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I've got a former boss as a contact on LinkedIn. I don't trust them professionally, since I believe the company is unethical and he is part of the problem. I no longer work there, and there is virtually no chance that they will want to rehire me, as well.

I'm thinking of removing them as a contact. Does having them as a contact suggest that I approve of them on a professional level? If the answer is 'yes', then it seems like the responsible thing to do is to remove them; otherwise, there could be little downside (& upside).

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    Are you willing to remove that job from your resume as well?
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Commented Dec 24, 2023 at 5:39
  • @StephanBranczyk No. Why?
    – Allure
    Commented Dec 24, 2023 at 5:40
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    It also depends on how many "contacts" you have on LinkedIn. People can have hundreds or even thousands of contacts which make any one contact fairly meaningless.
    – David R
    Commented Dec 24, 2023 at 15:13

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No. It just says that you know each other.

However, if you go for a job in the future and one of the recruitment team also happens to know this person then they might reach out to them for their opinion on you. If you think their opinion would be negative/harmful then removing the connection should avoid that risk.

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Nope.

All it implies is that you are connected on LinkedIn.

Since you will share a work history that you worked at the same company at the same time - someone might consider that you know that person, but depending on the company size, that may or may not be reasonable.

If you don't specifically say on your LinkedIn that you worked with or under this person, then there's no reason anyone would have to presume you knew them, unless the company size was small enough e.g. less than 100 employees or a single location.

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Does having them as a contact suggest that I approve of them on a professional level?

That is NOT necessarily true. It could simply mean that you only worked with that person in the same company, but not in the same team, and therefore, you did not know anything about his talent, leadership, work ethics, integrity, etc...

Often, I have seen people connecting with someone they don't personally know at all or have never worked with. Those LinkedIn connections are just the "networking" connections for potential job opportunities in the future because those connections may share a post that their companies are hiring (at some point in the future).

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    It seems like LinkedIn suggests connections based on who is in the contacts of the people that are already in your own contacts list. I.e. "a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend-etc.). If you follow the system suggestion for adding contacts, then your list may eventually include Kevin Bacon.
    – Brandin
    Commented Dec 28, 2023 at 8:15
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Linkedin is a social media site, marketed as a business networking site.

The only person who will even look at who is following/friends/whatever with you on a social media site is you.

Don't overthink it.

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  • I don't mind being downvoted, but I'm genuinely curious if people who are downvoting actually spend time looking through other people's social media contacts?
    – Player One
    Commented Jan 4 at 2:32

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