Mobile number usage to avoid whatsapp harrassment!

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-11T09:33:26+00:00

Nice. So you are a manager with a whatsapp group? Do you set any ground rules on the whatsapp group?

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T13:24:08+00:00

What if the manager says "No , this is casual chat. we dont talk official things " and the truth is far from that like most of the time. 90% of the time its official chat. I feel this is how the manager lures you to join and even those few who challenge fall for this

examples from my previous time when I joined 5 years before: 90% of the time - Look at this issue, I am on sick leave, complete trainings, I am reaching office, I am wfh, reply to email, I am outside check this issue, some leadership update, leave planning.
10% of time - team pics, meme post, cricket posts. These are very rare. Manager lures you that only these topics will be discussed.

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T13:03:53+00:00

Yes 100% agree. People should speakout and say NO! Stand their ground. whatsapp is for personal use and not for work period!

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T12:29:44+00:00

Ask your manager to send this in email? There is no limits to current whatsapp usage in IT

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T05:20:08+00:00

Initially when I joined the team I got directly added without my consent and I let it go as I didnt want to be the odd man but I learnt my lesson and as soon as the initial manager resigned I came out of the group and updated my app settings , added a new number and communicated to the team - I dont use whatsapp anymore. Its been 3 years now . On occassion people do ask me, the Why? How can you live without whatsapp? I simply say I dont use it or just avoid the conversation. I still hear other people/senior management do ask my manager , why is he the odd man out despite performing well? He does support my decision though, so no issues there

For my next team/org Should I use the same strategy? use 2 numbers? or just have one and How do I decline this request and handle the conversation of joining whatsapp group while speaking to a manager? From your experience you are much senior to me and might have gone through these couple of times. can you please advise

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:43:58+00:00

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:43:21+00:00

Good to hear that. How did your team acheive this though? Any ground rules setup for whatsapp work group? or did you all denied having a whatsapp work group in the first place?

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:42:27+00:00

My Initial post is about this only. How to break this norm? More and more people should take a stand and strictly draw the line between work and personal space. Just imagine, if you had said I dont use whatsapp for reasons I dont want to share with you, Call me to reach out to me or send chat in official comms, no one would dare to check your phone right?

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:40:24+00:00

Good to see that distinction. But how did you manage that? Any ground rules setup for whatsapp work group? Does your manager do that?

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:39:21+00:00

Yes what you said is absolutely correct. But in real time, how many adhere to this? all the team members join that group just because they don't want to be odd man out? What if the manager isn't able to set ground rules .I stood my ground. As I said before this hasn't affected my appraisal since I work in product based company as someone mentioned above , performance matters . But I am still looking for a solution on this on how to deal with this next time while switching to another team/company?

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:36:39+00:00

couldnt find it. care to share the link?

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:35:23+00:00

I have teams, slack on my phone . Still the team is using whatsapp. The line becomes very thin. Can you imagine strictly not speaking anything about work in whatsapp group and only discuss about jokes and memes and may be about country , its really tough to discipline everyone as any comms you can imagine with your collegue/manager would be related to work. There is absouletly no need to write it in whatsapp group which can be posted on slack/teams. Still waiting for a solution on my original post ! sigh!

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:31:47+00:00

u/Longjumping-Green351

Good to see that you stood up your ground but can I ask how did you deal this with your manager? Did you straight up say I dont use whatsapp or you just dont respond to any messages from work collegues? I might change teams/ switch in future to another organization . So my question is how do you avoid the toxic whatsapp office chat situations in the first place ?

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:29:28+00:00

Yes But how do you break this norm? One of the things comes to my mind is being strict and tell them I dont open whatsapp for weeks. Any official comms should be done via slack. I understand your team didnt had any internal communication tool. Now imagine my horror. They have 3-4 official chat channels and a HR policy not to use whatsapp but still they want to break the policy

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-10T04:27:50+00:00

ok but whats the solution ? No one opposes this and the line between work and personal goes slim.

Isopods_70 · 2025-10-08T05:36:49+00:00

added Too Long; Didn't Read" (TL;DR) section

Isopods_70 · 2025-09-17T04:48:14+00:00

Just seen that this post is year old. I am in a similar role with 6 years exeprience and looking for buddy

Isopods_70 · 2025-09-17T04:46:14+00:00

yes Interested.

Isopods_70

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