I’m used to online creeps hitting on me but I thought LinkedIn was a safe haven – I was wrong
I KNEW we were meant to be together when I saw his peachy bottom line and bulging CV. Said nobody. Ever.
They say you’ll find love when you least expect it. But do you really want to be approached by potential matches on LinkedIn?
I most certainly do not.
Some singles out there are taking their search for romance a step too far, putting blood, sweat, tears and their entire career history into finding the perfect match.
You might expect an occasional proposition to slide into your DMs on Facebook or Instagram. But these days it’s a free- for-all and LinkedIn, which was once a safe space to do business, now seems like an open invitation to get down and dirty.
Is nowhere safe from the lecherous clutches of single — sometimes not single — and more often than not “it’s complicated, we sleep in separate bedrooms” men?
LinkedIn notifications used to be the most exciting ones for me. I realise this is probably a red flag but my inbox was the place where exciting opportunities lived, where job offers and work bookings flooded in.
But now it’s more common to be cold-called by someone who wants to schedule a meeting in a candlelit restaurant.
Now, I’m the kind of girl that can step up to the plate but I doubt we’re on the same page
These, let’s call firm offers, come from men I’ve never met, men who open the conversation with “hey beautiful”, men who may have seen me on a dating app and when we didn’t match, have decided to pursue me through alternative avenues.
Or in the most recent episode, someone who I accidentally matched with on a dating site and deleted a fraction of a second later, decided to message me on every social media platform, including LinkedIn.
Eventually, I politely declined his offer, apologising for the mis-swipe. But even than he was unrelenting. I feel like my professional space has been invaded, in the same way you might feel when someone you know and don’t like comes into your workplace.
One in five people meets their partners at work. But some companies have strict guidelines about colleague relationships and in the US, employers can impose “love contracts” that strictly prohibit personal relationships at work. For good reason.
Not only do power dynamics play a part, but ensuring staff have the right to work without being sexualised helps create a safer and more legally sound environment.
Given American penchant to sue, I’m not surprised.
Now, I’m not advocating for a ban on inter-departmental dalliances but I’d just like to be left alone on LinkedIn if that’s OK please.
Some social media platforms have tried launching dating services but that’s not something LinkedIn is considering at this stage, thank god.
But I can see the appeal of the platform to scope people out. Unlike dating profiles, professional networks offer relatively honest overviews of someone’s life on paper so it’s easy to vet them and there are no fake accounts.
You can also filter for location, education and profession, so if you’re in the market for a doctor in Edinburgh you can find them at the click of a button and see if you, well, click.
You can’t determine relationship status, height, or hobbies but if it is not a match made in LinkedIn I guess you can always ask them to be a job reference in future.
Some people might want to fall head over CV. But if you contact me for a date on LinkedIn, I’ll tell you to mind your business.