Profile pictures at work

[rhino12345]

Wondered if I could run this past the "hive mind" to get various perspectives before I bring this up in a meeting I have later in the week with our HR director. We've never had this issue before so I'm wondering if I'm just getting old fashioned or if I'm being reasonable with this.

Work for a very large company that has a regular intake of "younger" staff members (we have a very competitive grad scheme plus a very good internship scheme so about 30-40% of our workforce are under 25).

We use Whatsapp, not always, but sometimes at our client's request to share information ahead of meetings or presentations, as well as for occasional internal comms too. These Whatsapp chats are linked to our employees' personal phones and thus personal Whatsapp profiles.

It's made very clear to staff that they'll be expected to use their own personal Whatsapp profiles when they start and they are asked to ensure that profile pictures and names are "professional". They are given a small amount of training on this (usually it's things like nothing overtly political), but as I said, up until now it's always been self-explanatory and there haven't been issues in the past at all.

Here is my AIBU - some of the profile pictures that the newer cohort of staff are using I find are inappropriate and thus unprofessional, but I'm not sure if I'm just being prudish or old-fashioned.

A large number of them have pictures that would be more appropriate on a dating app than for a work environment if I'm being totally honest (boys posing in a gym mirror with a tight vest on, or even on the beach topless with just a pair of shorts on holding a pint of beer, or girls with a full length picture wearing a short skirt or taken from above looking down their cleavage). Some of them have friends in a profile picture where they're all pulling a silly face which I think makes them look very immature and childish, when in reality they're professional people in their 20s working in a very competitive industry who earn a very good salary!!

In my view, it just comes across unprofessional, and makes me cringe when I add them to the chats with our clients who are often CEOs or CFOs of huge multinational companies. It even makes me cringe when I'm adding them to internal chats with colleagues to organise internal events etc!

I've run it past a couple of people outside of work, mostly senior people in similar corporate environments, who've said these sorts of pictures for a work environment are totally inappropriate, but then when I've mentioned it at work to colleagues (not formally, just in passing) I've been looked at like I'm some sort of dinosaur!

AIBU?

If you are asking them to use their personal mobile phones, I don't think there will be a thing that can be done.

If the company want to police what is on their phone then they need to provide company ones with a designated whatsapp number.

But yes, I do find some of the pictures inappropriate - we had one girl I thought she actually had her boobs out, I had to zoom in, and her picture made me feel uncomfortable with us working in a male orientated environment.

You need to provide them with a company phone if you want to dictate their profile picture. I don’t think they should be expected to use their personal phones at all.

If you want them to do work things and be professional then provide them with a work phone

Agree if you want them to use their personal phones, then you accept that this will happen.

As everyone else has said. If you want them to keep their professional and personal lives seperate, then you need to give them the tools to do so.

I’m cringing that you’re adding people’s personal numbers to WhatsApp groups with CEOs or CFOs of multinationals 🤷🏻‍♀️

It should be company numbers or nothing!

The problem here is that Whatsapp is owned by Meta, so if you update your Facebook photo it updates your Whatsapp too. I do think they should not have to use their personal phones for work purposes. And that is the major problem here.

You must be able to turn that off because mine doesn't?

I agree with PPs, give them work phones.

YABU - the employer needs to provide work phones. You can’t expect people to use their personal info for work

I agree with everyone else. If this is a concern, give them a work phone.

I can't imagine being arsed zooming in on the pics though. 🤷‍♀️

I meant to add that you most likely can turn it off. I also think why should someone have to have a professional photo on their personal Whatsapp because a company is too cheap to provide them with a work phone.

And this is why I refused to install Teams or use my personal phone for anything work related, because no way in hell would my employers be telling me what I can do on my own phone I'm paying for

Let's be honest they are still children really.. brains haven't fully matured yet..😂

I'd say the profile pics are the least of your worries, this is a GDPR nightmare not to mention if documents are been shared via WhatsApp in personal devices how does the company know they are been stored securely.

The most unprofessional bit is expecting colleagies to provide personal mobiles for work use AND dictate how they use them!

If there is a need, the org should equip workers with mobiles. Then they can set professional conduct caveats on their use.

A very large company should be able to afford work phones.

Give them work phones then if you’re that bothered. You can’t dictate what people do with their personal property.

Expecting people to use personal WhatsApp profiles for work is Very Very Unprofessional. Give them work mobiles, or pick a messaging platform which allows email-based accounts. If they have direct [land] line numbers, can you create a WhatsApp account off those maybe?

The problem is the company being cheapskates and not understanding the technology here, not the new staff.

Yep.

Absolutely ridiculous to be using personal WhatsApps for this sort of thing. That's the unprofessional thing here, not peoples' photos on their personal WhatsApp profiles.

But if the company don't think they look unprofessional then I don't see why you should try and raise a complaint over it.

If they were going to do a training on it and claim there's an expectation in place, then surely they'll have looked at everyone's pictures and if anything was wrong they'd be asked to change it. It's not in your job role presumably to enforce this rule?

What difference does it make to you if a junior colleague you barely know has a photo showing them on holiday in shorts or showing their cleavage?

Does your workplace have a very strict dress code?

You might want to ask how they would comply with a SAR when data is on personal WhatsApp chats...

YANBU to think the photos are unreasonable for a work environment. However YABU to try to police what profile pictures people use on their personal phones.
They need work phones.

Which tbf is probably why they haven't gone "err no of course I'm not using my personal phone and WhatsApp profile for work chats".

I think organisationally you are being HIGHLY unreasonable to expect your staff to conduct business on their personal phones and using their personal profiles.

Not only does it not give you the right to dictate how they use their devices/ WhatsApp etc, it actually puts your staff at potential risk by blurring the boundaries between work and personal life. For example personal images on their phone could be accidentally uploaded, a text could be accidentally sent to the wrong group chat. Or on the more untoward side, if one of your staff had an uncomfortable dealing with an external client and they were harassed, you've now made sure their personal contact has been distributed. If someone made a complaint about them are you going to remove their personal phone as evidence during an investigation? Information being shared could be saved to their personal phone - what if they're hacked or the phone is lost - who's at fault then since it's not actually company property.

If you want your staff to be able to do their jobs properly and safely then support and resource your staff. Get a load of work phones and install WhatsApp on them. The company is the problem here not the staff.