is it a red flag if a team has a group text?

by Alison Green on February 27, 2025

A reader writes:

Do you think it’s a red flag when a team in a smaller company immediately drops you into a group text on your personal phone upon hiring?

The context is that I’m very happy in my mid-level position at my very not-toxic Fortune 100 company. I like the work and the people and while I wouldn’t hang out with a few of these folks for recreational coffee, we’re Work Friends. I’ve worked for smaller companies and have found them to always be cliquey and toxic and in each other’s business. Like high-stakes high school, where instead of losing head cheerleader, you lose your job.

For me the common denominator red flag was that my toxic jobs had group chats. “We all get along” and “lols” and morning affirmation texts and more.

My mother came from big time corporate America and is now working for small time companies. The last one she was at was so toxic and went so far south I legally can’t say what happened. She told me that from day one at her current job, she’s been in group texts with the “team.” More “morning guys!” etc. I’m not going to diss my mom’s new job because she’s so happy to be out of the other place, but I’m seeing signs already and I’m curious if you and/or the readers think group chats/texts are a red flag!

I don’t think teams with group chats are inherently a red flag.

I do think that when a team is dysfunctional, a group chat can often be something that reinforces that — because it’s used in ways that trample people’s boundaries (like unwelcome work texts during your off hours, or an expectation that you’ll participate in endless socializing that doesn’t interest you or actively distracts you, or a team that expects everyone to be “like family” in problematic ways). But that’s generally a reflection of other problematic norms on the team, not something fundamental to the group texts themselves.

There are healthy, functional teams that have group chats! In those cases, I might theorize that they’re more likely to pop up in specific use cases, like when the work is emotionally difficult and the group chat is a place to blow off steam, or if all of the team is in a younger (read: going out) stage of life, or similar. But that’s not exclusively the case either.

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  1. I'm A Little Teapot*

    I have a group text with coworkers. It’s where those of us who live in a specific geographic region can share big traffic issues. It’s rarely used, and when it is it’s things like “there’s a semi that jack-knifed and the entire highway is shut down” (that was not a fun commute home). And while my company isn’t perfect, it’s also not toxic.

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    1. Nola*

      Yeah we have a group text for our office of about 30. It’s useful for big traffic updates, building updates, and weather updates. Things that come up suddenly and people may not see if they don’t check email in the morning or are in the car already. It’s helpful.

      If you’re in a toxic workplace, you’re in a toxic workplace. That has nothing to do with the size of the company or the group text.

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    2. CeeDoo*

      We have one in our math department for stuff like school closures and jeans days. It has 26 members. We have a smaller one for those 9 or so of us who tend to go to lunch together on inservice days. Both are only used for the function they were created for. We don’t talk badly about anyone or leave them off the list. I mess up the gc because I have an android, but that’s our only issue.

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      1. Nomic*

        I used to have that problem. I switched from Android Messenger to Google Messenger and that fixed almost all of the issues (I can name groups now, etc. etc., just like Apple apparently does).

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    4. Hush42*

      Yep. My team has a group chat and we pretty much immediately add new people to it. But it’s almost exclusively used for pet pictures and updates if the weather or traffic is bad.

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      1. She-roHere*

        Same here. In addition to pet pics and bad weather/traffic, our group chat is used for other mundane messages that would be overkill for email such as wishing each other a happy birthday.

        Reply ↓
  2. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

    Is a group text chain on personal phone numbers inherently different from a private Slack group? Is there an extra sneakiness or we-don’t-trust-IT element?

    Reply ↓
    1. Allegra*

      I can think of situations where a group text would have been useful in workplaces that didn’t have Slack (independent retail), or where a text would be seen when a Slack wouldn’t (like saying not to come in because the building’s heating is out) because I don’t get Slack notifications when it’s not my active work hours.

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    2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      I don’t think it is inherently different. I think they are both prone to the same toxic “clique” dynamic that OP fears for her moms. I think that people who will create a clique slack channel will not think, “We should move this to private cells because of IT.” They will think that their
      “private Slack channel” is very much their kingdom to rule. It just goes with the self centered, oblivious, hegemonic workplace clique that these people create.
      People can have functional private group cell chats. People can have functional private work Slack channels.
      I don’t think it’s causation v correlation. Private group chats don’t make toxic workplaces. Crappy people make toxic workplaces. Crappy people use private chat software to be crappy, but that is not the chat’s fault.

