Why To Avoid “WeChat” When Managing Chinese Employees

It’s the most widely used messaging and social media app in China, and its many users now include employees and employers communicating with each other. That’s not a good idea for either side, at least not when the communication is something of any potential legal consequence, warns employment lawyer Grace Yang. Among her recommendation to employers: Don’t do any kind of work-related negotiations via WeChat. Do not use WeChat outside of normal work hours to communicate anything related to work (it could become the basis for overtime claims or liabilities), and don’t count on anything expressed on WeChat to become part of a disciplinary record. “As a general matter, WeChat does not work well for record retention,” she says.