Many years ago, I was in an “unofficial” WhatsApp chat group with colleagues which was filled with fun and laughter.
We made jokes and irreverent comments about the school management.
(I am sure many people reading this can relate to what I said.
Chat groups with management inside cannot speak truthfully. Everyone must say politically correct things and cannot talk nonsense).
Then one day, someone in this chat group must have been unhappy with someone else in the chat group. That person went to show someone in management (a Vice-Principal) our chat group!
As I understand it, the school leader took screenshots and emailed them to himself!
I can’t remember most of the stuff we said in that group but surely, words used in a private chat cannot be used for official appraisal. How would that even happen? Will the screenshots be shown on the projector for the ranking committee to discuss?
No one in management spoke to me the stuff I posted in that group.
When I heard about this screenshot business, I was furious with the breach of trust.
But now that so many years have passed, I find it both funny and sad. Funny because human beings can be so silly. Sad because human relations can be so fragile.