Would you report offensive message in a group work chat?

[ChilliPB]

As the title says really. A pretty offensive meme sent as ‘banter’ (not funny and genuinely offensive). It was sent in a group chat - a non-official WhatsApp chat with over 50 people, used for social chat. We have a separate more official group chat for work related stuff.

Options are to pick it up individually with the person (who I don’t know and have never met). Or flag direct to HR. Or flag up to HR but not disclose what was said or who said it and hope they could send a stern but general reminder about behaviour and conduct and the individual wouldn’t actually be identified.

Appreciate its a non-official chat but even so. Really likely to offend some of the members there and also it’s the sort of job where if it came out it would look awful, and I’m worried those that don’t report it could also be in trouble as complicit.

What would you do?!

I was responding to someone who thought it was ok to DELIBERATELY ignore people in their office, and was horrified that deliberate ostracising could be reported to HR. "Refusing" was the key word you didn't spot here. Missing someone else saying hello can happen to anyone, but declining to greet someone when you know they are speaking to you is way over the line and counts as rudeness.

lol yes I am!

I've experienced similar. In a group chat in which I was the only woman, some sexist memes and comments were made which I called out and reported because they went against our company code of conduct and actually why the fuck should I be expected to tolerate or turn a blind eye to shit like that?

I've also fired someone for sharing an anti Muslim meme.

General rule of thumb is if you'd be unhappy with your manager or HR dept seeing what you've written then you shouldn't be writing it. Likewise if its a contentious topic which is likely to offend or upset people then you have to consider whether a work forum is an appropriate place to air your views.

Gosh calm down!