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?

Also stop referring to people you admit yourself are professionals in their mid 20s as "boys" and "girls" FFS.

my f/book photo is a bunch of flowers 😂

There is no way on this planet I would ever use my personal WhatsApp details for work. It's so incredibly inappropriate.

You need to supply them with work phones and work phone numbers.

Agreed. No company can tell their employees what to put on their personal phones or WhatsApp profile pictures. If they want them to share their profiles, they need to give them company phones.

IIWY I'd stay out of it, none of your business and nobody will thank you for bringing it up, it's a corporate problem, not your problem IMO.

That's not true. My facebook photo and WhatsApp photo are completely different!

I wouldn't be at all comfortable to work for a company where every other employee had access to my personal number. It is a huge breach of confidentiality and GDPR issue.

If you want employees to use this method to communicate, you surely need to provide an E-sim for business use/or a company phone.

And this!

Of course the pictures would be more suited to dating apps or social situations - you’re asking them to use the app they primarily use to contact people from dating apps and socially to now contact clients. If you don’t like that, they need to be given a work phone. I wouldn’t want my social profile picture to be a professional photo for a host of different reasons.

100% this! No way is a Client having my personal phone number. Don't you have Teams?

Of course you cant dictate what photos people use on their personal WhatsApp! The only unprofessional thing here is the company not giving them work phones and expecting them to use their personal WhatsApp for work.

If the company are too cheap to provide work specfic devices I think it's just something you have to take on the chin. It's people's personal profile and really nothing you describe sounds particularly shocking - just young people being young.

It doesn't impact you whatsoever personally so although you can't help how you feel about it, I'd just try to ignore it and just use whatever pics you like and feel are appropriate for yourself.

I'm amazed a large organisation allows let alone encourages WhatsApp use. All sorts of security/data privacy issues there.

You wouldn’t like mine, then! It’s of my cat 🐈‍⬛

You wouldn’t like mine, then! It’s of my cat 🐈‍⬛

Why are you calling young professionals 'boys' and 'girls'?

Speaking of professional, it's very unprofessional to expect to police people's personal photos on their personal devices that they personally pay for.

It's not rocket science to suggest that if your organisation requires people to use a messaging app to communicate with clients that they provide the wherewithal to use that app - i.e. a work device.

Do you also require them to use their personal devices to make/receive work calls as well? Feels like exploitation to me and that your organisation has poor employment practices. I would take this opportunity to raise this with the powers that be and rectify the situation. I don't care how much your organisation pays people, it doesn't give them the right to step over boundaries and put people at risk. How no one with common sense hasn't realised before that this whole situation raises security and privacy concerns blows my mind to be honest.

My Facebook and WhatsApp photos are different.

HR here. Your biggest worry should be GDPR and data protection. You are potentially putting the organization at risk by allowing the sharing of any company data via Whatsapp on personal phones. I would be discussing this with HR rather than the inappropriate photos - which as everyone else has said, you can't police as they're using personal phones for work purposes

First of all, I misunderstood. I thought these were Work devices. Some of my work colleagues have photos on teams that look more suitable for a dating app. I agree with the other posters you shouldn’t be asking colleagues to use their personal device and WhatsApp account for Work.

I put YABU as the company should not expect them to use their personal phones. If the photos were on their work phones I would completely agree with you

Agree.

If you want them to use WhatsApp and you want to contact them via a mobile phone, it's completely unreasonable to dictate that they have a professional profile picture on there.

If they need to use WhatsApp you should be providing company phones.

I say this as someone with a grown up, sensible all-appropriate profile picture on WhatsApp.

If their social media is visible to anyone, I can understand why you'd not want them sharing anything that would bring the business into disrepute but people should be allowed to have public and private lives.

I HATE that WhatsApp infiltrates my weekends and holidays when it's something that if it had been an email I could just not see by not opening my email account. You can't escape it. And that's not for work! It's voluntary committees and all that.

You can have the conversation about who can see their photo and why that might matter but you shouldn't expect them to use it for work.

Your company should have pushed back and told the client they are not allowed to contact staff on their personal WhatsApp accounts, now that’s unprofessional!

What a ridiculous set up. If you need them to use WhatsApp for work, it needs to be on a work number/phone. Totally unprofessional, and not secure, to have to use your own phone.

What if the phone is stolen, with client data on it??

The pictures are the least of your issues in this shoddy set up.

If you want to use WhatsApp for work, you should provide a work phone. I’ve always had separate work and personal profiles linked to different phone numbers. If you’re asking staff to use their own equipment AND their own personal phone number for work purposes I think you’re already massively taking the piss, so unless the photo is actually offensive I don’t think you should start commenting.

Need to be provided with a work phone
Work phone also needs encryption
Your company could be in a LOT of trouble if a staff members phone is stolen with clients data on it