LinkedIn Put My Corporate Career Through a Paper Shredder

The untold story of what LinkedIn did to my career that I’m not to supposed to share

Image Credit: StockUnlimited

Social media is promoted as being amazing for your career.

It’s supposed to lubricate your soul. Everybody tells you at work to build a personal brand and share interesting insights with your network. HR and marketing teams even run workshops at most companies to help employees use LinkedIn. Social media is one big happy picnic with cupcakes, sugar, that can cause your career to explode.

Nope.

There’s a dark side to social media.

Freedom of speech doesn’t matter in the corporate world

When I started one job I got told to stop posting on LinkedIn — or any social media platform. The ask took me by surprise. I wouldn’t give up writing even if you put a gun to my head. I live to write, not to work a job.

Social media is where we go to express ourselves. When we express ourselves we feel free. It helps us make sense of the world. It allows us to gain feedback. The corporate giant I worked for didn’t care.

Corporations want you to shut up, not have an opinion, get back to work, and not stand too tall (else they’ll slap you down to size). They want you to wait your turn, precious, until it’s time for your tiny promotion and $1k pay rise that doesn’t even keep up with inflation.

When I got told to shut up I pretended to listen. Then I kept writing on social media anyway. I covered my tracks by not tagging my employer on LinkedIn. There are times in life where you’ve got to go “fuggit … I’m doing it anyway.”

I got away with my LinkedIn addiction because, even though I can sometimes share polarizing opinions to make people think (not agree), I nailed the intent. My intent is to inspire people through writing. It’s hard for a corporation to argue with that. So they turned a blind eye as long as I didn’t name companies or people in my content.

Takeaway: Don’t name and shame in your content. You can get away with a lot at work when you resist the temptation. Plus, it’s an unofficial rule of the content creator’s…