My employer is me.
I’m doing what my clients tell me, because it’s generally considered to be a good business practice to not argue with one’s clients unless you have a good reason to do so.
And that’s why if I was self employed I’d use another phone entirely or promote the usage of some other way of contacting me/us. Never would I have WhatsApp installed on my personal device (Dual SIM and all) since it’s my choice, which I can make.
Peer pressure, social norms, and even “bosses demanding you join their WhatsApp to communicate” is a non starter here.
I think it annoys my immediate boss that I use our corporate email for everything, or even simply calling them telling them the most menial of things.
Oh, it’s my choice to approach every potential client with a long-winded pitch about why I’m off the grid and don’t believe in telephones.
It’s just terrible for business, and since I do like to consume food to keep this sack of meat running, I don’t do that.
Look, there are two things happening here:
One, you don’t seem to get to what extent Meta has entirely replaced key parts of the communications infrastructure in several parts of the world. You may as well be advocating communication via carrier pigeon.
Two, you get a kick out of being the difficult contrarian weirdo that refuses to submit to the mainstream of modern tech because you work for some boss that thinks it’s worth getting your skills despite that song and dance, so there is no immediate downside. I know. Been there, done that. When you freelance you get way less precious about that, by necessity.
And yes, by the way, I do keep separate hardware and software environments to isolate some predatory applications to work hardware. That is viable. Just… not for Whatsapp. Because EVERYBODY uses it and I like my friends and family to keep talking to me, too.
That’s the thing…I do understand your qualms about having to use them even if it irks you no end because you’re ‘now not a weirdo’, and having run establishments prior to these days I find it amusing that you’re now required to indulge in sharing your contact list because it’s the “norm”.
Which is awesome because I somehow manage to keep in touch with fellow friends, colleagues, family and even talking to others on platforms such as this without conglomerates poking my metadata too as much.
edit: too > as
