Amy Grilli, a mom, doesn't belong on LinkedIn and here's why

Amy Grilli’s post is the most viral post I’ve ever seen on LinkedIn with over 100,000 reactions! She hit a major cultural pain point. Her post speaks to the many hats we wear in our lives and in work, and how we have to navigate the multiplicity and hybridity of who we are.

It's NOT easy.

Why Amy Doesn’t Belong

Amy starts her post talking about the shame, disgrace, insignificance, and low self worth she was experiencing being a mom who was returning to the workforce after a 5-year hiatus raising her children.

She found it hard to know where to start, how to be seen, and felt that LinkedIn placed an unfair burden of negatively showcasing her career gap. She believed employers would dismiss her if they looked at her profile.

Amy’s post speaks to this question:

How do we show our true selves on LinkedIn when there are invisible rules about who we can be/are allowed to be and what's acceptable in today's work world?

In her post, Amy was clear that she’s in limbo and feels stuck. After a period of reflection, instead of running away from her dilemma and hiding her truth, she decided to take steps to share her story, find her power, and empower others, especially moms who feel the same way.

Implicit Bias About Our Professional Identity

The fact Amy left LinkedIn (she literally deleted her profile for a bit) because she felt she didn't "belong" speaks to the implicit bias of most professional networking platforms, and how they negatively affect our sense of self and self-esteem. Even for people who aren’t moms, there are all kinds of implicit biases formed based on our professional identities and profiles on social media.

If you don't belong on LinkedIn (the world’s largest professional network) as a professional re-entering the workforce, or merely going through the ebbs and flows of work life, then where do you belong? Where do you go? How do you NOT feel ashamed?

Bravely, Amy chose to return after she discovered a new sense of herself and realized how she wants to be seen, known and valued as a professional, regardless of taking a break to be a mom (which in many ways is a job in and of itself...a discussion to be had later).

HOW TO Claim Your Career Belonging

A lot of what Amy describes in her post is what I'm finding in my research on career belonging. We feel we have to fit a societally mandated definition of being a professional and fitting a certain mold. If we don't, we feel ashamed and are forced to figure out how to conform because that's what we believe it takes to build our career.

However, career belonging is when you know how you want to be seen, known, and valued in your work and you're able to tell the world that so they see, know, and value you that way too! It's a difficult task. It's a journey of self-reflection and aligning with your authentic self, yet it pays dividends when you do.

Look at how much response and exposure Amy has received since declaring she knows who she is and what she stands for in her work. Millions of people are resonating with her message and recognizing Amy for her full self.

There is so much power in knowing how to talk about who we are (our professional identity) even when we don't have the right job title or the right words to express what we do perfectly. Getting outside of our boxes and out of our own way is one of the many gifts of Amy's post.

Moral Of This Post

Be MORE than your job title and find your career belonging, NOT career fit.