Our work practices are changing rapidly because of the pandemic and I am coming under intense pressure to start using "WhatsApp". In fact, I have been more or less ordered to go buy a smartphone I don't need.
Outnumbered 20+: 1 I have few political options.
I wondered about running it on the computer but when I saught tutorials on its installation Mr Google was not my friend.
HELP!
(I currently have no mobile 'phone.)
whatsapp seem to need a phone (which you dont have) to scan a QRcode ...
is skypeforlinux an option?
Not to be snarky, but it seems you do need a smartphone to keep your job 
I feel for you: phones can be had for little or nothing, but you have to pay the monthly fee.
From both the WhatsApp website and the Wikipedia article, their app can run on a desktop, but ONLY when the mobile phone remains connected.
At least in the US, if an employer were to require this of an employee, then the employer would be required to furnish the phone and pay the monthly bill. Is that different in the UK?
If they are really stuck on that one piece of software, and other phone and messaging software won't do, you may either have to ask them to furnish, or suck it up and do it yourself, or quit.
For video link, I use Zoom for Linux--works seamlessly, and also has a Chrome extension as well as a native Linux client.
As mentioned, you do need a compatible smartphone - iOS or Android - to use WhatsApp. Only then can it be used in a web browser, but everything still happens on the phone.
The problem is - WhatsApp requires a phone number, so you might be able to install Android x86 into a virtual machine on your computer. That might work assuming it doesn't start complaining about no SIM card being present. You can download the APK to install here if you don't wish to register for a Google Account for Google Play:
WhatsApp doesn't seem a professional tool for work purposes, you could suggest other tools built for business like Slack (free), Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts (if using G Suite) or even stick to plain old e-mail.
Thanks guys. At least if I'm forced into that shop I know that I had no other option.
To answer your points more specifically, I'm not an employee; and I can't change a system that 20+ of the others are sold on, even though I suspect it'll be crap.
I'll go for the cheapest and shortest option and hopefully chuck it in the bin sometime in the summer.
You don't need sim card, in your phone to use whatsapp web and call contacts you have already installed on your whatasapp. But, you do need a sim card and mob number to install it and then add new contacts. I think
What about Android development environment and WhatsApp in the smartphone emulator? 
I have surrendered and ordered the 'phone.
On the up side my neices say they are happy as the want me in their group (whatever that means). Clearly a world of discovery awaits!
Thank you all though.
Facebook bought Whatsapp, that's when I stopped using it. Privacy is what counts.
I use Telegram since that time, my friends and family use it too,
but at the school where my daughters study they use whatsapp and I was forced to use it.
I have an old phone with a new SIM and no contacts in the agenda, that sim only use it for whatsapp, has 2 Gb of internet, but the phone is almost always connected to wifi. I check every 4 days if I have to charge it,
This allows me to use whatsapp on my computer and mobile phone with Ubuntu touch.
It's like another e-mail address.
It's just to give me information and connect me to the school, I don't use it for anything else.
With an old or second-hand phone it does the job.
Greetings...
This story had a fairly happy ending, BTW. WhatsDesk has given me contact with friends, relatives and neighbours; mostly positive.