Think twice before you make that next LinkedIn connection. You could get a rejection as bad as this.
Senior communications executive Kelly Blazek, who runs Cleveland Job Bank, a job listing group for marketing and communications positions, emphatically rejected several millennials who were looking to connect with her on LinkedIn, sending them scathing, rude and insulting emails. Blazek, who has over 900 LinkedIn connections apparently takes her social media networking pretty seriously, and was flabbergasted that some young whippersnappers would try to gain access to her precious connections in such a frivolous manner.
|
LISTEN TO THIS…One on One: PR Accountability
|
Here’s one email she sent to Diana Mekota, a job seeker looking to connect with her. Mekota later posted the emails to Imgur and Buzzfeed, where they promptly went viral, inciting much rage and anguish among Cleveland communications pros.
Another email from another rejected connection surfaced:
And another.
(Source: images via Imgur)
The delicious irony of it all? Last year Kelly Blazek was awarded Cleveland IABC’s Communicator of The Year.
This really is a case of the smallest possible amount of power going to someones head. Even if Blazek didn’t want to add someone on LinkedIn she didn’t know, her responses were arrogant, insulting, bullying and demoralizing to so many young people looking to be a part of her industry.
People have already started calling on IABC to rescind the award. Since the emails went public, Blazek’s deleted much of her digital presence, including her Twitter account and blog. She did however, pen an apology:
I am very sorry to the people I have hurt.
Creating and updating the Cleveland Job Bank listings has been my hobby for more than ten years. It started as a labor of love for the marketing industry, but somehow it also became a labor, and I vented my frustrations on the very people I set out to help.
Hundreds of people contact me every month looking for help, and as the bottom fell out of the job market, their outreach and requests demanded more of my time. I became shortsighted and impatient, and that was wrong.
My Job Bank listings were supposed to be about hope, and I failed that. In my harsh reply notes, I lost my perspective about how to help, and I also lost sight of kindness, which is why I started the Job Bank listings in the first place.
The note I sent to Diana was rude, unwelcoming, unprofessional and wrong. I am reaching out to her to apologize. Diana and her generation are the future of this city. I wish her all the best in landing a job in this great town.
Too little too late?
|
Read this: A Digital Solution for Today’s PR Crises
|
