Social Foot Print & Etiquete ?!! Do you care?

I had sent out a Thank you note to INDIAN ESH Folks on reaching close to 3000 Connections, on LinkedIn. I am not very active over the last 2 years there but keep it up to date and spruced up. I thought it is a good way to get in touch with folks with whom I have connected over last 10 years. ( I joined LinkedIN, a very far different, meaningful social platform then). Imagine my surprise, within minutes, my email INBOX was below screenshot. The Email was sent to 410 ESH Folks based out of India.

I was wondering, if the contact email is defunct, in a BUSINESS portal through which recruiters try to reach you, job opportunities potential exist and try to communicate, but can’t?! What is the behaviour ESH folks exhibit? Please ensure your profile info, contact are up to date. Always refer personal email account to your social platform pages so that email is not incommunicado if you leave your job. I was puzzled to see Work Email address in contacts when I sent out the message. Also few people have more than 3 LinkedIn Profile with various email address. This can cause confusion in recruiters unless profile are mirror image (Which is less likely) I can list many instances where guys got better career opportunities through portals like LinkedIn, discussions through professional Forum etc. 

Also, when you apply for a new job, first thing company check is your LinkedIn profile for your background, educational credentials, with whom you are connected as well as any references people give about you or you post  references about your colleagues. Please keep them up to date. If you are not on any social media platforms in 2017, companies would consider you an unknown entity and may wonder what is that you are hiding? Organisations always prefer a known devil to an unknown angel. While I am not suggesting or meaning in any way that you have to be hyperactive in Linkedin, Google+, Facebook or Twitter or equivalent, a bare minimum presence with up to date information would go a long way for opinion makers to know you better.

2) I can’t list the instances of where Indian ESH folks call me over phone or send me an urgent email, asking me to respond immediately on ESH procedure, data, rules etc etc. When I send them across, I havent got back one “THANK YOU” call / note!! While saying Thank you is never part of an Indian culture, as far as I know, (More Indians think doing favor to them is other guy’s privilege and duty. I have stood for 20 min in 6000 employee cafeteria and watched how many say thank you to the guy who serve them food, coffee. Not even 1 in 10 do that!!)  In fact my American Indian friends do say that to me with deep regret that getting thank you from an Indian in India is rarer than finding a white Crow. So when I send across things on my own, I don’t even expect any response, comments. Just do what you do, dont expect rewards like Bhaghavad Githa Says.

3) I am also puzzled at the open sharing of Copyright materials in public domain especially Standards, Codes etc for professional use / as a work enabler. The institutions, owners of such intellectual property have poured their sweat and blood for that to materialize and would expect monetization on that. To expect everything free would do them a great disservice and pennywise, pound foolish as the saying goes. I compare that to buying free/fake medicines to treat yourself! With Copyright norms getting stricter and global hunt and crackdown, one don’t want to get caught in these aspects and bring disrepute to oneself and their entity. Remember, your organisation is liable for all your activities if such activities are done on your workplace devices.

In these technological, global connect age,one needs to be current, up to date besides developing soft skills that are norm. As the saying goes “When wealth is lost,nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost. When character is lost, everything is lost. In these modern-day environment, charecter is all about soft skills,social profile, social etiquette. Remember you may do 1000 good deeds, one bad deed can destroy whatever reputation you built over years. inoculate yourself well against such situations.

Regards

Karthik.

28/3/17 1530 Hrs.

PS :1) I wish somebody was around in 1985-90 to coach/guide us, wonder how different it would have been. We learned and came up the hard way! Wish folks of this generation in this modern tech age dont have to undergo that ordeal.! Hence this post!! Nothing more, nothing less!! One of my site manager, (1990s) in his 60s, used to chide us,”We lived our lives the way we wanted, just waiting for almighty call, you folks have loooooooong road ahead”!!!

2) My last post on Soft Skills for a while as I dont want this to be hijacked as Evil-HR-Blog!