Are Personal Viewpoints an Indication of Your Professional Capabilities?
September 8, 2008 12:22 pm Social MediaI was invited to speak at the St. Louis .Net User Group meeting two weeks ago. They requested that I give a presentation about how social media can have a strong impact on business. I was looking forward to the opportunity to talk about a topic I am extremely passionate about. However, my excitement was short-lived since I received an e-mail disparaging my knowledge and professional capabilities.
Five minutes before heading out to the venue, an organization member sent the following e-mail to the event coordinator regarding my presentation:
Are you out of your mind. She is a left wing loon. No way am I attending this event. Her praise of Olbermann is enough to tell me she is way out in left field. How can I trust anyone’s expertise who is so misguided? Furthermore, this particular event is pretty useless for most if not all of us serious Engineers. Next time please get a topic that is more relevant and a bit more intellectual. Also more of a heads up would be appreciated.
I will not disclose this person’s name or information. I had hoped he added me to the e-mail by mistake. However, the evidence seems to indicate that this individual searched for my e-mail address and intentionally included me on the mailing list.
I respect this person’s honesty, but I didn’t understand what my presentation had to do with my political views. It left me with two major questions — Does my support of this video really indicate how professional and knowledgeable I am? Is social media a petty topic for web developers? Please let me know your thoughts.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
With social news, as with journalism, we tend to forget that people actually read what we do, since we put so much out there. Occasionally you’ll have people attack you over very small things, but usually their anger quickly passes and it does no real damage. I think the best defense is just to say that social news often is about opinions and thoughts at the time, and people shouldn’t necessarily take so much stock in any one post, but rather look at your value to the community as a whole.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Ignorance is still rampant today in the USA, which is unfortunate. We live in the 21st century for crying out loud. People need to get over this.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Like it or not … everything we do/say is a reflection on us. This is becoming much more challenging to manage over time as our thoughts/actions are committed to the online world indefinitely. Its nothing more than personal opinion … and people are entitled to those.
That said, it’ll be interesting as our own political views and even personal outlooks change as we age.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
To me this just shows this guys lack of knowledge. No your political viewpoints have no bearing on your job capability. He probably lacks knowledge about Social Media. Social Media is democratized media. Last I checked this is a democracy. (If he wants to talk politics)
September 8th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I agree with @socialpyramid. Unfortunately, people have difficulties disassociating professional competence with personal opinions. For what it’s worth, blind reactions like the one you recount typically lead to a hostile reception of your opinions, regardless of subject matter. It’s probably better the person chose not to attend, rather than attend and make the presentation less enjoyable for all.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
First off, what exactly is a web engineer.. I mean, do they drive little trains made of HTML, or do they engineer the traffic associated with websites? If it’s the latter, then social media is extremely relevant. If it’s more of a technical position, meaning that they are server engineers, or coders who work in a language and environment that rarely has them in touch with the ‘people’ end of the web, then they have probably no business with social media.
Now regarding this persons myopic and, in all honesty, elitist opinion.. WTF?!?! I’ve learned a LOT of skills in my life from people who differed from my views both personally, politically, religiously, etc.. and I don’t see how ANY of that matters when teaching a skill, a class, or anything for that matter. Why would it?
This person is an ass. Plain and simple. The fact that you were specifically included on the correspondence is clear evidence of this. This kind of close-minded mentality is exactly what is wrong with, not only this country, but humanity in general.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Reem – wow, sorry to hear this happened. Sometimes people are so caught up with politics; they lose sight to what is really important.
I had a similar experience in Facebook. I joined a McCain/Palin Group and I was sent a few negative comments by people who I thought were my friends and then deleted from their friend’s list. Also, on twitter, I am constantly inundated with personal attacks about McCain from my network of friends and colleagues; but I just try to overlook it even though it does get irritating at times. It’s tough being conservative in an industry that isn’t.
And to answer your question “Are Personal Viewpoints an Indication of Your Professional Capabilities?” I would say no. The guy was just being a jerk.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I don’t think our personal viewpoints are an indication of professional abilities but as every active member of social media knows, everything we say online is available for anyone else to read. Our lives become an “open book” so to speak. Therefore personal comments become a reflection of who we are overall.
