Every day, I read many LinkedIn posts…probably too many. If you wrote something, odds are that I read it. It may even be a bit of a problem for me. That being said, posts are becoming more and more stereotypical and formulaic, which is both sad and funny at once. (Roll your eyes with me if you have read one that ended with “Thanks for coming to my TED talk!” after a preachy post if you’ve seen once recently.) I have no problem with following a successful structure – I post every week too! – but there is a certain formula that seems incredibly brash to me: the you “must” posts.
What is a “must” post? It’s one of the posts with an absolutely certain author telling all businesses or individuals that they MUST do the specific thing the author is passionate about at the moment or some horrific thing will befall those who don’t. It’s a universal requirement that can’t be ignored – as if the author is the arbiter for all of business and life, like an official in a game.
You’ve all seen these – posts telling companies they absolutely have to accept hybrid or remote work, they must never ask for any experience on entry level roles, they must offer benefit XYZ, they must provide ample work/life balance and not infringe on your free time, they must have clear titles in job descriptions, they are obligated to share precise salary ranges, they absolutely cannot have interviews with more than one step/person/etc., and the list goes on and on.
These black and white, absolutist posts say far more about the author than their subjects. In the author, these posts often highlight inflexibility for different opinions/options/arrangements, arrogance in believing that their way is the only acceptable way, entitlement in believing that every company must offer what they believe they “deserve”, and willingness to judge others without even attempting to gather complete information on their subjects. The authors of these posts typically lack the empathy necessary to understand that not everyone has the same set of “must haves” in their life or career as themselves – and those that have different expectations are either simply wrong or lacking in the appropriate sophistication to comprehend and adopt the author’s needs.
I find these posts to be incredibly uninformed on the part of the author. My point isn’t that I disagree with the specific passion of the author on any of the above or any other topic…it doesn’t matter what my opinion is. The point is that every company and every person are in their own unique position at this point in their journey. All have their own aspirations, constraints, and circumstances. Who are we to judge their choices and tell them they are wrong for doing things they way they do? (Excluding patently illegal actions, of course.) Do we have all the information that the company or person does about there individual situation? Of course we don’t, so we should respect that and allow them to continue on their journey and if our desires don’t align, just not be a part of their journey.
The ultimate judge of all of the companies that don’t follow through on these “musts” will be the marketplace of ideas and resources. I have had the good fortune to experience much of the spectrum both personally and professionally, ranging from a very constrained situation to a very free situation. None were better than the other, they were just different. And be clear, there are markets for every portion of the continuum – one person’s “musts” are another person’s fantasy or nightmare.
For example, I worked for a company that wouldn’t have checked many of the high-end “must” LinkedIn boxes – we didn’t pay great, had just ok benefits, didn’t offer super flexible arrangements, etc. I loved the place! We knew we likely weren’t going to be a lifetime employer for people, but we found folks who were looking for an opportunity to learn and gain experience and then leave us for better roles elsewhere. Did we want to pay more? Have better benefits? Create more leadership roles? Absolutely, but our situation didn’t allow it…so we paid what we could, found individuals that were comfortable with what we could offer, and worked with them until they outgrew us. And you know who benefitted: nearly everyone! If our company had to abide by all the “musts”, we would have been out of business…and thus the 100’s of people that worked with us would have never been able to take that step in their career moving them forward.
I’ve been in the opposite environment as well, when all the proverbial boxes were checked – and the turnover and employee attitudes were similar to the prior example. It was a great place to work with nearly every perk you can think of, but still there was a desire for more. The grass will always be greener somewhere else, it seems. And that is completely fine.
As a result dear LinkedIn Authors, while you have the best of intentions with your proclamations that life “must” include the right to work remotely or have paid time off for the death of a pet or to have accurate pay ranges in job descriptions understand that not everyone is in the same position you are in and would find wildly different things to be a “must”. Thus, let’s let individuals and business decide for themselves what they want to offer/do and only join the journeys of those with a like outlook, leaving the others to folks who align with them as well. The marketplace will punish those who are too far out of societal norms in any one area and the rest of us can just go along looking our match – and you may or may not take this advice as it is definitely not a must.
View from the Middle 