WhatsApp at work: orders received have no legal value, no sanctions if you ignore them – okmugello.it © N. c.

In the case of instructions sent via informal messages, such as those on WhatsApp, the teacher has no obligation to execute. This is why there is no disciplinary sanction.

When a assistant to the school director submit a service order via WhatsApp-perhaps changing the timetable and asking the teacher to accompany a class away from home-we enter a gray area which, from a regulatory point of view, is anything but legitimate. The case raised by a teacher, who claims to not wanting to follow the order received via message opens a basic question: what are the valid channels for giving official orders and what are the rights of the teacher what if you decide not to execute orders sent informally?

Service orders: only registered ones are mandatory

in our school system, a service order addressed to a teacher – such as changing the timetable, taking part in an outing or making up time – must be official, traceable and documented.This means it has to pass by an institutional channel, with protocol number and signature of the school director or his formally recognized delegate.

Sending operating instructions via WhatsApp, although frequent in the daily practice of schools, it has no formal validity.The teacher, from a legal point of view, is not required to accept or follow up to similar communications. WhatsApp, as private and non-institutional channel, it is indeed not expected among the official tools for managing relations between public administration and employees.