They say that the golden rule and the core of all communications etiquette is that, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything." But in this day and age of social media and information accessibility, can the etiquette also say, "If you can't post something nice, don't post anything."
A good case in point was when Kelly Blazek, who runs the Cleveland Job Bank, got a good beating down when her email smackdown of a young job seeker named Diana Mekota, who contacted her through LinkedIn, went viral.
"Love the sense of entitlement in your generation. And therefore I enjoy denying your invite," read Blazek's poison pen letter, in part. "You're welcome for your humility lesson of the year. Don't ever reach out to senior practitioners again and assume their carefully curated list of connections is available to you, just because you want to build your network."
After a good head-over-heels dressing down, Mekota doesn't want to take everything sitting down and reflect on the blatant frankness which is spiced by truth from Blazek. She posted the complete email on Reddit, Imgur, and Facebook, along with these comments: "Guess us twenty somethings should bow down to senior professional because clearly we have nothing to offer," and "Let's call this lady out."
From there, it was like the dominoes came tumbling down as fast as the a torch thrown into a desert of parched tumbleweeds. During the social media firestorm that followed, Blazek deleted most of the contents of her blog and her LinkedIn, and took down her Twitter account.
But is Blazek really at fault here or she was just stating the obvious? There is nothing wrong with the request of Mekota for assistance, but the hard truth is that why would anybody share there resources with her at no cost? Why not work you butt off to acquire the status that Blazek achieved and used her reply as a motivational letter for her to do well for her self.
For anyone who uses email and social media, its hard no to cringe at this ugly debacle, over how Blazek's frankness and truthful narration on how life really is may have cost her so much. Her reputation has been trashed, and her online presence, upon which her job (sending email blasts to job seekers) depends, is dented – at least for the time being.
Meanwhile, Mekota could still be looking for somebody who will "spoonfeed" her information that will help push her career forward.
Blazek has already apologized, for her behavior, but many thought she should not have. In any case, check out the full letter of Blazek below and tell us how would you word your letter to Mekota without appearing rude and annoyed even if you have all the reasons in the world to feel that way?
A good case in point was when Kelly Blazek, who runs the Cleveland Job Bank, got a good beating down when her email smackdown of a young job seeker named Diana Mekota, who contacted her through LinkedIn, went viral.
"Love the sense of entitlement in your generation. And therefore I enjoy denying your invite," read Blazek's poison pen letter, in part. "You're welcome for your humility lesson of the year. Don't ever reach out to senior practitioners again and assume their carefully curated list of connections is available to you, just because you want to build your network."
After a good head-over-heels dressing down, Mekota doesn't want to take everything sitting down and reflect on the blatant frankness which is spiced by truth from Blazek. She posted the complete email on Reddit, Imgur, and Facebook, along with these comments: "Guess us twenty somethings should bow down to senior professional because clearly we have nothing to offer," and "Let's call this lady out."
From there, it was like the dominoes came tumbling down as fast as the a torch thrown into a desert of parched tumbleweeds. During the social media firestorm that followed, Blazek deleted most of the contents of her blog and her LinkedIn, and took down her Twitter account.
But is Blazek really at fault here or she was just stating the obvious? There is nothing wrong with the request of Mekota for assistance, but the hard truth is that why would anybody share there resources with her at no cost? Why not work you butt off to acquire the status that Blazek achieved and used her reply as a motivational letter for her to do well for her self.
For anyone who uses email and social media, its hard no to cringe at this ugly debacle, over how Blazek's frankness and truthful narration on how life really is may have cost her so much. Her reputation has been trashed, and her online presence, upon which her job (sending email blasts to job seekers) depends, is dented – at least for the time being.
Meanwhile, Mekota could still be looking for somebody who will "spoonfeed" her information that will help push her career forward.
Blazek has already apologized, for her behavior, but many thought she should not have. In any case, check out the full letter of Blazek below and tell us how would you word your letter to Mekota without appearing rude and annoyed even if you have all the reasons in the world to feel that way?
No comments:
Post a Comment