Paul Catmur: Free speech? The cost of talking politics on LinkedIn

Using a social media soapbox to express partisan views won't make you a more attractive employee prospect. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION:

Apparently, more than two million New Zealanders use LinkedIn, the social media site which aims to "facilitate professional networking".

In my previous life as a business owner, I found it very useful for researching potential employees or clients in order to get an idea of their past career and accomplishments.

This gives LinkedIn a fairly limited function and means it's not really the place to look for love, sell your car, or post pictures of your dog looking cute (not that I let that stop me).

I don't spend much time there these days but when I do, I'm bemused by the growing number of people who use it as a digital soapbox to share their political views. Although there's no law against this (yet) I really doubt that this is helpful to anyone's career. The issue is not the quality, or otherwise, of these opinions, but the appropriateness. You don't use LinkedIn to post about sport, holidays, or your grandmother's amazing lasagne recipe, so why post about politics?

Rarely in business did I ever witness a partisan political discussion, and I generally had little idea of the political views of those that I worked with. This is because it's not relevant to our day jobs.

You wouldn't put your political affiliations on your CV, and if a recruiter asks you how you vote, it's probably not somewhere you want to work. Employers don't react to a political take on LinkedIn by saying: "Great, Nigel has some bats*** crazy views, doesn't care who knows it, and picks an argument with everyone! Let's get him in! He'd be perfect on the executive team." Unless, of course, the job is to work in a troll farm, in which case Nigel's in his element.

I've seen others politely pointing out that perhaps LinkedIn isn't really the place to share political views, only for them to be told "you use social media how you want; I'll use it how I want". That's true, you can do whatever you like. You can go to a job interview dressed as a Backstreet Boy riding a camel if you want, but outside of a 90s-themed circus it's unlikely to help you get a job. You may think that's rather judgemental of me, but then judging people is the whole point of the hiring process.

LinkedIn is a professional social media website for people looking for jobs, for people looking to hire other people, or for those wishing to promote their business.

Yes, that means it's crammed full of people talking about how clever they are, how proud and humble they are to win Waikato Area Salesman of the Year, or trying to sell you outsourced printing at the "super best" price, but as dull as you may find this, that's the point of the bloody thing. You may think it needs livening up a bit, but there are plenty of other places to go to be livened up online, not all of which are regularly scrutinised by prospective employers.

"Why should I worry, everybody agrees with my political views?"

This is unlikely seeing as only around a third of the population supports any party in particular. A passing sycophant may well applaud, but the multitude who disagree will make a mental note to avoid and quietly move on. I mentioned to a couple of senior people that I was writing about this subject and the overwhelming reaction was "about bloody time". (Although there was one who thought political posting was useful as an easy way to identify people never to hire.)

Employers are looking for somebody who they can pay to do their job well, not spend their days online demonstrating their lack of political nuance and debating totalitarianism with someone who doesn't understand it either.

Posting political opinions on LinkedIn won't help you get a job. Photo / Getty Images

Of course, there are those who say whatever they like on social media without any filter, Elon Musk for example. But I doubt that when he was first scratching around for people to fund his projects Musk was in the habit of referring to opponents as "pedo guy [sic]". These days as the richest man in the world he believes he can pretty much say whatever he likes. Still, not even Musk is bulletproof as his tweets insulting the Twitter Board are contributing to his pending court appearance where he stands to lose US$20 billion.

So, before you write that angry post about whatever it was somebody on the radio told you to be upset about, just remember that the majority of employers look at LinkedIn activity when reviewing applicants for a position. If you wouldn't say it to your in-laws on a first meeting, then it's probably best not to post it on LinkedIn.

As Abraham Lincoln said, "better to remain silent and to be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt". It's your career, look after it.