How bad is it to be rude about boss in WhatsApp messages

[lurchersforever]

Obviously it's ill advised but what actual grounds for discipline would there be?

The messages are from lockdown when we were all bored/stressed and are rude and insulting about the way boss was handling the situation.

Fout people in the chat. One person has now revealed them to the boss out of malice. Boss has said nothing for a while then revealed he has seen them but lied about where he got them.

Where do we stand?

In my job I had some time off suddenly due to an unexpected bereavement.. it was complained about in a very upsetting way "i should have known somone was ill and planned for it , i am ghosting people" .. on a WhatsApp group. It was reported by another person as i was not in the WhatsApp group and the person who wrote the message had a disciplinary meeting as our work had a SM policy that WhatsApp fell under.. I still haven't got over how mean this person was .. I am careful on SM.. if you've put it in the public domain expect it could be seen.

WhatsApp and other private messaging platforms are specifically included in our Social media policy, I guess BC they are often group things and you can easily forward them, deliberately or by mistake.