Deleting former Colleagues on Social Media>

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Hi:
In my last post, I talked about having a good part-time job and being offered a second part-time position at a former position but the people who agreed to hire me have been giving me the run-around and blowing me off about a start date while not bothering to call me. After talking to some people yesterday about this, I decided not to contact them anymore because I felt that they were just going to keep letting me down and distracting me from my other position.

At any rate, I have two of them on social media where one of them, who no longer works at this office location on LinkedIn while the other, who has been playing games with me is on Facebook and LinkedIn. However, neither of them have been that interested in me as a person since letting me go in 2013 and nor have they been interested in what I am up to at my current job. I already deleted all of the contact information of the two people currently working in the office where I was supposed to return.

I want to know, would it be bad if I deleted them from my contacts on Facebook and Social Media?

No.

I see no issue deleting people that I no longer communicate with at all and neither side is showing any interest in keeping up with the other.

I'd agree setback with no communication or explanation is a huge red flag for me. Plus setting back the start date twice in my experience is extremely unusual. It sounds like you have much better network options now so I'd get rid of them without regret.

Believe me, I don't regret getting them off my phone and social media for that example. However, they were really sketchy and slippery back when I worked with them before but I really liked them and let my trust of them get in the way. Why? Because they were "Nice enough."

1. I worked on commission for them for a year and a half and they never once paid me. Every time a promise be made that a deal was about to go through, suddenly those deals were the cut. Yet they kept dangling a carrot in front of me while they seemed to make money all the time and never once offered me a fraction
2. They said they were going to pay for me to go to real estate school and when it came to it, I was required to and would get reimbursed while seeing that I would be paid to get licensed.

I had my guard up when I met with those two men about a month ago even though I was willing to give them one more chance even though I had to remind myself that the world of real estate and commission based is cutthroat. I also knew there was a chance that they would go back on their word about paying me an hourly rate without having my fill out a W-2 form. Sure enough they broke their promise right there and then. Which is why:
1. I am taking them out of my networks
2. Taking them out of my phone but they are welcome to call me but I will let them down this time by saying, "I am no longer interested."
3. Not contacting any of them again
4. Not going to take any more of their offers

Redbrick, what made me feel uncomfortable was the fact that I had to sit around waiting to know if there would be side work or not along with the excuses that this broker put out.

Sweetleaf, I wasn't about to be straightforward because that would have opened the door to some really nasty backlash. Usually, it's a common courtesy to write a letter of rejection to employers in letting them know that you elected not to take the position. Just like they were going to be polite with me by using tall tales and leading, I am going to tell them in a nice and professional way that I am not interested in working with for them again.

Now, the area where I insulted them was by:
1. Removing them from social media: LinkedIn and Facebook
2. Deleting all their contact information and phone numbers out my phone
3. Muting any sort of text messages
4. If they call me again, that's when I am going to say I am not interested and hang up and maybe talk to the person who oversees everything in that firm and voice my concerns. Otherwise, I am moving forward as we speak

The whole thing was handled perfectly if you ask me! Super professional and objective.

For the general idea... I think all personal social media like facebook, twitter, tumblr, instagram etc... add or remove who you want. If a business colleague wants to be connected businessly then they should use LinedIn.

On linked in, I would always keep connected with anyone who does not make me look bad professionally. In this case these people could make you look bad professionally. If they've treated you this way, it could be common behavior and there might be others in your network who feel that they're jerks. Being connected to other people isn't a fully on endorsement, but it is at least a statement that it's OK for them to contact you or potentially do work with you at some point in the future. These folks... are essentially customers that you've fired and don't plan to rehire.

(bias check: I also accept connections from people that I don't know on LinkedIn. I use critieria though. They have to either work in the same industry/profession as I do, be a recruiter or live in the same area. I do not accept connections from random people otherwise, even if they're connected to several other people on my network. The reason this is bias, is because it's relates to the idea of not removing people unless they're problematic. If someone is more or less selective about their network then they probably shouldn't use the same rules)

yep! you definitely got it right on that one... distancing yourself from people who operate like that is definitely the smart way to go