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    3. Strive to Excel*

      At a guess, there’s crossover between workplaces with personal group chats and those workplaces without significant IT and device resources. I don’t have a work phone and am not expected to do work on my personal device, but my manager has my personal number for things like “power is out, no point in coming into the office today” or “an RV has broken down on the access road to work”. It’s useful to have a non-laptop means of communication.

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    4. atalanta0jess*

      OH, 100%. There’s also the “I’m about to say something that would be BAD to put in the wrong teams thread.” That’s the main reason I ever switch to texting a coworker instead of teamsing them.

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    5. Bibliothecarial*

      We aren’t allowed to access our work Slack off the clock or out of the building, so we have a group text for 2 very important subjects. 1, if there is a snow emergency so we are closed/reducing hours. 2, if the boss is buying breakfast :). For everything else we use the official channels.

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    6. fhqwhgads*

      If everyone has slack on their phone, I’d say nope, not inherently different at all. But then it’d be an odd choice to go with text instead of slack. If the reason it’s text on private numbers instead of slack is because not everyone puts slack on their phone, then it is different – and more invasive – even if there is no sneakiness or get-around-IT-intentionally-not-work-platforms.

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    7. Insert Clever Name Here*

      If I want to send a Teams message to my coworkers, I have to log in using 2FA and for my coworkers to get the notification, they also have to be logged in. Unless I’m already logged in (which I only am during the workday if I’ve already used Teams that day on my phone, which I don’t every day), it’s faster for me to send a group text. Usually that’s to everyone’s work cell though.

      Reply ↓
  3. nerak*

    IDK if it’s a red flag, but I’d be muting that chat pretty much immediately if I felt like I couldn’t leave it without causing a stir. The notifications on group chats on my phone drive me nuts (even on vibrate), and I prefer to go back through them and see if there’s anything “important” when I have a minute instead of having my phone blow up with constant vibration notifications.

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    1. Spider Plant Mom*

      It was a glorious day when notification settings allowed me to set specific conversations or groups to notify on Silent regardless of my overall phone setting. I can still see the preview in the notification panel but I’m not constantly distracted by a vibrating phone when others are going off on some tangent.

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      1. Ally McBeal*

        Amen. Sometimes my book club chat blows up while I’m at work, and I love my friends but I can’t be distracted like that, so they go on mute until I get home in the evenings.

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    2. Fluffy Fish*

      Yeah a couple times a colleague has tried to start a group chat on personal phones. I like everyone I work with but in the nicest of possible ways, when I’m not at work I really don’t want to talk to you.

      But that’s me and I know not everyone draws hard lines between work and personal.

      Not a red flag, just not for me.

      I would say that if not being able to leave without causing a stir would be a red flag. But in that case its not the groups chats existence, its the reaction that would be the red flag.

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    3. BethDH*

      Ours gets used about once a month, but I really wish you could turn off notifications for reactions to texts. I don’t need a bunch of buzzing as people confirm they saw a notice. People are great about the text part and only text absolutely essential and time sensitive things but then I get alerts for thumbs-up responses.

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    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      Yup. This is very much a “your mileage may vary” type of thing. A work group text chain being a flag is along the same lines as “what you can read from communication with a job prospect when you are looking for a job” – that is, anything can mean anything and what it actually means depends entirely on the situation.

      Reply ↓
  5. I WORKED on a Hellmouth*

    My new job has a group text! I’m not crazy about it, but it’s pretty inoffensive. It’s mostly just an endless round of “good morning!” (our start times are staggered, which is why I’m not crazy about it–I don’t wanna think about work before I have to be there, but it’s not a huge aggravation or anything) and sometimes bland pleasantries or weather complaints at the start of the day, but otherwise it only gets used if someone is out in the field and has a question or needs assistance with something. It’s pretty innocuous.

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    1. Sloanicota*

      I *hated* when my old office started a text chat because we already had email and slack – it’s like, how many different places do you want me to check for messages when I’m joining a meeting and nobody else is on? (this is why they call me a geriatric millennial, lol).

