To not block this work WhatsApp?

[bingbangbongding]

Seeking a little assistance/honest feedback on how to deal with a situation at work.

A person on a team i manage has posted in the Teams chat ‘please can we not have WhatsApp groups outside this chat unless you want me to feel left out and not part of the team’

This person does not have the ability to access WhatsApp (by choice they do not have a smartphone) and the WhatsApp group was set up to facilitate meeting offsite (and out of network) with a team member we hadn’t met in person before. The person complaining didn’t come on this trip. The group wasn’t set up by me and I can’t delete it.

The WhatsApp group has not been used since the trip apart from once, when a person was going to be late and was away from their computer (which to be honest, I find reasonable).

One person has replied before I managed to and they’ve explained why the group was set up and they’ve said they will stop using it.

I replied and said I agreed with the intent of the group and that it hadn’t really been used.

I also added that I wasn’t going to agree enforcing the team to stop using it as it was a private group. I said if there were any team messages that had to go to all I would of course text her separately meaning she won’t miss out on anything.

I reiterated that there were no personal messages in the chat (there really wasn’t)

She has replied in the Teams chat with further discontent and now said she’s upset.
I will send a private message and ask to chat but I suspect she won’t be satisfied.

What do you advise?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 - 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!