AIBU about whatsapp work groups

[madcatladyforever]

AIBU to completely lose my shit about whatsapp work groups that seem to be compulsory now?
That damned thing on my phone pings all day long and half way into the night. I get work requests night and day in my own private time.
I've muted it but everytime I want to whatsapp other friends or family an urgent work request is sitting there like looking at me like a great stinking turd.
I feel its a huge intrusion into my private time, my employers would think twice about calling me at home during the time when I am not paid but they think absolutely nothing of sending me 20 whatsapp messages a day.
I'm not a company CEO I work two days a week doing nothing very important, there should be no reason whatsoever for me to get ANY messages at home. Or for me to have to put up with incessant work chats.
I asked to come off but apparently its compulsory in case they need to contact me urgently. I have a phone and an email for urgent matters.
I have to keep my phone on because my mum is ill and needs to be able to contact me 24/7.
I think this is a vile trend that needs to be stopped. It's driving me fucking nuts.

Remove yourself from the group.

Turn off the notifications and don’t read when not in work.

I don't have WhatsApp. The people I work with are in a group but I'm not included but that's cool by me.
Your company cannot force you to A. Have a smart phone (unless it's a company phone). B. Have social media. C. Use these apps.

Delete it. Just delete it. If its compulsory it will be in your contract which I highly doubt it is.

Either mute the group so you don't get notifications or remove yourself from the group.

Your company cannot force you to A. Have a smart phone (unless it's a company phone). B. Have social media. C. Use these apps.

This.

Seriously just mute it. We are living in a world where emails come through to most people's phones so people probably feel WhatsApp is just another easy way to contact people. Just mute notifications and then it won't ping.

Just mute the group, it's hardly a big deal.

The only intrusion into someone's private life are phone calls. People can email or whatsapp whenever they feel like it, I ignore until convenient and reply when I want. It's the beauty of this system.

I wouldn't consider a message to be intrusive.

I have seen a few companies stating at the bottom of their email that it might be sent out of working hours but it doesn't mean people should feel obliged to reply out of these working hours (better written). That's how I would translate it.

What type of work do you do? Is this your personal phone?

It's s lazy way of keeping people in the loop / on their toes.

Even muting the group, you still will see the notifications when you open the app for personal conversations.

I agree that they do seem to be coming more common and not participating can make you seem like not a team player. Thankfully the ones I am in are more chatty rather than work based.

Can you see if others in the group feel the same as you and see if there is an appetite for a ban on work chat outside hours?

You don't have to bother opening the group text at all. That way they will know you haven't read it and therefore won't be acting on their instruction via whatsapp. I have stopped opening messages from one group rather than remove myself, as it was getting too annoying. You can have it so that you don't get any alerts to new messages. The messages just build up and you can chose to ignore them.

@thedisorganisedmum in my experience this system works if everyone sticks to it but if you are part of a team who don't and youre the only one contributing, it's hard to take a stand without damaging the way that you are percieved.

This rule is in place at my work, but i have friends in the management team who say that the emailing and whatsapping among their particular group never stops.

Oops! - the only one not contributing

Mute and archive the chat when you're not at work, unarchive it when you are.

Mute the group or have separate phones. No one is making you eat the messages!

Our work WhatsApp groups are always on your work phone, so you can switch it off , if they don't give you a phone they can't tell you what to do with your personal one.

Unless they have it written in your contract and have provided you a company phone to enable you to use it, delete it.

WhatsApp uses your personal mobile number. I refuse to use it at work. Also I wouldn’t mute WhatsApp as I use it outside work.

Raise it as a concern. Might even be a GDPR issue.

They should look at using MS Teams instead, that is email address driven and work email can be used.
You can ignore outside of work hours so company can show they are understanding of work life balance. I’m also sure there is more beneficial functionality for work with MS Teams than there is on WhatsApp.

I know i've been a bit ranty about this but I had a nervous breakdown due to work stress a few years ago and was unable to work for 6 months. I'm back now in another job part time but I think for people who need to relax at home work related social media can be very toxic.

I have work WhatsApp group on my work phone, not on my personal phone. So easy to ignore.

I wouldn’t use my personal phone number for a work group.

Mute the chat then archive it, you won't be able to see the messages buioding up when you open up WhatsApp unless you go into the archived message area.

*building

Is it a work phone or your own one.

If the latter leave the group.

If the former you need to work on building your boundaries so that work stuff stays in its work box. It takes practice but it is feasible.