Personal Posts on LinkedIn
Neela Badami
Lawyer I Partner @Samvad Partners, Advocates I Obesity Awareness and Reversal Enthusiast
Each day, I see at least a couple of posts in my LinkedIn feed that start off something like this: 'Apologies for the personal post,' or 'I rarely post personal stuff on LinkedIn but this is an exception...' These posts fall into two categories, typically: something that has made the author extremely happy, or extremely sad. They are usually on the long-ish side and are accompanied by photographs.
These posts make me wonder, why are you apologising for sharing what is obviously something so important to you? LinkedIn is of course meant for work and professional sharing, but who said that as human beings we can compartmentalise our lives into 'work happy' and 'life happy' or 'work sad' and 'life sad'? If you are happy at work, doesn't it translate into every other area of life? And vice versa - if you are unhappy at work, are you happy at home? (Ask your family / friends who have the pleasure of your company when you're unhappy at work - they will tell you the truth.)
Dear network connections, don't apologise for sharing what's making your life/work happy/sad. It's all the same in the end. Do follow the rules of good writing, though (I don't read half these posts simply because they are way too long, not split into paragraphs, have too many long sentences and after a point deteriorate into rambling). Use short sentences, simple words, paragraphs and not a block of text (as a lawyer, this is something that is very off-putting for me even in legal documentation. Brick-like rectangles of words are completely inaccessible to the reader, and take twice or thrice as long to comprehend, review and mark-up than text that is broken into sub-clauses, or sub-paragraphs).
Use your natural, instinctive judgment of what is in good taste or appropriate for LinkedIn. Don't publish anything that is likely to make other people feel small or are seriously triggering. Don't violate confidentiality obligations to employers or clients. Always ask yourself what you are seeking to achieve through this writing? What is your intention here? Once you clarify that, and write from that space, you will have a personal LinkedIn post that will really touch your readers. And you don't have to apologise for a thing.
Former Principal State Counsel at Republic of Seychelles
2 年I appreciate your perspectives on apologizing for expressing one's honest feelings and sufferings. It is s indeed a healthy counseling.
Managing Director, Zoho UK I Ex Start-up Founder
2 年Nice post Neela. Been a while....
Partner at Chugh LLP
2 年You know me. I’ll read anything you write Neela Badami!
Gender & Feminisms & Law |?DEI |?Wellbeing & Rest |?Mental Health Advocate | Loves All Things Color
2 年Looking forward to the next posts, my dear Neela! I love your NL's title! I think a lot of these posts are actually things that the authors should write about in their diaries. Social media thrives on self-centered rambling, but such rambling on such platforms does not always give us the solace we are looking for. (Not to say that I've not been guilty myself. Just that, after a few months of getting back to journaling – pen and paper style / but there are now lots of apps to journal online –, I can see the huge benefits of this uniquely intimate and private writing.)
Cofounder, NextServices | Author, The Shift, Scope Forward | GI Mastermind
2 年Assuming this is a warmup for something that's about to follow...looking forward to reading that :)