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      1. Sloanicota*

        However, it did make more sense once I realized all my coworkers were using slack and email on their phones anyway. So they were looking at one device, whereas I was stepping away from my laptop to go look at my phone in my purse. And the reason I keep my phone in my purse is my dumb*ss friends already text me all day haha.

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        2. I WORKED on a Hellmouth*

          Ha! The hallmark of geriatric millennials–we don’t want to answer the phone OR check our texts, lol.

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    2. Elizabeth West*

      I don’t really like having work peeps on my personal phone. Bosses are always in my contacts just in case I can’t make it in for some reason (or I can’t log in), and they’re usually in my Emergency contacts group in case of sudden onset hit-by-a-bus syndrome. I’ve never really been buddy-buddy with any coworkers. If we friend each other on social media, it’s usually after both of us have left the job.

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  6. Duke Flapjack*

    My company has a service tech chat but that pretty much consists of our dispatcher and manager asking if anybody can take an emergency service call. That’s a *little* different than here I think.

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  7. Correlation is not causation*

    I don’t think this is a red flag. We have a team chat that is pretty much used for ‘I’m starting at a meeting so I’ll be in at…’ or ‘kids are sick, I’m working from home if you need me’

    There is occasional social talk, but mostly it’s used to keep track of each other, and it’s very useful.

    That said – when I started I was asked if I would like to be on the text chat, I wasn’t automatically added, that might be the difference.

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    1. FricketyFrack*

      This is exactly how ours functions. There are only 5 of us, so it doesn’t get too out of hand, and if they’re chatting in the evening and I mute it because I go to bed early, no one is upset by that. I would hate if we didn’t have a group chat, tbh, because it would be a lot more of a hassle to communicate via email or in individual texts when everyone pretty much needs to be aware of what the others are up to.

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    2. Allonge*

      This – we have ‘I am having trouble connecting to the meeting’, ‘I have a thing in the morning, will be in later than usual’ and the emergency-style ‘is VPN acting up for everyone?’.

      Also we have a Eurovision live comment. That’s fun.

      Totally independent of this, my manager is Toxic TM. The text group predates her and please all that is holy will outlast her.

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  8. Jennifer Strange*

    I have no problem with group chat (though if every morning is inundated with “Good morning” greetings that would be annoying, but not toxic). Depending on the job, having a text chat can be helpful (for example, when I worked in fundraising being able to ping someone quickly was really important). That said, I would hope any group chat that is more social than work is confined to slack or something similar, not their phone.

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    1. Jennifer Strange*

      I should add: even if it’s for work information, unless it’s something you may need to be able to access on the move, something like slack would still be a better choice.

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    2. Beth*

      My very small (under 10 people) firm has a group chat on Teams, which is VERY useful. We also occasionally use group texts, sparingly, without anything awful so far. I value both and am very glad that all my co-workers seem to have good boundaries on the use.

      We’re in south Florida, and part of our hurricane response policy is that we all HAVE to have the ability to reach everyone by cell phone text — if the weather hits the fan, we have to tell everyone NOT to come to the office, stay home, stay safe, work normal hours remotely as feasible if you have power and internet, and check in occasionally so we know you’re safe. This is part of our Business Continuity Plan. It works, largely because nobody abuses it.

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      1. UKDancer*

        Yes we have a Teams chat for our team of people in the company. It’s mainly work, people talking about meetings etc. There’s a separate chat for social issues which is more “I’ve been to Tenerife and brought in cake” and “I’ve forgotten my phone charger, can anyone lend me one” type messages.

        We have a text group but it’s not really used much. It’s mainly in case there’s an issue such as a major incident bringing the IT system down or something like a major terrorist incident (like the 7/7 bombings). It’s part of the contingency plans we have in place but it’s barely used. People prefer the Teams chat every time.

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  9. Working Girl*

    I have to disagree. I think communication should take place through official channels such as company e-mail or Slack channels. Group chats leave people out, gang up on certain people, etc. Not necessarily a red flag, but very difficult to work in an environment where people are referencing things discussed in a group chat that you’re not a part of. It’s esp. difficult when a manager is the ring leader. I think group chats are unprofessional and have destroyed the workplace.

