Hallie Crawford, a certified career coach, strongly advises against flirting on LinkedIn. “I don’t think its appropriate, honestly, at all,” she said. “It is supposed to be a professional platform.” If people want to transition a working relationship to a personal relationship, she advises they move to a different medium. She tells clients to ignore any flirty messages. If the behavior continues, she suggests reiterating the professional nature of the platform and relationship.
Occasionally, women are driven to delete their LinkedIn accounts entirely. Jennifer Hoffman, who identifies herself as a businesswoman and a former contestant on the television show, The Apprentice, said she was asked on dates, hit on, and sexually harassed on a daily basis via the platform. “I think that a woman with a public profile on any social media platform is subject to a certain level of harassment, but basic HR guidelines dictate that you don’t sexually harass people at work—and I considered LinkedIn a work environment,” she said. “So I deleted my profile. I don’t plan on making a new one or joining LinkedIn again.”
As for whether LinkedIn truly is an extension of the workplace—a place where under settled law an employer can be held responsible for the actions of an employee in the course of their duties—will be the subject of the Los Angeles litigation. SunTrust was notified of Eichler’s alleged behavior in a letter sent by Doe’s attorney last month. According to the complaint, the financial institution’s lawyer told Doe’s attorneys that “she was ‘perplexed’ why the SunTrust corporate defendants would be responsible for conduct committed by defendant Eichler using his professional LinkedIn account” and said his alleged behavior, which Does said included job recruiting discussions, was “outside the course and scope of his employment.”
SunTrust didn’t reply to a request for comment on the matter or the lawsuit.
“Corporate sexual harassment training must meet the demands of an evolving digital world,” said Doe’s attorney, Ben Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos.
Doe, who said she received the lewd image on the same day she became engaged, has locked down her social media accounts.
“It’s already hard enough being a female in this sector. To be treated as such after working so hard is diminishing,” she said. “It’s insulting, to say the least. I fear, if I bring forward this complaint, it could very well be construed as a limiting factor in what I do for a living. At the same time, if I sit quietly, it eats away at me.”
Article Appeared @https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-14/fed-forges-on-with-rate-hike-asset-plan-amid-inflation-worry