8 ms·

Talk About An Unprofessional LinkedIn Response

46 points by bhartzer 13y ago

livejamie 13y ago
I feel bad for this lady: http://i.imgur.com/reEDRLx.png http://i.imgur.com/reEDRLx.png
- exelius 13y ago
  Anyone who has an MBA and puts it in their title is asking for it. I mean really, who does that? Not anyone with an MBA from anywhere worthwhile...
  - mildtrepidation 13y ago
    That's phenomenally backwards...
    - exelius 13y ago
      Not really; if you got your MBA at a good school you learn that putting "MBA" in your title is a low-class thing to do. In most of the business world, everyone just expects you have one and will look up your LinkedIn profile to see where you went if they care.
dec0dedab0de 13y ago
Am I the only one who never heard of a job bank before?
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  I've never heard of one either, but it sounds like someone needs to start a competing one in that town...
  - gatehouse 13y ago
    Yeah I'm a little confused now too. If the operator of the job bank isn't interested in connecting with job seekers, then what is the point of it? Is it somewhere you send your unfilled jobs for safekeeping -- so that they won't be taken by uppity youngsters -- because that seems to be how she's running it.
  - mikeleeorg 13y ago
    Looks like someone just did: https://twitter.com/OtherNEOJobBank https://twitter.com/OtherNEOJobBank So far, it appears to be just a Twitter account that shares local job listings, but perhaps they are working on a formal email list and website too.
mattyohe 13y ago
Link is down, cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:75RHpg6MOnYJ:www.406northlane.com/blog/2014/02/talk-about-an-unprofessional-linkedin-response/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:75RHpg6...
MrZongle2 13y ago
Much ado about nothing. The individual who was on the receiving end of the LinkedIn request is right, even if her response to the 20-something went overboard. If she had stopped at "Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you, and tacky" we wouldn't have even known about it. While that would have been a brusque response, it was still correct. I hate cold calls, because every single one (for me) involves somebody trying to get something out of me without anything substantive in return. My experience may be atypical, and I acknowledge that not every cold call is like that. But this one reeks of "let me try to leech onto your network". The 20-something got backhanded, and has run crying to the social mob so that that mean, mean lady will get punished. Both parties could have handled this better. Unfortunately, the instigator of this whole affair has simply been rewarded for her clumsy and clueless actions by a) getting attention and b) ensuring that the person who hurt her feelings has been tarred and feathered.
- comrh 13y ago
  Just ignore the request and move on though. Certainly less energy than spewing an angry message.
- shadesandcolour 13y ago
  The recipient of this email responded in the comments of the post, and she sounds pretty genuine. People have preached LinkedIn to us 20-somethings since we started the job hunt junior year of university. This woman literally offers her network as a service to people, is it really that out of hand to assume that asking her to connect on LinkedIn would be a big deal. After all, she had just applied to be a part of this job board. Now, I think that the actual message of the response is fine. If you don't connect with people you don't know, that's fine. You can say as much, but going off a rant is just a waste of bits.
- buckbova 13y ago
  > Both parties could have handled this better. Bullshit. Kelly was a complete a-hole and deserves everything she gets. There were 100 different ways to handle this without insults. I don't even treat telemarketers this rudely.
johnjay 13y ago
I actually feel like the response was not without merit. Why do I feel like this? Well too many people in the past have asked me for favors before and after I've done them I barely get a thanks. I end up feeling used. After too many times of this happening to me you actually start to resent people and I have a feeling that that is what happened here. This 20 something's request was probably the straw that broke the camel's back.
loteck 13y ago
Summary of this tempest: Girl applies to join a "job bank" email group in Cleveland, in order to find a job. Girl feels like it's also a smart idea to connect with the operator of the email group on LinkedIn. Operator absolutely eviscerates girl for requesting the LinkedIn connection. Girl spreads operator's rude response around the internet. Operator is now sad, and has apologized.
- mildtrepidation 13y ago
  This is not a summary. It's an explanation that lacks a great deal of important context. If you're considering taking this at face value, go read the actual content of this exchange: You'll see very quickly why an apology was warranted, and how incredibly shallow it was.
icedchai 13y ago
Sounds like a "senior professional" is taking LinkedIn a little too seriously...
vbrendel 13y ago
She's clearly serious about this. From her blog: * 6. LinkedIn. Please do NOT shop through LinkedIn for all the important sounding senior practitioners in town, and ask them to connect. It comes across as bush league, it shows poor judgment, and you are ignoring the fundamental rule of connections – reciprocity. Networking is conducted between individuals who have met or worked with each other, and who can provide equal levels of help to each other. If I would be only the 5th connection you have on LinkedIn, and I’m bringing 800+ connections to the table, what you would get is the ability to harvest my contacts for job leads, and I get – absolutely nothing of use or interest out of accepting your invite. These types of wishful connection requests come across as self-serving and tacky. Of course, if you’ve been an intern for someone, please ask them to connect. Every professional I know bends over backwards to help their interns, give them recommendations, etc. However, if the only way you met a business leader was because they came to class to speak, please hold off on the presumptuous urge to ask them to connect with you. Right now, your LinkedIn connections should be classmates, professors and the people you worked for at internships or part-time jobs.
- mjolk 13y ago
  It's just linkedin, don't take it so seriously. It's just a website.
- duskwuff 13y ago
  I feel like there's something to this, but they're still missing the point a bit. The concept of LinkedIn connections is fundamentally supposed to be that they represent that these people know each other. It shouldn't be motivated by reciprocal "help", but it certainly shouldn't be indiscriminate either!
ingsoc79 13y ago