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    1. Jennifer Strange*

      It sounds like in this case everyone is added automatically, so no one is being left out. In terms of leaving people out, ganging up on certain people, and referencing discussed in a chat others weren’t a part of, these things have existed since long before group chats. Even today, those things can exist in email and slack channels (the two “official channels” you say communication should take place through).

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      1. Landry*

        Yeah, it’s pretty easy to send emails only to certain people and get a chain going, or create invitation-only Slack channels for a certain handful.

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    2. I'm just here for the cats!!*

      But what about if you are not ON those channels. having a group text for things like emergencies or last minute changes is good. Not everyone has their email or slack/teams on their phones.
      Take for example if the office building is unexpectedly closed so everyone has to pivot (do you work from home if you can? Do employees get the day off, etc). If someone is traveling an hour into the office and then gets there only to find out they got an email saying to stay home because theirs a water main leak and the building is closed. Well that employee is going to be angry that all they got was an email. There’s other times a text can be more useful than other means. For example, if part of the team works elsewhere and theres last minute change, it could be helpful to send a text, especially if they are unable to check their emails.
      It’s only a red flag if the chats are excessive with lots of good mornings, etc.

      Reply ↓
      1. Landry*

        Yeah, my team has a group chat but it’s used sparingly, usually just people checking in after a weather disaster which might hamper internet and other communications, a surprise office closure, etc.

        I do know that some other folks in my department have ongoing Teams chats that are limited to maybe three or four people. From what I’ve heard, they are pretty gossipy, although the participants like to frame it as more of a moral support type of thing. It’s a little cliquish but I don’t think it’s affecting anybody’s work or anything.

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    3. Ellis Bell*

      There’s definitely an argument for leaving communication on official channels only, but I think it depends on context and usage. I’ve seen it be both disastrous and essential, even within the same workplace. So, I am in a healthy workplace group chat that is used very professionally, is actually more inclusive and considerate than email, and messaging only happens during the workday. (A team of teachers and TAs who have to contact each other across the building in real-time, and a lot of the TAs don’t want to download emails onto their phone because senior leaders email people around the clock). Every now and then you’ll get something more social, like “Have a great break, everyone!” In contrast, the canteen staff just had their group chat shut down by the headteacher because it was horribly NSFW, messages at all hours, and the lines got very blurred. They also don’t need a messaging system because they’re all in one location within earshot of each other.

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    5. old curmudgeon*

      I don’t own (or want) a cell phone. If my employer suddenly started requiring people to participate in group text chats on personal cell phones, I’d either be out of the loop or out of a job.

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    6. Mark This Confidential And Leave It Laying Around*

      I work in a place where there are reporting and FOIA considerations, so I won’t let anyone text me on my personal phone. Because if Legal wants my work phone, fine, no problem, I got to tech and request another one. But my personal phone? Oh hell no. So we can all say good morning?

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    7. Fructose*

      100% with you on this – these groups *can* be exclusionary and cause more harm than good in the long run. I think it’s one of those kinda grey areas at the moment because it’s a fairly new thing and on personal cells but I wouldn’t be surprised if down the line some kind of HR policy about groups like this. It sounds heavy-handed and I hate that you have to legislate every little thing these days but I’ve left a job before because I was consistently excluded from these group chats. On a human level I get it that maybe they don’t want to include everyone, and maybe they shouldn’t have to, but you do you quickly descend into mean girls territory when certain people or types of people are excluded from these groups. At least if it’s on Slack or work cell phones there’s some element of professional standards and responsibility to include.

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  10. LadyAmalthea*

    We had one that was most active during Covid Work From Home measures and it was kind of handy. Some chat of the light, pleasant office chat variety, and a lot of checking to see if everyone else was also having IT issues.

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    1. I WORKED on a Hellmouth*

      Yeah, I’m pretty sure my new office’s group text is a holdover from when Covid kept everyone in the unit home. I think it just never stopped being used.

