Linkedinan enchanted world populated by brilliant frames, self -promotions of all kinds, emojis rocket in mode “I exploded the scores” and inspiring advice. We like, we applaud, we congratulate. Here, everyone is beautiful, everyone is nice. How to guess that, behind some photos in the first profile way of the class – we smile a little, but not too much -, and these posts with benevolent varnish, sometimes hide real executioners of management. Those who, on a daily basis, suffer or have undergone their lightning, are not fooled. How many times have they been attempted, reading these publications disconnected from reality, to leave an emoji Pinocchio as a comment? But on the largest professional social network in the world, it is better to put its indignation in its pocket.
“Linkedin is the kingdom of the positive. To be alone to denounce a behavior in a positive place is complicated,” analyzes Véronique Reille-Soult, expert in reputation strategy and crisis communication. Because Linkedin is also a highly reputational place, the par excellence playground for head hunters and recruiters. Never insult the future. “It is best to settle this internally,” advises the president of Backbone Consulting. A manager who has a double discourse on LinkedIn and internally, “it ends one day or another by knowing”.
Damien* can testify. At the end of the Covid’s pandemic, this young Parisian enthusiastically integrates the digital center of an event company after a first internship in another service. But his collaboration with Jules*, the technical team manager, quickly turns into a nightmare. “After two weeks, I realized that, not only was he very unpleasant – he ridicules any intervention that did not go in his sense -, but he asked me in addition to lying openly to the rest of the ‘Company, to choose my camp and to be loyal to him rather than to other teams. A “deeply toxic” manager but also “very intimidating”, capable of breaking a glass of anger during a team lunch. On the other hand, on LinkedIn, the man multiplies the publications in which “there was a lot of question of human”, continues Damien, still marked by this selfie posted on the networks by his ex-responsible. In the photo, a hug with the company’s accountant-accountant, accompanied by a comment explaining how fantastic this one was. However, “he is not a character who loves humans, judges Damien, even if he has other qualities”.
“We can no longer tell anything”
This affair, his “worst professional memory”, was finally settled internally. “I ended up going back to all these facts with the big boss, who put him at the door. We discovered that he had acted in the same way in the companies by which he had passed before. He was Invented, on the place of Parisian start-ups, this kind of image of hyperproductive icon “. Today on his own, the former tyrannical manager continues to publish benevolent messages on the networks. But there is no guarantee that he is not one day caught up in the patrol. “The alignment between discourse and acts becomes a major subject in business. We can no longer tell anything,” said Véronique Reille-Soult. Because alongside Linkedin, new spaces have been created. Platforms like Glassdoor, where we can anonymously note working conditions in a company for example, are very popular with young people. “There is almost no more secret,” said the expert.
The old N + 1 of Christelle*, senior executive in the food industry, would have surely harvested a 0 out of 5. “She was screaming on the employees during meetings, cut the floor by prohibiting them from speaking, assured dozens of E -Moils demanding immediate answers without even reading the messages already sent, “keeps this marketing manager in mind. Actions that cost him his post after an internal investigation that has uncovered his management methods from another time. Christelle, who was fully fulfilled in her post until the arrival of this new leader in both faces, retains a bitter taste of this experience. “Considering it. She shouted on us in the morning, and in the afternoon she posted messages on social networks advocating values worthy of the Socialist Party or republished content by Matthieu Ricard …”, is still surprised this CSP+ .
Contradictions between his messages on the networks and his behavior at work which, at the start, made smile in the corridors, even becoming the main subject of conversation to the coffee machine. “But when people started to suffer from his attitude, crying after meetings or fear for their future in society, then each post was perceived as a provocation,” says Christelle. Which has since found a managerial manager in his new job. The latest news, her old chief, she is still looking for. A period that she may be able to take advantage of to plunge back into Power and altruism (Allary Éditions2018), the work of the Buddhist monk…
* The first name has been changed
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