Then came the incident.
Emma had spent six months preparing for this moment. She’d rewritten her LinkedIn headline seven times, curated a grid of polished-but-relatable content, and connected with 312 people in her target industry. Most importantly, she’d been following Marcus Webb—a senior director at a company she desperately wanted to work for.
He had blocked her.
Emma didn’t get a job offer from the post. She didn’t go viral. But three days later, someone she’d never spoken to before—a senior manager at a different company—sent her a connection request with a note: “Saw your post. I’ve been there. Let’s grab a virtual coffee if you want to talk about the industry for real.”
She accepted.
The responses surprised her. Fifty-two comments. Dozens of DMs from people admitting they’d been blocked too, or had blocked someone else, or had realized their own networking was hollow. One woman wrote: “I blocked a recruiter once because she sent me a ‘just checking in’ message every three days for a year. I still feel bad about it. But also… I don’t.”
She never overdid it. Once per post. Professional. Insightful. At least, that’s what she told herself. blocked on linkedin
“I got blocked by someone I really admired today. It stung more than I want to admit. I think I forgot that LinkedIn isn’t a networking cheat code—it’s just people. And people can feel performed to, commented at, or used. I’m not sharing this for sympathy. I’m sharing it because I’ve been treating professional relationships like transactions, and that’s not who I want to be. If you’ve ever been blocked, ignored, or left on read—you’re not alone. And maybe, like me, it’s a sign to stop chasing and start actually connecting.”