# WhatsApp managers and legal implications of written communication

- **Episode:** [143](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/143.md) (2024-11-07)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** whatsapp-managers, communication, legal
- **Time:** 29:15–35:56 (start 1755s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/143?t=1755](https://truthliesandwork.com/143?t=1755)

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[29:15] Al Elliott: Okay, let's just talk WhatsApp managers. There's a great TikTok channel by Chris O'Donnell, who's also on YouTube, who reads aloud increasingly ridiculous WhatsApp messages from bad managers to employees. Whilst this is funny and great entertainment, Kate explained that sending anything via WhatsApp can have serious legal implications
[29:32] Leanne Elliott: By the way, before we jump back into the interview, Chris, if you're listening, Kate would love to collaborate. And so would we. You should call us, get in touch. Our people will speak to your people. Kate, go. So, yeah, generally speaking, it's not advisable. And the other thing, I don't know if you were getting to it, was going to be about the methodology of those communications and how we choose which channel. And sometimes it's— I personally don't really like WhatsApp for work communications unless it's So, culturally necessary, or in some other way necessary, because to me, WhatsApp is my personal messaging tool. So, I don't want to be looking at my phone, getting a little ding on my phone, and thinking, oh, it's my friend Sally telling me some update on what's going on with her son, or whatever. Oh, no, actually, it's my boss telling me about something. Okay. And you get that anxiety, that sort of bringing yourself back into work when you shouldn't necessarily be
[30:32] Al Elliott: Yeah
[30:33] Leanne Elliott: So, having a way of communicating with your team that's agreed at the outset is a really good idea. So, having some sort of guideline or policy to say, this sort of communication, we use Slack. This sort of communication, when it's formal and I want you to refer to it another time, it's going to be email. Where I need your immediate attention and it's a proper emergency, I'm going to use WhatsApp. So, the impact Could be, if your work tends to induce anxiety in you, if you're getting a message from Derek on a Saturday night, you get that same feeling of anxiety when you should be having that time to relax. It brings you back into that moment when you should be unwinding, because most people need boundaries to be able to refill their cup, to build their resilience, to combat the tendency for anxiety and stress in the workplace. And we need to fill it back up with positive stuff in order to be able to face the next week. So it sort of brings you back down again. And the difficulty with it is that you can't control it. It's just coming at you. Well, that's the sense people have is that they can't control it. They keep on looking at their phone. But I suppose it's about having some boundaries, as I said before, about having a policy about how you use which communication channel. But also as the recipient, if you're likely to be Upset and sent into turmoil by getting a message from Derek, is that you put some sort of out-of-office on, or you put it on do not disturb, or you say to Derek, please, can you not message me? Can you hold onto that message until Monday? Because things can be deferred, particularly emails. WhatsApp, not so easy. It tends to be a bit immediate. The other awful thing about— well, good thing and awful thing about WhatsApp is that the manager can see whether you've read it or not, can't they? They've got the blue ticks. And so, that also gives some sort of element of control back to the manager. I saw you saw my message, and yet you chose not to reply on Saturday night. That was interesting, noted in your file. Oh, I've got turned into Linda. So, yeah, I think it's in danger of becoming a power thing. And the other thing I was going to say, actually, is about context switching. The studies have shown that when you're going from writing an email, going to a meeting, trying to do something creative, trying to do something analytical, if you keep on switching, then you lose a lot of time in between. between the two different contexts. And it's sort of the same, you know, if you're with your family, you know, you're bathing your children, or you're having, you know, dinner with your spouse, and you get a message from your boss, it's sort of taking you into this different context when you, you know, you're— and it feels out of your control. So that's the danger of it, I think
[33:11] Al Elliott: Let's talk about the actual legal implications here, because I believe I've got a note here that I need to talk to you about employment tribunals and WhatsApp. Is that something you know a little about?
[33:23] Leanne Elliott: A tiny bit about, yeah. But the short answer is, if you've got it in writing, it can be used in a tribunal. So, it doesn't matter whether it's an email, a legal letter, or a WhatsApp, it can still be used. So, the dangers of WhatsApp is because it's so quick, you're not really necessarily thinking too much about what you're writing, and it's a quip, and actually, you could be really offending somebody. You can have WhatsApp groups that exclude somebody, and that can actually be really offensive as well. lead to a toxic environment. Even if somebody sends a message which is, say somebody else in your team sends a message which is critical or offensive about somebody else, and you just give it a thumbs up or a little smiley face or whatever emoji, that can be taken as condoning that message. So, we need to be really careful here. And also emojis and shorthands, little ways of writing like my kids do. We need to be careful about that because that could be misinterpreted. Somebody's recipe for something might include— oh my God, I'm entertaining myself here. I'm thinking about eggplant. It's so interesting. And you can be innocently sending that and obviously offend the next person. So we just got to be really careful. And I do a Linda skit about Gen Zed, as she calls it, Gen Zed's terminology, and she doesn't get it. And she says, why are you writing lots of love on the end of an email, Alice? It's not really appropriate. And then Alice educates her to say, no, it means laugh out loud. And, oh, does it? Well, come and tell me some other things. And yeah, so we got to be careful, this generational thing as well. I was pleased to hear, I was supposed to I have been listening to your podcast, and I was pleased to hear that you called yourself Gen X, because we seem to be forgotten, because I'm also Gen X. It seems to be going from millennial to boomer. So, when people criticize me on TikTok, some do, some sort of say, when I'm being Linda and they haven't got the joke, they think I'm actually being— I don't know what they think I'm doing, advertising bad management in some way for a reason. And they haven't got it that it's supposed to be funny. And they say, oh, retire already, boomer. And why don't you die already, boomer, actually is the other one. And actually, the most offensive bit of that sentence to me is the boomer bit. I'm like, I'm not a boomer, I'm Gen X, get it right. If you're going to be horrible to me, just at least get your facts straight