Typical Millennial response. You hurt my feelings so I'm going to shame you on social media! Good luck to anyone willing to step in the legal & PR minefield of employing this girl.
- icedchai 13y ago
  Oh no, not social media!!! Please, don't post on twitter!!!
- Noted 13y ago
  Typical non-millennial response to not know how to tactfully deal with declining connection requests? I fail to see how this "Senior Professional"'s response doesn't warrant the reaction she's received when she runs a job board.
- JakeStone 13y ago
  Yeah... I'm not a Millenial, and I might have been tempted to forward the response with a "WTF?" preceding it to a few select friends. Seriously, I've received a few LinkedIn requests from obvious scam accounts or some kids I that I never met, but we have a connection or two in common. The scammers I ignore. The earnest strangers, I tend to tell, "Hi! Thanks for the connection request, but I think LinkedIn works best for me when the connections are people I've actually worked with in one form or another." This job bank woman stepped way over the line as far as I can see.
- MrZongle2 13y ago
  Gen X-er here. The downvoting your post is receiving makes me think that there might be some truth to it. But in fairness to the Millennials, my generation also has more than its fair share of thin-skined entitlement children. As is the case with the Baby Boomers. You could make the case that the offensive response in question might reflect her sense of entitlement.
- darkarmani 13y ago
  > Typical Millennial response. You hurt my feelings so I'm going to shame you on social media! I'm not sure you understand how shame or social mediaworks. You can't shame someone unless they've actually done something shameful. Things don't go viral unless there is something there.
jnevill 13y ago
So... people actually use linkedin? I was under the assumption, after years and years of emails from linkedin, that it's really just a crowd-sourced spam generator. Is that not the case? mind.blown(<really big number>)
- mindcrime 13y ago
  Um, yeah... LinkedIn is an amazingly useful tool in many ways. Yes, being on there can result in the occasional incoming spam message, but a lot of us find the value far outweighs that minor detriment.
  - Anderkent 13y ago
    Occasional spam message? I have yet to get a linked-in notification that's not spam. "Hi, I noticed you ask to connect to people who you've worked with before, but I'm a recruiter so I don't give a shit."
    - mindcrime 13y ago
      I don't know what to tell you. All I can say is that for me, the benefits outweigh the negatives. But then again, maybe I care less about spam than a lot of people, as I lean pretty heavily towards the "no big deal, it's easy enough to ignore" worldview. Or maybe it's just normalized pain, who knows? I just know I wouldn't quit LinkedIn over spam messages, at least not as things stand today. shrug
asdfologist 13y ago
As much as Blazek acted completely out of line, I applaud her for making a real apology: "I sincerely apologize for the harsh words and unprofessional, unwarranted actions in my response to you... I should have lent a hand, as well as hope, and I failed at that. You and many others, both strangers and colleagues, have reminded me that my personal journey in humility and gentleness is far from complete. I wish you all the best in your job search. Respectfully, Kelly Blazek," [0] It's not one of those lame "I'm sorry if you were offended" or "I used the wrong choice of words" non-apologies, which are all too common these days. [0] http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/kelly_blazek_restarts_her_job_bank_twitter_account_with_an_apology_and_the_hashtag_letcitydown.html http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/kelly_bl...
- scott_s 13y ago
  Almost. I hate any variant of the phrasing "I apologize." It still serves to distance yourself from the apology. An apology is a thing. You can say that another person apologizes. But "I apologize" is not, in itself, an apology. An apology is saying "I am sorry." The reason I care is that I think it takes more humility to say the simple words "I am sorry" than "I apologize." Saying "I am sorry" is an admission of feeling. Saying "I apologize" is trying to narrate at event that did not actually happen.
  - asdfologist 13y ago
    I think you're taking the words too literally. Colloquially they mean pretty much the same thing, though "I apologize" has a more formal tone.
    - scott_s 13y ago
      They mean the same thing colloquially because people are uncomfortable saying the words "I'm sorry." They want the formality to separate themselves from the awkwardness and frankness of admitting an emotional state.
      - 13y ago
incision 13y ago
>"...if I shared my 960+ LinkedIn connections with you - a total stranger who has nothing to offer me." It never occurred to me that someone could have so much self-worth tied up in their LinkedIn connection list. Funny thing is, it's actually reassuring that this is notable enough to go viral and universally decried. Just swap jobseeking for technology help, 960 connections for 27,000 posts and you're looking at one of millions of noob scorchings that have been taking place since BBS. Being smug, needlessly nasty and aggressively dismissive isn't just ignored in these circles - it's often applauded.
- MrZongle2 13y ago
  Funny thing is, it's actually reassuring that this is notable enough to go viral and universally decried. I believe the opposite. Before online social networking trivialized human relationships, rude behavior in a private exchange would have resulted in the recipient of the rudeness evaluating the other as an a-hole and might share the story with a few friends. Now it's a front-page story. It is a perfect example of how thin-skinned and polarized our society has become.
mikeleeorg 13y ago
I've always taken an approach of "always be respectful to everyone" - not just to be a kind person, but also because you never know when someone may reciprocate that kindness. In some cases, mere acquaintances have turned around to introduce me to job candidates, customers, business partners, etc. This approach works in the social world too, in terms of dating ;-)
chrishoog 13y ago
Link is down - here's to file: http://imgur.com/gallery/71sQ92K http://imgur.com/gallery/71sQ92K
mathattack 13y ago
The excessiveness of the response suggests that the writer has some kind of mental health issues. If you're in the "help people get jobs" business, this is exactly the type of connection that you should want.
mrjatx 13y ago
Wow. I'm "Senior Level" and I absolutely love speaking with people who are interested in entering my field. I even teach classes and hold relevant meetups. I expected the comments about her reply to be exaggerated, but they aren't. At all. That was absolutely disgusting to read.

