Dear Men on LinkedIn - Trend

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not intend to ridicule or insult anyone. These views and opinions depend upon several factors including, unprofessional behavior, lack of maturity or awareness, unwanted/wanted stereotyping, baseless sexual biasness, and sharing of the screenshots of people without their consent by some professionals on LinkedIn. The purpose of this blog post is to spread awareness and help people grow. Therefore, I request the readers to read the blog completely before concluding.

 Most of you must have seen posts on LinkedIn referring to other professionals, mostly men. The purpose of such posts is to highlight the inappropriate behavior depicted by most men on LinkedIn and to promote hatred by defining "Dear Men on LinkedIn", in the post title.

 Now, you might be wondering why I concluded that the motive behind such posts is to promote hatred and disrespecting someone. Well, because I am not an idiot and neither are you. Let's dive into details with an example. If you have done something wrong, would you like it to be discussed with everyone publicly or prefer to be discussed privately? Before reading further, I want you all to answer this. 

Normally, when you intend to guide someone towards betterment, you talk to the person privately and tell, "Please don't do this/it's not appropriate" etc. That's how things work and that's how mature people guide others.

When something goes public, you cannot control the outcome because every individual will understand it differently. I.e. some will take it positively while others negatively, some will try to give their opinion whereas some will try to impose it. Most importantly, there will always be issues and sometimes these go beyond anybody's control. 

Now, most of you do not know but I am a feminist and I want women to have equal rights. They do! Islam has already given them these rights 1400 years ago. However, if I am against injustice towards women then I am against the prejudice against men as well, such as a sexually biased, stereotypical statement against men. I.e. "All men are trash" but this is a topic for some other time. 

Reasons why we see posts like this on LinkedIn?

There are a variety of possible reasons for this that I will discuss now but the most important is the inappropriate behavior of some male professionals with women professionals on LinkedIn.

Dear women on LinkedIn, this blog is for you!!

Now, let's have a look at some possible reasons why such posts are to be seen these days on LinkedIn.

Reasons:

• Lack of professional training - some male professionals lack training and do not know how to properly approach someone, especial women on LinkedIn
• Misunderstanding - sometimes women misinterpret the male professionals' message
• Inappropriate messages to women - this is very rare on LinkedIn but it is a major reason. Some men talk cheap and ask questions they should not have.
• Lack of awareness - some men do not know the difference between a normal social media network and a professional one. Anyhow, I am not saying that it is allowed to send messages to every woman on other social media platforms. It should be avoided at all costs on any sort of platform.
• Some women want all the attention – sadly and I don't want to be rude but it is the truth, most women do posts like this so that they will get more likes, comments and shares with the ultimate goal of getting their post viral and getting a huge number of followers in return. After all, who doesn't want to be famous? Eh!

I understand that some men behave in a manner that is not acceptable but why do you label all by saying, "Dear Men on LinkedIn"? Isn't that wrong? Does it not sound like the judgmental statement that says, "All Men are trash"? Once again, I want you to spend a few seconds and think about it.

I know you go through a lot and I condemn that.

However, you don't have the right to post screenshots until they are inappropriate and even so it would be decent of you if you would blur their profile pictures at least. However, if it is some kind of a threat, I suggest you consult someone from the cyber-crime department.

What is decent and what's not?

I agree that many professionals lack the proper training and do not know how to approach a woman professionally but a simple message like;

1) Happy Birthday

2) Congratulations on your work anniversary

3) thank you for accepting my connection request, I hope you're doing fine

4) or even a simple 'Hi'

Won't do you any harm. Most people send me messages like that so should I share screenshots of them all in an attempt to make my post, viral and grow on LinkedIn?

I have even received messages like that "Hi, let's be friends" and I have a job offer for you, contact me on this number, etc. for the job details. I do not contact the person directly until I am sure that the person who is offering the job is serious enough to buy my services and runs a legitimate business.

My approach has always been to discuss the project first on LinkedIn and then move to personal contacts. So should I share screenshots of them as well? Because I have lost business like this.

Most importantly, have you heard about the term, "benefit of the doubt"? Well, it is giving a chance to someone even if you are not sure if what that person is saying is true. When someone messages us on LinkedIn, we have to behave professionally and at least listen to what that person has to offer if it's something weird like, "let's be friends" or "can I have your contact number" then simply ignore the messages, block the person or say a simple NO, you can't.

Now, when people message me something like, "Hello Saad" and I get confused about what to deduce of this, I do not judge. I simply write, "Hello, I hope that you are well. How can I help you"? Isn't that professional? Isn't that what a professional should do? I advise you all ladies, not to jump to conclusions but instead hear out the person first and then decide what to do. If someone behaves oddly, ignore or block them, it's simple.

The reason I decided to write this blog is simply that I have seen professionals arguing like children on such posts and sometimes this results in a quarrel.

Now, is that professional? When you post, you give people the right to comment on their views and sometimes the views are harsh and you have to handle the situation sensibly. However, sometimes things go out of hand and the situation becomes awkward.

Recommendations to female professionals:

• Give each other some space and hear people out first before jumping to a conclusion
• Add connections carefully
• If someone messages you that create doubts in your mind, try to hear out the person first and when your doubts are confirmed, either say this is not right of you to say this and block the person or simply ignore and block the person
• Please do not share screenshots with the name and profile pictures of the professionals until your suspicions are confirmed – do not jump to conclusions but instead get a solid proof or just simply ignore that person. But if you will share screenshots without solid proof then there is a possibility that you are ruining that man's whole career.

Now most will agree to what I have said but some will disagree with this blog but the idea behind this blog is to spread awareness and to stop such behaviors and approaches on LinkedIn. At least, I am trying. I am young, I am only 24 and if I can think that then you can too. Let's change ourselves and become a better person.

Recommendations to male professionals:

• Whenever you approach a female on LinkedIn for professional reasons, make sure you portray yourself as a professional. Instead of writing a Hi or a Hello, write something like, "Hello *NAME OF THE PERSON*, I hope that you are well. I am writing you this message because *YOUR REASON* followed by an appropriate Call-to-action such as, I am looking forward to knowing about your views on this"
• Do not try to talk about any topic other than a professional discussion, that too if the female is interested in that discussion
• Learn to communicate professionally and avoid unnecessary discussions
• Do not irritate a female professional on LinkedIn in any way

If you already know about the above-mentioned recommendations and are a practitioner of these fundamental rules then these recommendations are not for you. However, those who did not know about these, please implement them in the future.

To conclude, posts like this are nothing but a shortcut to get success on LinkedIn until they are for educational purposes only. We must avoid any kind of inappropriate behavior whether it is prejudice or stereotyping towards men or uncomfortable or non-professional messages to women on LinkedIn.

Now, some of you might have read a post like that written by me. You can read that pose by clicking here. Now, read it and you will know that it was meant to educate not to ridicule. The structure and the wording clearly show that it doesn't target a single individual or a group but its purpose is to educate and spread awareness, just like this blog.

I deeply hope that this blog acts as a guideline to make all of us a better person and most importantly, a better professional.

 One important thing that is totally out of the blue, if you are new to content writing then download this free document that I crafted to help new writers.