a pain as I won’t be able to tell if the kid have seen things either but never mind.

Just tell them

@TomNook

Just tell them

You think I haven’t tried that!

You can block people on whatsapp, do that

Maybe have a separate
Phone for work and one for home

Although my phone contract is paid by work I actually physically own my phone. I couldn’t afford another smartphone

You can click on the person and then again at the top and block them.

Oh well then you can’t block work on the work phone

Live with leaving the group chat and send photos via air drop/Bluetooth or email and delete WhatsApp. It's a work phone number. It's not unreasonable your colleagues view it as such.

Oh well then you can’t block work on the work phone

Blocking them on WhatsApp isn’t an issue if they can contact via text or phone or email.

DH has a work phone and doesn’t have WhatsApp

And yes agree you can't block them. Get a separate personal phone number or delete the app.

Your work should be providing you with a secure desperate device for work stuff.

Tell them you can't use your personal phone for work anymore

@Muggedoffa

Live with leaving the group chat and send photos via air drop/Bluetooth or email and delete WhatsApp. It's a work phone number. It's not unreasonable your colleagues view it as such.

It’s a work “phone number”. They can phone & text or email.

@Muggedoffa

And yes agree you can't block them. Get a separate personal phone number or delete the app.

Your work should be providing you with a secure desperate device for work stuff.

Tell them you can't use your personal phone for work anymore

I have a laptop with my work email on. My phone should literally be for when I’m out of the office and someone needs to phone me or to click on some authentication app linked to the email (someone hacked a colleagues email so IT put something on our phones we have to click to verify it’s us. HMRC also have this annoying verification text Code thing they send now when we log into their system.

I can’t airdrop my husband and kids when they are 40 miles away sometimes.

So the issue you is that you don't have your own phone number but are objecting to a work provided phone being used by co-workers for work purposes?

If I understand you correctly you are the one in the wrong and also very out moded if you think work phones should only be used when you are out of the office, you need to get with the times.

If you bought your own smartphone and work just pay for the sim then I would just buy a cheap non-smart phone for the work sim and then get your own personal contract to use for WhatsApp and other personal use. That way all colleagues will be able to do over your work phone is call or text and when you are not working you can just switch it off.

If you use your work phone number for personal use you’ll have to accept sometimes you’ll get contacted about work when you’re technically off as colleagues will see that you’re online and assume you must therefore be working.

There is no requirement for me to use WhatsApp for work and indeed there have been problems with WhatsApp when the boss had to warn some people about unprofessional messages being sent to a work group chat (I was not part of that group).

The boss has told everyone that important messages need to be emailed or texted but if it’s urgent there should be an actual phone call.

No one other than the boss and financial director knows that work pay for my sim. That’s a private arrangement between us. Those who need a work phone are provided with one but told they are allowed to upgrade at their own expense if they want a nicer phone. Obviously since lockdown I’ve been more flexible and have actually phoned clients from my mobile rather than the office landline as I’m working from home but I withhold the number and return calls go via the office which is staffed on a rota basis.

@BillysMyBunny

If you bought your own smartphone and work just pay for the sim then I would just buy a cheap non-smart phone for the work sim and then get your own personal contract to use for WhatsApp and other personal use. That way all colleagues will be able to do over your work phone is call or text and when you are not working you can just switch it off.

If you use your work phone number for personal use you’ll have to accept sometimes you’ll get contacted about work when you’re technically off as colleagues will see that you’re online and assume you must therefore be working.

I now see I got the situation wrong, I agree with this solution.

I haven't come across employers paying for contracts on personal phones before, does everyone in your organisation have 2 phones? Sounds an odd set up

No-one has 2 phones.

What happened was the work phone contract came with a certain type of phone, but most people preferred to have expensive iPhones etc so they just transferred the sim. (Mine is a 6s so not fancy any more)

I don’t need a work mobile (or i didn’t until hmrc started insisting in these security texts) but what happened was that someone left the company but work was tied into paying fir a certain number of phone numbers for 2 years so the boss offered to give it to me (That was 10 years ago!).

But I got my answers right at the beginning of the thread of alterations I can make to the settings.

I find mums net so strange sometimes. It doesn't matter why the OP doesn't want to use WhatsApp for her colleagues and it doesn't matter what phone she's using. If she doesn't want the messages she doesn't want the messages no justification is needed.

There are alternative options for her colleagues to get in touch, but she clearly just doesn't want to be available at the drop of hat otherwise work never really ends.

Glad you got it sorted xx

Sorry, but if you choose to install any kind of communication app on a number your work pay for, you don’t really have any comeback if colleagues use it to contact you for work purposes. If it’s the hours that bother you, then only respond to work messages in work hours. It doesn’t take much to mute or not look. Set your status with your work hours. But if it’s colleagues using WhatsApp at all (and really why is that such an issue when you’re happy for them to send an SMS? There’s barely a difference at the endpoint ) and you want to have WhatsApp and separate your working life from it, do as a PP suggested and put that SIM in a cheap handset and get your own SIM-only contract.

I can do whatever I like with my phone. It’s only since lockdown than anyone other than the MD & my direct manager has even had my number.

I am guaranteed to see a text. A WhatsApp message I might not see for three days.