Let me start by saying I work retail. That’s it. Just low-paying minimum wage retail. So frankly I don’t see a reason why I would need to download a “communication app.” I already downloaded the app that lets me see my schedule and work related emails, now they want us to get a second one specifically for communication.
When my manager first brought it up, I obviously said no as did most of my coworkers, and my manager agreed with us. But it’s been a few months since then, and now my managers higher ups are bugging her about why most of her staff don’t have the app. She has to occasionally ask us again if we would get the app (I can tell she hates asking). It’s still an easy no. But now they’re making her write down the reason WHY we each individually won’t get it. I just flat out said “I don’t want it.” Manager completely agrees and writes it down. I felt a bit bad for her, so I told her “tell them I don’t feel comfortable downloading anymore work-related apps on my personal phone. They should give us work phones if they want that.” My manager says “that’s what I told them when they first started all this! And it’s ridiculous that one minute they say no phones on the floor, but now they want us to check our phones frequently?” She’s not super great with tech stuff, so she especially hates it lmao.
So yeah! They’re getting super pushy about it lately. They can’t actually force us to download it, can they? Like these are our personal phones, there’s no way they can have any say in what goes on them, right? Right?