      Reply ↓
  11. Retail Dalliance*

    When I taught 6th grade, our team had a group chat (I was the history teacher, there was math, science, english etc) and we mostly used it to share hilarious anecdotes about the kids. Best use of the group chat was when a particularly unhinged student sent an email to the science teacher that simply said “prepare your ASS!!!!!!” I think I had tears streaming down my face hahaha

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  12. Samoth*

    The team I’m on has a group text as well, happy to report that there’s no issues here. It’s mostly used for when someone has an internet outage (we all are WFH), and occasionally when someone has a cute baby picture or pet picture or vacation pictures or something they’ll use that to share them to the team at large.

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    1. Random Tech Worker*

      Where I live there have been a number of weather related power outages over the last few months and a group text would’ve been very helpful in those situations.

      Reply ↓
  13. Nix*

    I have several group chats at work, but I’m a teacher, so we can’t be planning happy hours over official channels. And sometimes I need to get info to my department quickly; I think it’s about being minimal about using it

    Reply ↓
  14. Lady Lessa*

    We have a group text, but the 3 of us use it mainly for keeping us on the same page about absences, delays etc.

    I find it very convenient to find out if some is going to be late while I am driving in. (Phone blue toothed to car, which will read the message to me.)

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  15. Sloanicota*

    I would actually take this as a red flag unless it was clear why we couldn’t use slack/gchat/teams/some professional version of this. Why private texts? Why my cell phone, a non-work-device? Is it a field job or a job where a lot of people are away from their desks? It’s just asking people to blur the lines by sending memes or other stuff, probably outside of work.

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    1. Caramel & Cheddar*

      This is where I’m landing. I know there are lots of workplaces where staff don’t have access to apps like that, so a text-based group might make sense (e.g. a restaurant where the kitchen staff uses WhatsApp) but if we all sit in front of a computer all day, put all your chat stuff on Teams. I don’t want this kind of thing in my texts.

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    2. Mid*

      I’d say yellow flag at minimum. Does it mean people have boundary issues? That the company isn’t investing in proper technology to communicate? That people don’t trust management not to snoop on their chats?

      My workplace has lots of different group chats…all on our office messaging program. Some have more personal, friendly chatter on them. You can access it from your phone if you want. I don’t think anyone but HR has my cell number. I have a work number that forwards to my personal phone if needed. I also *hate* group texts with a burning passion, especially since reacting to messages became a thing (because if the group chat is mixed iPhone/Android, all message reactions become texts in the chat.)

      But yeah, while I like my coworkers, we aren’t really friends, and I don’t really want personal texts from them. Work related chats stay on work programs.

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    3. pennyforum*

      My office in incredibly tight on outside tech connecting to our network, like you can’t log in to outlook emails from an unauthorised (non-company) device tight.

      We have a group whatsapp for our 4 person department entirely used to advise wifi/electricity issues preventing us logging in when wfh and a separate one shared with 2 other departments managed by our grandboss for comms on issues when work networks are down or the office is closed for H&S reasons.

      But the office culture is very get in, get paid, get out, in general.

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  16. Tea Monk*

    We have a group text for our team but I mute it on weekends because I don’t care about paperwork during Sunday dinner. I think our boss finds it easier to text ” we all need to go to the Alpaca training” once instead of 5 times.

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  17. ER*

    I have a group chat with my coworkers that we call NMA: No Managers Allowed. We are all women; management is all men. The group chat is a lifesaver sometimes.

    Reply ↓
      1. ER*

        I don’t disagree but I promise that generally, this particular team is actually pretty great. The overall company…. not as great.

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  18. OrdinaryJoe*

    No flag in and of itself… We have a group chat and it’s primarily used as an FYI tool like others have said … appointments/in late, problem in the office like no internet (we have people rolling in several hours apart), reminders about stuff. Some of it is social for sure (here’s my new puppy we just picked up! sort of thing) but it never seems offensive and no pressure to participate.

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  19. ICodeForFood*

    I was on a team that was in multiple geographic locations, and we had a group text chate for when the Florida location was working from home (or not able to work) because of a hurricane. I don’t see it as a red flag, especially if the other team members are using their phones for email and Slack…

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    2. Beth*

      My tiny firm in south Florida has a group Teams chat for ordinary needs. Our hurricane response plan requires use of group texting, because that’s been more reliable than any other platform. Mostly, it’s so we can tell everyone “Do NOT come in, stay home, stay safe, keep in touch.”

