Fired Because of LinkedIn?

3 Tips for Avoiding Your Employer’s Wrath

Jan. 5, 2012 | By Kelly Donovan, CPRW

The Internet has been buzzing today with news about a UK executive who is suing his former employer over a dispute involving his LinkedIn.com profile.

Based on the article about it on MailOnline, the gist is that BG Group dismissed John Flexman after viewing his LinkedIn profile and having concerns with it.

This news might be alarming to some job seekers, but I’m still a huge supporter of job seekers using LinkedIn.

According to MailOnline, the firm’s beefs were:

• that Flexman was in breach of a new conflict-of-interest policy that bans employees from checking the check box on LinkedIn that indicates an interest in career opportunities;
• and that Flexman mentioned bad practices at the company to make himself look good.

According to the article, Flexman said the company “had a vendetta against him and had started a witch-hunt to get him ‘booted out.’”

Whatever the case me be, it’s an unfortunate story for those involved. But don’t write off social networking. LinkedIn offers incredible opportunities to both active and passive job seekers.

For example, I have a client whose LinkedIn profile recently garnered interest from a recruiter for a Fortune 500 company. The client is now in contact with the recruiter, applying for a six-figure job, and the recruiter seems very interested. The client has a very good shot at the position–an opportunity that wouldn’t have presented itself if the client hadn’t been on LinkedIn.

Furthermore, recent research has revealed that 89% of employers were recruiting or planning to recruit using social networking websites in 2011, with LinkedIn being their No. 1 choice.

So, you don’t want to be left out just because one guy got fired, do you? There are ways you can be on LinkedIn without rubbing your employer the wrong way.

Here are some pointers (as always, consult with an attorney on legal issues pertaining to your particular situation).

1. Find out if your employer has a social media policy.

2. Don’t check the box on LinkedIn that indicates you’re interested in career opportunities if your job search is confidential (or if you’re truly not looking for a job).

Keep in mind that an employer or recruiter who’s interested in you probably won’t be deterred from contacting you just because you didn’t check that box. Employers LOVE so-called passive candidates!

3. Don’t include sensitive information pertaining to your employer.

Negative information

According to MailOnline, Flexman’s former employer was upset that he had included negative information about the company. This is a dilemma that sometimes arises in resume writing–the need to show how much you improved a department, project, or company without sounding like you’re trashing the company.

You’ll impress employers by saying that you “increased sales 37%…” but you’ll make enemies if you say you “reversed a sales downturn that occurred due to mismanagement.” You wouldn’t want your employer reading that, and the negativity could turn off other employers. Plus, it’s not necessary.

Another issue is information that could damage customer relationships. For example, would the company want customers to see on an employee’s profile that he’d increased profits 25% by reducing costs on a particular product, while increasing the product’s price? This might be acceptable on a resume distributed selectively, but it’s not really fit for the world to see, so I’d keep it off LinkedIn.

Proprietary information

As with the issue of negative information, the issue of proprietary information comes up all the time in resume writing. We want to demonstrate accomplishments and the level of your responsibility, so including dollar amounts can be impressive. But it’s important to do that without revealing information your employer needs to keep confidential.

So, for example, instead of saying that you “managed a $10 million territory…” you might indicate that you “managed an eight-figure territory” to give a general idea of the scope without revealing proprietary data that competitors shouldn’t know.

You should always be careful about what you reveal on a resume, as prospective employers could be turned off if they think you’re the type of employee who can’t be trusted with confidential information.

When creating a LinkedIn profile for a client, I like go through and make a few minor edits to the job descriptions from the resume since the LinkedIn profile will be visible to a broader audience.  (This is in addition to writing a conversational summary just for LinkedIn.)

The bottom line

There are always risks when it comes to employment, but I know that having a LinkedIn presence would be a risk I would take if I were an employee at a company instead of being a business owner.

This article should not be construed as legal advice; you should always seek legal advice from an attorney if you need it.