46 points by bhartzer 13y ago

livejamie 13y ago

I feel bad for this lady: http://i.imgur.com/reEDRLx.png http://i.imgur.com/reEDRLx.png

exelius 13y ago
Anyone who has an MBA and puts it in their title is asking for it. I mean really, who does that? Not anyone with an MBA from anywhere worthwhile...
- mildtrepidation 13y ago
  That's phenomenally backwards...
  - exelius 13y ago
    Not really; if you got your MBA at a good school you learn that putting "MBA" in your title is a low-class thing to do. In most of the business world, everyone just expects you have one and will look up your LinkedIn profile to see where you went if they care.

dec0dedab0de 13y ago

Am I the only one who never heard of a job bank before?

nsxwolf 13y ago
I've never heard of one either, but it sounds like someone needs to start a competing one in that town...
- gatehouse 13y ago
  Yeah I'm a little confused now too. If the operator of the job bank isn't interested in connecting with job seekers, then what is the point of it? Is it somewhere you send your unfilled jobs for safekeeping -- so that they won't be taken by uppity youngsters -- because that seems to be how she's running it.
- mikeleeorg 13y ago
  Looks like someone just did: https://twitter.com/OtherNEOJobBank https://twitter.com/OtherNEOJobBank So far, it appears to be just a Twitter account that shares local job listings, but perhaps they are working on a formal email list and website too.

mattyohe 13y ago

Link is down, cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:75RHpg6MOnYJ:www.406northlane.com/blog/2014/02/talk-about-an-unprofessional-linkedin-response/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:75RHpg6...

