Kelly Blazek, a Cleveland-based PR executive and authority on local communications jobs listings, was undone by the same thing that built her up:
Social media.
With her ego boosted by the position she cultivated via LinkedIn and other networks, she soon became an Internet villain at the hands of someone she shunned.
The irony.
Blazek, for a little more back story, produced and distributed a popular email that culled job openings from online job sites and from her own contacts.
She worked for 10 years building her contacts and selecting the list of people who receive the email, limiting recipients largely to those with experience.
Blazek also promoted herself and the email list on social media networking sites, such as LinkedIn, where she was connected to nearly 1,000 people she knows.
She's good at what she does, and she knows it.
Eventually, that inflated sense of self-importance would come back to bite her as she bought into her own hype more than and service she was providing.
She bragged in speeches that she had 7,300 people on her list, building a reputation so revered that many young people felt they HAD to reach out to her.
But when many newbies asked for help, she turned them down. That wasn't the problem or newsworthy ... it was the brutal way Blazek rejected them.
Blazek got noticed on the web after sending a nasty response to Diana Mekota, a John Carroll University graduate moving back to the Cleveland area.
Mekota asked if she could join Blazek's LinkedIn network and receive the job listings email she held so dear. Here's how Blazek responded in an email:
Her handle says it all. Carly "@CarlyCrunkBear" McKinney, a 10th grade math teacher, posted images like this on Twitter. Her employers were not happy and placed her on administrative leave. Her students thought she was pretty cool, and protested to get her back. She was fired in the end.
Her handle says it all. Carly "@CarlyCrunkBear" McKinney, a 10th grade math teacher, posted images like this on Twitter. Her employers were not happy and placed her on administrative leave. Her students thought she was pretty cool, and protested to get her back. She was fired in the end.
2. Taco Bell Guy
And you thought the Taco Bell breakfast menu was gross! Moral of this story: If you're gonna lick the shells, keep it to yourself.
3. Wendy's Frosty Guy
Ditto eating straight outta the Frosty machine ... though we can understand being tempted to attempt this.
4. Miners Doing the Harlem Shake
Doing the Harlem Shake on the job got these mine workers fired ... dancing out of their mine, you could say. Sorry.
5. Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried was canned as the voice of the AFLAC duck after Tweeting a series of jokes regarding the Japanese tsunami.
6. Justine Sacco
Justine Sacco was axed from her PR job in 2013 for racist Tweets she fired off about AIDS during a trip to Africa.
7. Bitter Barista
We can't imagine why a Seattle coffee company axed this apparent Bitter Barista over his blog by that name.
8. The Applebee's Waitress Who Posted This
The Applebee's waitress who was stiffed by a pastor via this receipt and posted it on Reddit actually got fired for sharing it.
9. Dayna Morales
Waitress Dayna Morales posted a receipt she allegedly received from a couple chastising her for her gay lifestyle ... only she made the whole thing up!
10. This DTE Energy Company Worker
Some rants are better off in your head than on your Facebook page.
11. Caitlin Davis
Former Patriots cheerleader Caitlin Davis was released after Facebook photos showed the Sharpie-packing pompom queen posing over a passed-out pal with naughty words, pictures and two swastikas all over him. The words “penis†and "I’m a Jew" were visible. Classy.
12. An Unimpressed Palace Guard
A Buckingham Palace guard Tweeted this about Kate Middleton: "hur and william drove past me on friday n all a got was a shitty wave while she looked the opposite way from me, stupid stuck up cow am a not good enough for them! posh bitch am totally with u on this 1 who reely gives a f*** about hur!" He got the pink slip.
13. Olivia Sprauer
Olivia Sprauer taught English at Martin County High School in Florida and modeled on the side under the name Victoria Valentine James. Her school didn't think that side job was as cool as her male students did.
"We have never met. We have never worked together. You are quite young and green on how business connections work with senior professionals."
"Apparently you have heard that I produce a Job Bank, and decided it would be stunningly helpful for your career prospects if I shared my 960+ LinkedIn connections with you."
To "a total stranger who has nothing to offer me"? Not happening. "Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you, and tacky," the email continued.
"Wow, I cannot wait to let every 25-year-old jobseeker mine my top-tier marketing connections to help them land a job. Love the sense of entitlement in your generation."
"And therefore I enjoy denying your invite, and giving you the dreaded 'I Don't Know' [scribbled-out name] because it's the truth," she added, pouring it on.
"Oh, and about your request to actually receive my Job Bank along with the 7,300 other subscribers? That's denied, too. I suggest you join the other Job Bank in town."
"Oh wait - there isn't one."
In response, Mekota did what many millennials do: She turned to the Internet for catharsis, posting Blazek's response on reddit, imgur and on Facebook.
The rest is history.
The letter went viral, of course, because people can relate to the plight of Mekota and others like her, and Blazek's email is so absurd it had to be shared.
People on Reddit rally behind those like Mekota who get kicked when they're down, and revel in the change to expose the Blazeks who have lost touch with reality.
To her credit, she got the message, issuing an apology Tuesday that is contrite and pitch perfect. The most telling line of a seemingly sincere mea culpa:
"In my harsh reply notes, I lost my perspective about how to help, and I also lost sight of kindness, which is why I started the Job Bank listings in the first place."
Lesson learned?
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