Sales trainer slams flirty LinkedIn messages

Meg Stickland says it's not LinkedIn's fault - but slammed the actions of individual men. Photo / Twitter

A woman has slammed the men of LinkedIn after being inundated with inappropriate, "sexist" comments about her looks on the site.

Meg Stickland, a sales trainer from Northamptonshire in the UK, recently shared screenshots of several messages she'd received from men on the professional networking platform.

She posted the shots with the caption: "I joined @LinkedIn to make professional connections, keep in touch with those who I've worked with, and look for my next opportunity. Let's keep #LinkedIn for what it was intended for. I am here for a career, take that into consideration. #everydaysexism."

Meg Stickland has shared some of the 'vile' messages she's received from men on LinkedIn. Photo / Twitter

In one of the messages, a man revealed he had added her to his LinkedIn contacts because of her looks.

Stickland replied by telling him she thought he had mistaken LinkedIn for "something else" — such as a dating site — and questioned whether he considered his actions to be "professional".

In another example, a man compliments her for being "good looking" while in another, she's told she's "stunning" before Stickland reprimands him for not respecting LinkedIn as a "professional domain".

Stickland later explained LinkedIn was not at "fault" and that instead she wanted to call out the actions of individuals using the site inappropriately.

"LinkedIn aren't at fault here. It's not a social media fault men feel the need to undermine a woman's professional stance," her post reads.

LinkedIn weighed into the debate, thanking the former Victoria's Secret employee for speaking out and tweeting: "It's not acceptable to send inappropriate messages on LinkedIn. We take these types of reports seriously, and have a number of tools to report and block."

Other Twitter users also hit out at the offenders, with one woman describing the messages as "vile" while another tweeted: "This is so rife on LinkedIn. Gross."

A third woman wrote: "I know exactly how you feel. As one of the few women at my level where I work it can be a real pain that some men can't see past the fact I'm a woman doing a job better than they could."

Of course, it's not the first time a woman has made headlines for calling out inappropriate behaviour on LinkedIn.

In 2015, human rights barrister and feminist legal activist Charlotte Proudman exposed a man on Twitter after he praised her "stunning picture" and telling her: "You definitely win the prize for the best LinkedIn picture I have ever seen."

But her tweet sparked a wave of backlash and even lead to her receiving death threats.

And earlier this year, Aussie entrepreneur Andrea Myles revealed she had changed her name to "Andrew" on LinkedIn after being "pissed off" by men sending her unwanted messages on the platform, Smart Company reported.

Meanwhile, fellow Aussie CEO Shevonne Joyce also made headlines after pledging to donate $1 to charity for every sexist message she received through LinkedIn.