      Worst case scenario, we’d have to coordinate work in a dispersed environment — only happend once in the last 20 years, but we’re required to have a Business Continuity Plan and that’s part of it.

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  20. Baroness Karnstein*

    My team has two group chats: one for work discussion on our work phones, and one for things like “I’m going to be late today” or “my ISP is down” where I use my personal phone. Socializing happens face to face when it happens.

    My workplace is for sure dysfunctional but this isn’t the dysfunctional part.

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  21. Viki*

    The work to personal number group chat (WhatsApp) is usually only utilized by people who are runners. Somehow several years back someone dared a VP to run a 5k, and it just became a thing that our company has a 5k sign up in the spring, and a group chat was formed for carpooling to the race and also some training.

    As it is, the chat usually gets a burst of activity in February and then sporadic training updates until May when everyone is using it to car pool and then photos of the race and then dead silent until the next February.

    People have added their spouses who are also running the 5K, so it’s become more of a running group chat over time.

    There might be more toxic group chats, but the only one I’m in, is just the 5K one

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  22. username*

    My shoulders automatically scrunch up to my ears thinking about being added to a group chat. It’s fine if it really is just to communicate information about snow days and so on, but it’s so easy for these things to develop a culture where it’s socially mandatory to say ‘hello’ every morning, react to everyone’s photos, lol at jokes. As an introvert who is really, really bad at multitasking I dread extra little social obligations that pull me away from work, even though I know some people find it easy and positive. It would be great if the chat could be there for chatty people and not for others, but there’s such a strong likelihood that either a) there is *sometimes* important information in the chat and b) people who don’t participate in this particular form of sociability get left out in other ways or stigmatized as rude and standoffish.

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  23. Dr. Vibrissae*

    We don’t have a group chat, but I agree they are no more inherently problematic than other group communications (eg Slack). It would be helpful, and probably enlightening to simply ask what the chat is used for.

    For instance, some of my coworkers can text me outside my office hours of there are problems I might need to deal with. I don’t typically check email on the weekends, but part of our business does operate on the weekends and there can be time sensitive issues the team might need advice or help with. A text chain in a small group can be very useful for that.

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  24. Unauthorized Plants*

    The only time I’ve ever messaged people I supervise or work with outside of work channels was to inform anyone who hadn’t checked work channels over the weekend for a Monday weather-related closure: the opt-in alert we should have gotten on our personal devices didn’t go out and there’s zero expectation to be monitoring communications outside of scheduled hours/heavy encouragement not to do so. But my org skews toward pretty formal vibes for office interaction (not a complaint in any way!).

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  25. sambal*

    My text inbox is my safe space. Friends, family, and colleagues *only* if I’m talking about something I don’t want my employer to see. If you start a work group text, you better be serving up some tea or else I’m muting it and never checking it ever again.

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  26. Zee*

    My last job had a group text chat. It was 90% people saying they were gonna be out sick or running late, or warning people about traffic or office conditions (e.g. “I just got here and the heat is broken, if you haven’t left already just wfh”). The other 10% was stuff like venting about a decision by higher-ups that we didn’t want on the record in our work-monitored IM system.

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  27. Dust Bunny*

    We have a department Teams chat (I guess it’s a chat?) that we basically use for stuff that is less important than email: “I’m in an Zoom meeting until noon”; “I’ll take the recycling bin out before I leave so if you need to put anything in it, do it before 4:00”; “My allergies are killing me today so I’m going to close my office door so y’all don’t have to listen to me cough, but feel free to come in”. That kind of thing. It gets used more or less daily but not constantly.

    We don’t respond to stuff after hours. The only time I have group-texted is if there is a possible obstacle to people getting home, such as flooding on a major road (we’re in an area where it can rain heavily)–“Don’t go up Cambridge. It’s flooded over the curb and full of stranded cars.”

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    1. Dust Bunny*

      I just checked: The last message on ours was yesterday at 10:00 in the morning. Not much going on today, I guess.

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  28. Not The Earliest Bird*

    We have a group text to see who wants to go out for lunch, and to remind people not to block the dumpster on Thursdays. Also used for mundane reminders like “Ms R from corporate will be in house on Tuesday” or “The Fire Inspector will be here on Wednesday and will be testing the alarms, don’t be alarmed.”

