Wednesday 18 February 2015

No. 82: LinkedIn wants to congratulate me…

Apparently 5 years ago today I started work at Thames Water. LinkedIn, without any prompting from me, is telling the world and I have received dozens of email congratulations from kind-hearted contacts.

The minor flaw is that I left Thames Water over 4 months ago.

As it happens I didn’t actually officially start work at Thames 5 years ago as I spent my first 14 months as just an interim employee, covering the Asset Management Director position. And then in April 2011 I formerly left Thames (for a full 2 weeks) before returning, like a new born baby to his mothers’ breast, to take on the Commercial Director role. (Think that’s a bad analogy? The alternative was ‘like a crack addict returning to his abusive dealer’. Take your pick). LinkedIn isn’t aware of these minor details mainly because I overlooked sharing this level of detail in my profile. It is only as clever as the information I provided.

That said, my LinkedIn profile has been updated so I don’t understand the current confusion. Something must have gone wrong with the software. It hasn’t recognised I have moved on. I look forward to Feb 18th 2035 when I will get my 25 years anniversary announcement. I will be 65 and, probably, recently retired. Or dead.


I miss my Thames Water role. It was exciting, frustrating, rewarding, challenging. I worked with professional, capable people who were passionate about what they did. I like idea that every year LinkedIn will remind me of this past.

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