MrZongle2 13y ago

Much ado about nothing. The individual who was on the receiving end of the LinkedIn request is right, even if her response to the 20-something went overboard. If she had stopped at "Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you, and tacky" we wouldn't have even known about it. While that would have been a brusque response, it was still correct. I hate cold calls, because every single one (for me) involves somebody trying to get something out of me without anything substantive in return. My experience may be atypical, and I acknowledge that not every cold call is like that. But this one reeks of "let me try to leech onto your network". The 20-something got backhanded, and has run crying to the social mob so that that mean, mean lady will get punished. Both parties could have handled this better. Unfortunately, the instigator of this whole affair has simply been rewarded for her clumsy and clueless actions by a) getting attention and b) ensuring that the person who hurt her feelings has been tarred and feathered.

comrh 13y ago
Just ignore the request and move on though. Certainly less energy than spewing an angry message.
shadesandcolour 13y ago
The recipient of this email responded in the comments of the post, and she sounds pretty genuine. People have preached LinkedIn to us 20-somethings since we started the job hunt junior year of university. This woman literally offers her network as a service to people, is it really that out of hand to assume that asking her to connect on LinkedIn would be a big deal. After all, she had just applied to be a part of this job board. Now, I think that the actual message of the response is fine. If you don't connect with people you don't know, that's fine. You can say as much, but going off a rant is just a waste of bits.
buckbova 13y ago
> Both parties could have handled this better. Bullshit. Kelly was a complete a-hole and deserves everything she gets. There were 100 different ways to handle this without insults. I don't even treat telemarketers this rudely.

johnjay 13y ago

I actually feel like the response was not without merit. Why do I feel like this? Well too many people in the past have asked me for favors before and after I've done them I barely get a thanks. I end up feeling used. After too many times of this happening to me you actually start to resent people and I have a feeling that that is what happened here. This 20 something's request was probably the straw that broke the camel's back.

loteck 13y ago

Summary of this tempest: Girl applies to join a "job bank" email group in Cleveland, in order to find a job. Girl feels like it's also a smart idea to connect with the operator of the email group on LinkedIn. Operator absolutely eviscerates girl for requesting the LinkedIn connection. Girl spreads operator's rude response around the internet. Operator is now sad, and has apologized.

mildtrepidation 13y ago
This is not a summary. It's an explanation that lacks a great deal of important context. If you're considering taking this at face value, go read the actual content of this exchange: You'll see very quickly why an apology was warranted, and how incredibly shallow it was.

icedchai 13y ago

Sounds like a "senior professional" is taking LinkedIn a little too seriously...

vbrendel 13y ago

She's clearly serious about this. From her blog: * 6. LinkedIn. Please do NOT shop through LinkedIn for all the important sounding senior practitioners in town, and ask them to connect. It comes across as bush league, it shows poor judgment, and you are ignoring the fundamental rule of connections – reciprocity. Networking is conducted between individuals who have met or worked with each other, and who can provide equal levels of help to each other. If I would be only the 5th connection you have on LinkedIn, and I’m bringing 800+ connections to the table, what you would get is the ability to harvest my contacts for job leads, and I get – absolutely nothing of use or interest out of accepting your invite. These types of wishful connection requests come across as self-serving and tacky. Of course, if you’ve been an intern for someone, please ask them to connect. Every professional I know bends over backwards to help their interns, give them recommendations, etc. However, if the only way you met a business leader was because they came to class to speak, please hold off on the presumptuous urge to ask them to connect with you. Right now, your LinkedIn connections should be classmates, professors and the people you worked for at internships or part-time jobs.

mjolk 13y ago
It's just linkedin, don't take it so seriously. It's just a website.
duskwuff 13y ago
I feel like there's something to this, but they're still missing the point a bit. The concept of LinkedIn connections is fundamentally supposed to be that they represent that these people know each other. It shouldn't be motivated by reciprocal "help", but it certainly shouldn't be indiscriminate either!

ingsoc79 13y ago

Typical Millennial response. You hurt my feelings so I'm going to shame you on social media! Good luck to anyone willing to step in the legal & PR minefield of employing this girl.

icedchai 13y ago
Oh no, not social media!!! Please, don't post on twitter!!!
Noted 13y ago
Typical non-millennial response to not know how to tactfully deal with declining connection requests? I fail to see how this "Senior Professional"'s response doesn't warrant the reaction she's received when she runs a job board.
JakeStone 13y ago
Yeah... I'm not a Millenial, and I might have been tempted to forward the response with a "WTF?" preceding it to a few select friends. Seriously, I've received a few LinkedIn requests from obvious scam accounts or some kids I that I never met, but we have a connection or two in common. The scammers I ignore. The earnest strangers, I tend to tell, "Hi! Thanks for the connection request, but I think LinkedIn works best for me when the connections are people I've actually worked with in one form or another." This job bank woman stepped way over the line as far as I can see.
MrZongle2 13y ago
Gen X-er here. The downvoting your post is receiving makes me think that there might be some truth to it. But in fairness to the Millennials, my generation also has more than its fair share of thin-skined entitlement children. As is the case with the Baby Boomers. You could make the case that the offensive response in question might reflect her sense of entitlement.
darkarmani 13y ago
> Typical Millennial response. You hurt my feelings so I'm going to shame you on social media! I'm not sure you understand how shame or social mediaworks. You can't shame someone unless they've actually done something shameful. Things don't go viral unless there is something there.

