It’s 8 in the evening. She has long since closed the working day and is talking to some friends on WhatsApp. Suddenly, a floating notification makes her see that she has received a new message in that same application. It is her boss, a co-worker, a client, a supplier. Should she read the message to see if it’s urgent? Or, even if it isn’t, to answer? It is very possible that they have seen that you are online, but even if you have WhatsApp configured so that this information is not visible, even if you are very clear that you will not answer until the next day, the work has already crept into your Leisure time. She has gone from chatting with friends to thinking about her work obligations.
Actually, this can also happen with a work email or with the Slack messaging application if you have not disabled notifications, but the case of WhatsApp goes further. “The problem with this tool is that we have it on our mobile and we don’t know if the warning that sounds is for the conversation with a friend or for something at work, and, when you realize it, you’ve already seen that they ask you for something at work , and that throws you off balance”, explains Eva Rimbau, professor of Human Resources and Organization at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and specialist in teleworking. However, precisely because of the omnipresence of WhatsApp on almost all mobiles, the application has become a tool that is commonly used in work environments as well.
“WhatsApp is a hybrid technology tool, it goes between the telephone, which is usual for punctual and synchronous communication, and mail, an asynchronous tool that allows sending files, etc. This application allows both possibilities: both the sending of files and immediate communication”, explains Juana Rubio-Romero, doctor of Philosophy, professor at the University of Nebrija and specialist in social research and communication, who has done extensive research on the use of WhatsApp. In addition, she points to another factor that explains why the application is also used for work: “It is a widely used tool that is in our day to day.” In other words, almost everyone has it installed on their mobile device.
Much has been written about how the application was conquering our smartphones. Launched in 2009, in Spain it quickly became the first that users downloaded as soon as they switched to a smartphone. Nowadays, according to a report by We Are Social and Hootsuite91% of Spaniards use the application, which since 2014 is owned by Facebook (now Meta).
It is more difficult to know how many of those users use this service – the classic version, not WhatsApp Business – also for work issues, but there are some clues. A 2019 study by the internal communication tool Speakap said that 53% of frontline workers working in stores or hospitals used WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for work-related issues. In January 2020, according to the apps instant Messaging Guild, 41% of the British used WhatsApp for work matters. All this, before the pandemic.
what does the law say
The presence in the application of messages related to work is, therefore, common, despite the fact that in its own terms and conditions any non-personal use of WhatsApp is prohibited. But you also have to take into account what the law says about it: “Outside of working hours, work WhatsApps cannot be received, we have the right to digital disconnection,” summarizes Purificación Morgado, professor of Labor Law and Social Security at the University of Salamanca. In that case, moreover, she doesn’t care if the phone is personal or if it’s the company’s.
For messages during working hours, the worker “has to give consent to the company so that it can send him WhatsApps,” explains the expert. In addition, there must be a commitment on the part of the company “regarding the confidentiality and security of that data, because the telephone number, the profile photo, etc., are considered personal data of the worker,” says Morgado.
On the other hand, the employee could refuse to give that consent, since it is “a digital and telematic device of personal possession of the worker”, explains Francisco Trujillo Pons, author of the book Digital disconnection in the workplace (Tirant lo Blanch, 2021), Doctor of Law and professor at the University of Valencia. The expert adds that the employee could even refuse to use WhatsApp on the company phone “because he knows that this can increase his workload and, in the end, suffer from what is known by the Organic Law on Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights such as computer fatigue”. However, he concedes that this denial with a company phone can harm the worker if the company uses WhatsApp “as a means of corporate communication.”
Beyond what the law says in this regard —which Purificación Morgado believes that most companies are unaware of and, therefore, do not ask for their employees’ consent—, the truth is that it is very easy to find yourself in a situation where that the personal mobile is filled with work messages, either because it is oneself who sends them or because someone with whom they have a working relationship uses that medium as a means of communication.
For the researcher Juana Rubio-Romero, “there is a correct use, the informal part”, in which it is a useful tool. As an example of this use, she cites the fact of reinforcing “labor relations and camaraderie between teams, coordinating a specific activity or sharing a document synchronously and quickly.” In addition, it allows respecting the times of the other, “not like a phone call, which is more invasive”.
However, it also warns about incorrect use: the one that is for formal communication or in which the other person’s times are not respected. He recommends thinking before sending a message of these characteristics if the person is within his working day and if he really uses the application for work issues. In addition, we must bear in mind that we usually feel obliged to answer immediately, because “in the digital cultural context, technologies are not neutral and encourage us to communicate in a certain way”. Thus, that message that is sent to someone with whom there is an employment relationship can be an invasion of your personal time.
Telecommuting specialist Eva Rimbau also recommends stopping to think for a moment before sending a work message via WhatsApp: “It is important to learn to distinguish which questions really need an immediate answer (those could be channeled through chat) and which ones can wait until the recipient dedicates the time they have predetermined to answer emails or messages through other asynchronous communication channels”, he explains. Even so, remember that there are more work-oriented conversation tools, which allow “to better order conversations and can be used more comfortably from the computer, such as Slack, which also allows you to limit the times in which you receive messages, marking a few hours of rest in which you will not be notified”.
From the point of view of the person who receives these messages —whether from co-workers or superiors, from clients, etc.—, the expert in digital disconnection at work, Francisco Trujillo Pons, proposes a series of practices to defend himself, in a certain way, to fill your personal life with work notifications: change your status in WhatsApp to absent and modify the application “so that the already known to all ‘double check blue”. This makes WhatsApp become “an asynchronous and non-synchronous medium, so that the expectation of response and that fatigue and sense of urgency that the worker may eventually suffer” would be broken.
The expert also warns of the changes that the pandemic has brought and the importance of establishing these limits: “The application is being used as a kind of professional email and the abundant messages that workers receive can considerably increase their stress levels in the face of unanswered messages. This function [de desactivar la confirmación de lectura] It is very important because, if it is always enabled, the worker has the temptation and the feeling of anguish to answer because he knows that his superior or boss has read the communication and is waiting for an immediate response.
Everyone agrees that it is best to opt for a different tool or have a different mobile for work purposes. “Using personal mobile for work issues is highly questionable,” says Eva Rimbau. She, although she also points out that “there are many people who do not care.”
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