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  29. Key(board)master*

    Back when I worked in the space launch business, we had a group chat for everyone in our department, because for overnight or weekend launches we’d have some people on site before others, and if launch time changed, or launch was delayed or canceled, it was a good way to let everyone know ASAP before they, like, downed a cup of coffee at 11 p.m. or got on the road to come in or something.

    But in my smaller group (a subset of the larger group) we had a group chat just for bellyaching, or saying hello, or sharing memes, or whatever. It was just a few of us and we were a tight group. in fact we have all left that workplace but the group chat lives on. :)

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  30. Generic Name*

    I work in a department with a lot of new grads. Two of them are roomates. I would be shocked if there WASN’T a group text amongst them.

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  31. Feen*

    Did they just add you without even checking with you first? That’s kind of rude and presumptuous… what if you had a pay-as-you-go phone where each text costs you? Or you simply don’t need/want to be in constant contact with your coworkers? That would really annoy me.

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  32. Yes And*

    My team has a channel in our company IM system. We use it mostly to communicate work things that everyone needs to know. Outside of work hours, we use it to communicate things that impact work – Jane is sick and won’t be in today, Fergus needs to work from home to meet the plumber, that sort of thing. I find it really useful and nontoxic. I think that tools are tools, and they can be used for good or evil.

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  33. Sybil Writes*

    The one thing I would see as a red flag and a privacy violation would be if my personal phone number was added to a group text without my express permission. It is not OK for a company to provide one employee’s personal contact information to anyone, including other employees without permission. Full Stop. Group chats used for unofficial communication should be opt-in, not assumed. Groups used for official communication should not use personal devices without permission.
    Workplace violence is a real concern

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  34. Recently Promoted Cog*

    Doesn’t sound so different from the group Teams chat where we all check in every morning. Our team is hybrid with different in-office days AND supports field associates whose “office” is their car on the way to a field presentation or meeting, so group chat is basically the water cooler or copy room, as far as checking in on who is in the building, who is free to grab a task that has come up, etc. The difference is that Teams is a work product so everyone is on work-appropriate behavior, I guess?
    In our case, its a good thing. It gives us that feeling of connectedness when we’re all in separate rooms trying to get pieces of the same thing done. But I’ve never seen it used for catty or cliquey stuff (maybe that’s happening on a WhatsApp I haven’t been invited to? LOL!)

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  35. mango chiffon*

    If people are organizing at a workplace, that’s a very good reason to have a group chat outside of work accounts.

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  36. DoomScroller*

    We have two group chats:
    1. When one of us is on call and gets a highly specific question, we ask it in that chat. No one is obligated to answer in their free time, but it sometimes helping someone out beats doom scrolling on your phone.
    2. One is for our team specifically and is filled to the brim with pet pictures or a raised glass from a holiday destination (even if it is your own back yard).

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  37. Red Reader the Adulting Fairy*

    My team (which is a new team, we all joined from elsewhere in the org at the same time) has a group chat that we set up when we were all traveling for training, and used for things like “I’m going to take the hotel shuttle to (wherever) for dinner around 6 if anyone wants to go” or “the pub across the street is doing trivia at 7 if anyone is interested.” Since training ended, it’s been pretty silent.

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  38. NotmyUsualName*

    My small team in a mid size org has both a text thread (started pre-Covid) and a slack channel (covid and on)

    The slack channel is a mix of work and personal but is used exclusively during business hours

    The text chat is exclusively personal stuff, not overused nobody gets upset if people don’t respond. And rarely used during working hours.

    It is not a red flag that it exists, it is a flag based on how it gets used.

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  39. Anon1*

    Not inherently a red flag. I work in events. Our small team within a larger office has a group text that we use occasionally for important updates outside of normal hours. Mostly benign stuff like casual day reminders and our manager asking our Starbucks orders on days we have to come in early for events. We add new team members right away, so we have an easy way to be in touch with anything urgent.

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  40. The Dude Abides*

    I have a group chat with my team – came in handy when I was 2.5 hours late coming back from lunch due to needing six stitches in my face.

    It’s mostly used for keeping everyone apprised of a situation when the communicator is not at work (we don’t have work phones, and WFH is only sparingly permitted).

