LinkedIn is a social media platform focused on professional networking and career development. As you build your network on LinkedIn, you will connect with many different individuals. However, there may come a time when you need to remove a connection for various reasons. Removing a connection on LinkedIn has some effects that are useful to understand.
Why Would You Remove a LinkedIn Connection?
There are a few key reasons why you may need to remove a connection on LinkedIn:
- The contact is no longer relevant to your professional network
- You want to limit access the contact has to your profile and activity
- The contact’s frequent posts or activity are cluttering your feed
- You have a conflict or falling out with the individual
- The contact has inappropriate or abusive content on their profile
- The individual sends too many connection requests or unwanted messages
- You are changing jobs and want to keep work contacts separate
Essentially, removing a LinkedIn connection can help refine your network and limit contact with individuals you no longer want to associate with professionally online.
What Happens When You Remove a LinkedIn Connection?
Here are the key effects of removing a connection on LinkedIn:
1. Limits Profile Viewing
Once you remove a connection, that individual can no longer view the full details of your LinkedIn profile. They will only see your limited public profile. This prevents them from being able to see your full work history, education, connections, interests, and other profile activity.
2. Prevents Messaging
Removing a connection also removes the ability for that person to message you directly through LinkedIn messaging. They can no longer send you InMail messages either. All messaging capabilities through LinkedIn are stopped when removing a connection.
3. Stops Notifications on Activity
LinkedIn connections typically receive notifications when someone in their network makes a major profile update, changes jobs, publishes content, and so on. When you remove a connection, you will stop receiving notifications about that contact’s LinkedIn activity. This cleans up your notifications feed.
4. Removes From Your Network Feed
Your network feed on LinkedIn shows recent activity from your connections. This includes profile updates, published posts, shared news articles, and more. Once you remove someone as a connection, their activity will no longer appear in your network feed.
5. Prevents Recommendations
LinkedIn lets you provide recommendations for your connections to endorse their skills and qualifications. When you remove a connection, it takes away the ability to give or request recommendations with that individual. Any existing recommendations will remain on their profile.
6. Removes Shared Connections and Groups
You will no longer share any connections or be part of the same LinkedIn groups once removing a connection. This helps separate professional contacts.
7. Limits Profile Viewing
Once you remove a connection, that individual can no longer view the full details of your LinkedIn profile. They will only see your limited public profile. This prevents them from being able to see your full work history, education, connections, interests, and other profile activity.
8. Prevents Messaging
Removing a connection also removes the ability for that person to message you directly through LinkedIn messaging. They can no longer send you InMail messages either. All messaging capabilities through LinkedIn are stopped when removing a connection.
9. Stops Notifications on Activity
LinkedIn connections typically receive notifications when someone in their network makes a major profile update, changes jobs, publishes content, and so on. When you remove a connection, you will stop receiving notifications about that contact’s LinkedIn activity. This cleans up your notifications feed.
10. Removes From Your Network Feed
Your network feed on LinkedIn shows recent activity from your connections. This includes profile updates, published posts, shared news articles, and more. Once you remove someone as a connection, their activity will no longer appear in your network feed.
How Does Removing a Connection Impact Them?
When you remove a LinkedIn connection, it has the following impacts from their perspective:
- They receive a notification you disconnected
- Lose access to your full profile and activity
- No longer share connections or groups
- Cannot message or contact you directly
- Your activity disappears from their feed
- Lost recommendation opportunities
Essentially, removing the connection has the same effects on them as it does you. It severs the professional relationship and limits any interaction.
Can the Person Tell You Removed Them?
Yes, when you remove a LinkedIn connection they will receive a notification indicating you disconnected from them. The notification simply states that you changed your connections without indicating specifically that you removed them.
Is It Possible to Remove a Connection Without Them Knowing?
There is no way to remove a LinkedIn connection without the person knowing. As mentioned, LinkedIn will alert them through a notification that the connection was removed.
Can You Add the Connection Back?
If you change your mind after removing a LinkedIn connection, it is possible to add them back. You can send them a new connection invitation and reestablish the link.
However, you will not regain access to their historical profile data or activity during the time you were not connected. Reconnecting starts the relationship over again.
Is Removing Connections Bad LinkedIn Etiquette?
Removing LinkedIn connections is considered acceptable etiquette in most cases. Situations where someone is cluttering your feed, behaving inappropriately online, or no longer relevant make removing the connection justified.
Randomly removing connections without reason can be viewed negatively though. In most cases, focus on pruning only troublesome or irrelevant connections when needed.
Do You Lose Connections When Removing Someone?
No, removing a LinkedIn connection does not impact the number of connections in your network. You can remove as many connections as needed without lowering your total count.
LinkedIn only registers losing a connection when someone specifically removes you from their network. But you removing others does not affect your connection total.
Should You Notify Someone Before Removing Them?
Notifying a connection before removing them is more of a courtesy than requirement. Since LinkedIn sends a notification anyway, reaching out ahead of time simply softens the disconnect.
However, if the person is inappropriate or hostile, it may be wise to just remove them without engaging further. Use your best judgment on notifying before removing connections.
Is It Better to Hide Connections Instead of Removing?
Rather than fully removing connections, LinkedIn does give you the option to simply hide someone from your feed and profile. This keeps you connected but their activity becomes invisible to you.
Hiding may be a better initial option if you think you may reconnect down the road. But for problematic contacts, full removal tends to be better to completely sever the relationship.
Can You Reconnect with Someone After Removing Them?
Yes, it is possible to reconnect with a LinkedIn contact after removing them. You can send them a new connection invitation and they can accept it to restore the connection.
However, your previous profile activity and history will not be visible to them again. Reconnecting starts the relationship over as if newly connecting.
Conclusion
Removing LinkedIn connections can refine your professional network by pruning contacts you no longer interact with regularly. It limits visibility of your profile, prevents unwanted communication, and removes irrelevant activity from your feeds. But use proper etiquette and don’t remove connections unnecessarily. Evaluate each situation and handle appropriately based on the individual contact and relationship.
Reasons to Remove a LinkedIn Connection | Impacts of Removing a LinkedIn Connection |
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In most cases, removing irrelevant or troublesome contacts is perfectly acceptable on LinkedIn. But be sure to evaluate each situation carefully before taking action to remove a connection from your network.
Key Things to Remember
- They receive a notice when removed
- Starts relationship over if re-added
- OK to remove problematic contacts
- Can also hide connections instead
- Impacts limited if professional reasons
Be strategic and thoughtful when periodically pruning your LinkedIn connections. This will ensure the quality and value of your overall network remains high as your career progresses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if you remove a connection on LinkedIn?
Removing a LinkedIn connection prevents them from viewing your full profile, removes their activity from your feeds, stops messaging capabilities, and limits any notifications about their activity.
Can you remove a LinkedIn connection without them being notified?
No, there is no way to remove a LinkedIn connection without some notification being sent indicating the change. The platform alerts users when connections are removed.
Is it bad to remove LinkedIn connections?
It’s generally fine to remove LinkedIn connections periodically that are no longer relevant or appropriate to be in your network. But randomly removing active connections may be viewed negatively.
What happens to connection requests if you remove a connection?
Any pending connection requests associated with a contact are deleted when you remove the connection. A new request would need to be sent if reconnecting.
Can I reconnect with someone I removed?
Yes, you can send a new connection invitation to someone previously removed and reconnect. However, it will start the relationship over as if newly connecting.
Is it better to hide or remove connections?
Hiding may be better if you think you’ll eventually reconnect. But removing is best for fully severing the relationship with problematic contacts.