jnevill 13y ago

So... people actually use linkedin? I was under the assumption, after years and years of emails from linkedin, that it's really just a crowd-sourced spam generator. Is that not the case? mind.blown(<really big number>)

mindcrime 13y ago
Um, yeah... LinkedIn is an amazingly useful tool in many ways. Yes, being on there can result in the occasional incoming spam message, but a lot of us find the value far outweighs that minor detriment.
- Anderkent 13y ago
  Occasional spam message? I have yet to get a linked-in notification that's not spam. "Hi, I noticed you ask to connect to people who you've worked with before, but I'm a recruiter so I don't give a shit."
  - mindcrime 13y ago
    I don't know what to tell you. All I can say is that for me, the benefits outweigh the negatives. But then again, maybe I care less about spam than a lot of people, as I lean pretty heavily towards the "no big deal, it's easy enough to ignore" worldview. Or maybe it's just normalized pain, who knows? I just know I wouldn't quit LinkedIn over spam messages, at least not as things stand today. shrug

asdfologist 13y ago

As much as Blazek acted completely out of line, I applaud her for making a real apology: "I sincerely apologize for the harsh words and unprofessional, unwarranted actions in my response to you... I should have lent a hand, as well as hope, and I failed at that. You and many others, both strangers and colleagues, have reminded me that my personal journey in humility and gentleness is far from complete. I wish you all the best in your job search. Respectfully, Kelly Blazek," [0] It's not one of those lame "I'm sorry if you were offended" or "I used the wrong choice of words" non-apologies, which are all too common these days. [0] http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/kelly_blazek_restarts_her_job_bank_twitter_account_with_an_apology_and_the_hashtag_letcitydown.html http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/kelly_bl...

scott_s 13y ago
Almost. I hate any variant of the phrasing "I apologize." It still serves to distance yourself from the apology. An apology is a thing. You can say that another person apologizes. But "I apologize" is not, in itself, an apology. An apology is saying "I am sorry." The reason I care is that I think it takes more humility to say the simple words "I am sorry" than "I apologize." Saying "I am sorry" is an admission of feeling. Saying "I apologize" is trying to narrate at event that did not actually happen.
- asdfologist 13y ago
  I think you're taking the words too literally. Colloquially they mean pretty much the same thing, though "I apologize" has a more formal tone.
  - scott_s 13y ago
    They mean the same thing colloquially because people are uncomfortable saying the words "I'm sorry." They want the formality to separate themselves from the awkwardness and frankness of admitting an emotional state.
    - 13y ago

incision 13y ago

>"...if I shared my 960+ LinkedIn connections with you - a total stranger who has nothing to offer me." It never occurred to me that someone could have so much self-worth tied up in their LinkedIn connection list. Funny thing is, it's actually reassuring that this is notable enough to go viral and universally decried. Just swap jobseeking for technology help, 960 connections for 27,000 posts and you're looking at one of millions of noob scorchings that have been taking place since BBS. Being smug, needlessly nasty and aggressively dismissive isn't just ignored in these circles - it's often applauded.

MrZongle2 13y ago
Funny thing is, it's actually reassuring that this is notable enough to go viral and universally decried. I believe the opposite. Before online social networking trivialized human relationships, rude behavior in a private exchange would have resulted in the recipient of the rudeness evaluating the other as an a-hole and might share the story with a few friends. Now it's a front-page story. It is a perfect example of how thin-skinned and polarized our society has become.

mikeleeorg 13y ago

I've always taken an approach of "always be respectful to everyone" - not just to be a kind person, but also because you never know when someone may reciprocate that kindness. In some cases, mere acquaintances have turned around to introduce me to job candidates, customers, business partners, etc. This approach works in the social world too, in terms of dating ;-)

chrishoog 13y ago

Link is down - here's to file: http://imgur.com/gallery/71sQ92K http://imgur.com/gallery/71sQ92K

mathattack 13y ago

The excessiveness of the response suggests that the writer has some kind of mental health issues. If you're in the "help people get jobs" business, this is exactly the type of connection that you should want.

mrjatx 13y ago

Wow. I'm "Senior Level" and I absolutely love speaking with people who are interested in entering my field. I even teach classes and hold relevant meetups. I expected the comments about her reply to be exaggerated, but they aren't. At all. That was absolutely disgusting to read.