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  41. EA*

    This question made me reflect that the word toxic is so overused that it’s almost meaningless. I don’t see how a group chat could be “toxic” or a red flag just by existing, especially if no one is forced to use it.

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  42. Nowwhat465*

    Higher ed chiming in. Group text was used for the following reasons:

    1. For event weekends where we didn’t have our laptops on us and we were all different places on campus. This was faster than Teams as it didn’t require us digging for that app.
    2. Boss was getting donuts and wanted to know what flavors we wanted.
    3. There was free food somewhere on campus.
    4. There was a petting zoo somewhere on campus.

    The chat was not used outside of these instances.

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  43. Rotating Username*

    As far as the lead-off question goes:

    “Do you think it’s a red flag when a team in a smaller company immediately drops you into a group text on your personal phone upon hiring?”

    To me, that’s an unequivocal yes, that’s a red flag. An immediate blurring of personal and work boundaries without asking is a bright red flag.

    Group chats in general, plus all the other caveats–sure, not automatically a red flag. But sticking to that question, absolutely.

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  44. Silver Robin*

    It is really unclear what the purpose of the group chat is. My team is about 90% remote and we are all on Teams. Channels for the team at large, group chats for smaller combinations, and direct messaging for one-on-one. All of those are used for work related topics, including organizational sponsored get togethers, coordinating projects, etc. Nobody is saying good morning or anything like that; nor are people doing much “gossiping” in those chats. At least, my team is not, because I remind them not to put anything they do not want IT/management seeing in official channels.

    There are also informal group chats with personal numbers. They include the union chat (which has an official version on Teams that is rarely used) and work friend chats. Union chat is available to everyone who is in/interested in joining the union. Work friend chats are for coordinating getting together outside of work when a group of us is all in the office on the same day (“we are heading to x at 5, come join!”), sharing the very occasional meme, and issues at work that folks do not want to put in official channels (live commentary about leadership nonsense at town halls, for example). Not everyone on the team is in these chats, but that is because they come into the office on extreme occasion and generally seem less interested in post-work drinks (they say no when we ask, and we eventually stopped asking). These chats are helpful because then we can organize meeting up for dinner or whatever without folks needing to have Teams on their phone; they can actually disconnect from work.

    If a new person joins, they would not get automatically added to work friend group chats but they would be verbally invited to come with if they are also in the office. We have not had anyone new in over a year, so not sure how long it would take to get them in the group chat but I cannot imagine it would go longer than one or two in-person hang outs.

    None of this strikes me as red-flag worthy (or any flag); it is just an effect of being on a team that values friendly relationships (we do emotionally heavy work, it is important to be able to lean on your coworkers). Everyone on the team, regardless of which informal group chat they are in, works well with everyone else and folks feel professionally supported.

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  45. KayDeeAye*

    My not-perfect-but-definitely-non-toxic work team does have a group chat. We don’t use it all the time, though. It’s mostly used when we are at a meeting and we therefore know most of us aren’t sitting at our computers, but we sometimes use it to let people know about traffic issues or occasionally if someone is sick. We mostly use Teams for those “Kay is sick today” messages, but sometimes the chat works better if we know people aren’t at their desks. So…not a red flag, at least not an automatic red flag.

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  46. DNDL*

    The best small team I ever worked on had a group chat. It contained approximately 10% work chatter (“Gonna be late today; baby puked.” or “Heading to McD’s for lunch, who wants fries?”) and the rest was just cat and kid pics.

    I think a group chat *can* help morale and team building, but it can also go south quickly (or so I’m told).

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  47. Tiger Snake*

    I think group chats should be viewed as simply has normal practice in today’s world. WFH is now a part of our norm. You want to encourage a team to banter and forge good dynamics because that’s how we build a strong working relationship. When we’re not all in the same office, group chats are the way that happens.

    A toxic group chat is not super different to a toxic gossip circle in the office. When certain people are whispering and insulting others behind their back, the tool they use to do it isn’t what the problem is.

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  48. WFH4VR*

    I would never give out my personal phone number to be used for a work-related group chat anything. That’s what the business-sponsored G-chat is for. My personal phone number is for, you know, PERSONAL calls and texts, like the pediatrician or my mother-in-law.

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