The following comment was posted on a professional networking site by a “professional” who chose to respond to an individual email and replied to all for the entire organization to read.
“This is not appropriate subject material for a job network group. Use your brain a little and quit thinking through your pants.”
Do you think this is an appropriate comment? If you are thinking that it depends on the content in the original message that it referred to, you are making a mistake. Why? Because the original message was spam email. In other words the person who was sent the nasty message for all to see did not send the original email!  Many of us realized the first time we read it that it was spam and I’m not sure why site administrators didn’t catch it sooner but for those of us who did, there is only one inappropriate comment here and that is the one noted above.
Unfortunately, too many of us are familiar with the prevalence of online viruses out there today. I recently received a link from a friend prefaced by his website address making it seem all too authentic except that I knew him well enough to suspect receiving a link without a personalized message. Upon advising him, he confirmed he had not sent out anything to anyone and it was spam.
Don’t assume that an inappropriate message was sent by the sender as it could easily be spam. If you feel the need to ask or respond, keep it one on one and give consideration that your comments could still be distributed at some point for all to see. Secondly, always think before posting any comment giving consideration to how others will receive your message. Is it positive, inspiring, intelligent, productive, or informative? Does it provide an answer to the question asked? Does it clearly relay your message? Is it grammatically correct and free of typos? Finally, when posting any comments online or distributing an email for all to see, remember the following:
“Two wrongs do not make a right.”
“If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.”
“Do/say unto others as you would have them do/say unto you.”
“It only takes one comment to ruin a good reputation.”
“You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression.”
Are you exuding A Professional Image?