I don’t think this serious engineer knows much about Social Media, otherwise he wouldn’t have said that it isn’t an intellectual topic. It is the way of the future and I commend the company for taking the steps necessary to educate their people.
Unfortunately, he seems to be a little- narrow minded and those people exist everywhere and judge you without knowing the full story or seeing you as a complete person.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Please let me clarify. The organization was very welcoming and hospitable. It was just the gentleman who sent me that message and he didn’t even attend. The presentation went great!
@Michael Brito It is ridiculous that people are sending you mean messages because of your political viewpoints. You are entitled to support who you want.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
It is a very unfortunate that we are labeled and judged based upon our views. I guess that’s just human nature, we are all guilty of it one way or the other.
My advice is..”If you’re feelin’ like a pimp, go on and brush yo shoulders off”!
September 8th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
It’s sad that people allow their political views to cloud their judgement of a person as a whole. We all come from different backgrounds, with unique upbringing’s. Not everybody is going to agree 100% of the time.
Would this guy judge somebody based on their race, religion or sex as well? Or is he just a complete jerk?
The fact of the matter, is that anybody who overlooks the importance of Social Media is living in the late 90’s. It’s not going away anytime soon. There are soooooo many reasons to embrace social media, especially if you have a website and you’re looking to make money from it.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
After watching the video, who even cares what you presented? Does someone expect you to give up your work as some sort of sacrifice to their political views?
The presentation went well and I got something out of it on a personal level. I intend to employ some of the lessons learned in my own personal software development.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
While I find the video disgusting, I don’t judge you based on it.
Well, maybe a little bit. I didn’t go to the meeting that night, maybe the original email was from me?
September 8th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
@Chris Hammond Ha! I actually KNOW that person’s name and email address, so you cant play that game on me. BTW, are you trying to get into trouble here?
September 8th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
a few thoughts:
1. This person seems to think the meeting topic is catered specifically for them and other people who are exactly like them. This is the first sign that you’ve spent too much time by yourself. St. Louis .Net User Group = User Group = Group = inherent diversity, even within our little .NET niche. I’m guessing you’re old, but grow up! If you had come to the meeting, you would see how many people CARE about this topic.
2. On that note, the meeting was great. We had a good turn out and everyone responded well. There were folks thinking critically and engaged in the conversation and providing some valuable feedback, rather than criticizing blindly and opting out of the discussion altogether.
3. Sweeping generalizations aren’t very good. (except that one :P) We know this. It’s well established. They are less good when said generalizations are made based on completely unrelated material. Your ability to play soccer has nothing to do with your parenting skills. Your political views have nothing to do with your ability to discuss the topic of social media. While it is possible for someone’s views to pop up anywhere, it does not inherently mean that will be the case. This is obvious.
4. In our business (software development), if this topic isn’t relevant to you. You’re probably not going to be relevant to your employer much longer. This person has probably survived this long with this kind of attitude because they work for a large employer and do one very specific technical task repeatedly, and have no knowledge of the world outside. Kudos for knowing how to use a web browser!
Thanks Reem. It was great having you!
September 8th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
So, I was at the meeting in question. Just to clarify, Reem did a great job with presenting exactly what we expected — a thought leader’s perspective on uses of social media in business. Whether she is or is not a left wing loon didn’t seem to have any effect on the presentation style, the content, or the audience interaction.
Having been one of the aforementioned “serious engineers” for quite some time, I must confess that much of our job used to entail simply dealing with facts and figures. Ones and zeros actually. Very black and white. Decisions were usually obvious. Once our world went onto the web, art and graphics started to play a larger part in our lives. As you know, art and graphics are very subjective and in a room of 10 people, you’ll get 15 opinions.
So it is with the aspect of “social media” — a nebulous term at best, just ask Reem! Everyone has their own “take” on it, their own viewpoint, and clearly their own opinions. Fortunately, these opinions are just that — only opinions. They may be right, they may be wrong. Doesn’t matter — have your own and respect the opinions of others. Only time will reveal who was right.
The one thing that IS clear, social media (or whatever label you choose to apply to it) plays an increasingly non-trivial role in our choices today. It’s still early in the game, you can choose to sit this one out and not loose. Or, you can participate, engage, learn, adapt and become a leader. Reem has chosen just that route. I for one, enjoyed what she had to say, and respect her right to remain a loon.
We may even ask her back after McCain/Palin win!
September 8th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
People DO judge you by:
- the words you use
- the clothes you wear
- the friends you hang out with
- the places you go or don’t go
- what you eat or won’t eat
- how you decorate your cube
- your political affiliations
- how you smell
- your religion or lack of it
- how you fix your hair
Right or wrong, all of these things (plus many more) constitute who you are. Without these choices, you’d be a cookie cutter of the person next to you.
So yeah, if you stink, don’t fix your hair, use bad language, and make fun of people’s religious views, that DOES reflect on your professional capabilities. You probably won’t get the job as news anchor or Miss America.
Oh, by the way, Reem smells good.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
It is pretty remarkable that this person would have such strong feelings for your agreement with the vast majority of the United States population as well. It does at least serve as a good warning that articles, comments and social media submissions can reflect on you professionally, even if only to someone who is going to focus on a completely unrelated point of contention
September 8th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Great topic, Reem. Thanks for the post. I agree that our views have a bearing on how we do our jobs — I think one of your earlier commenters made a point along these lines. I know my views inform and influence me. I just need to be aware of it.
Funny, it’s a shame to hear about people who are so close-minded that they won’t even bother testing their own views and assumptions against those of others.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:02 am
[...] I get upset. Reem Abeidoh knows what she is doing when she talks about social media. As she relates the story on her blog, she was headed to a user group meeting to discuss social media’s impact on business. A few [...]
September 9th, 2008 at 6:22 am
This presidential election is a *hot* potato (potatoe?) and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
I have noticed anytime I tweet about *anything* political, I often lose a follower(s). I used to think it was because they disagreed but I’m beginning to believe it’s because folks do *not* want to be affiliated with folks who tweet about politics. Sad and I truly hope I am wrong.
Civil discourse is extremely difficult on the internet. I would almost argue impossible: *face-to-face* does something to people. I think these experiences expose some of the limitations of online debate and discussion. All that being said, while you certainly have a *right* to express your opinion online, do know that, right or wrong, people will judge your business based on those opinions. Peace to your day, Rabeidoh. Thanks for letting me comment here.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:19 am
It was a mean e-mail and it didn’t give a good reason for critiquing you or your presentation ability - but I could have predicted it: Politics are incredibly petty and divisive. Also, sometimes engineer types disparage marketers - I’ve run into this myself when I meet programmers who think I am a moron with zero technical skills or chops of any kind. Not everyone is going to be in love with social media the way we are - some people think it’s a joke for kids.
Stay strong and don’t let a stickler pop your passion! It will definitely pay off.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
@BrettfromTibet I don’t think it was a mean email. If anything, his provocative comments were an invitation to debate. His comments raised should raise a lot of questions like “What does politics have to do with coding?”
Part of the reason we don’t have real social change has to do with the fact that most professionals don’t pick sides. A professional is supposed to stay neutral, but isn’t that really what a true conservative does?
October 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
[...] think about. About a month ago, I wrote a post on my personal blog regarding how Reem Abeidoh had received an email that questioned her abilities due to her political views. Are you out of your mind. [Reem Abeidoh] [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
[...] think about. About a month ago, I wrote a post on my personal blog regarding how Reem Abeidoh had received an email that questioned her abilities due to her political [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 6:14 am
[...] think about. About a month ago, I wrote a post on my personal blog regarding how Reem Abeidoh hadreceived an email that questioned her abilities due to her political views. Are you out of your mind. [Reem Abeidoh] [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 10:13 am
[...] our thoughts, opinions and ideas on our favorite sites. For instance, I can discuss that I support Olbermann’s bashing of Bush and that I despise Beso Restaurant because they bullied a friend on my blog. As with all the other [...]
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 am
[...] Hace un mes, escribí un artículo en mi blog personal respecto de cómo Reem Abeidoh había recibido un correo electrónico que pone en tela de juicio su capacidad por sus opiniones políticas. Estás loco. [Reem Abeidoh] [...]