Colleague posting long emotive posts on LI in full view of clients

[Xenapo]

A colleague is regularly posting long emotive posts on LinkedIn about mental health, burnout, wanting to be respected for who they are, past traumas etc. They seemed to have ramped up frequency and length in recent weeks.

I get that people can share what they like on their socials but the nature of our work means many clients have us on LinkedIn and can see everything we post. Some of the content feels oversharing and not appropriate for a professional network and its also very regulatr rather than once in a while. I'm beginning to worry about how it may come across to clients.

Should I raise this with them directly?
Flag to HR? Maybe they're very unhappy in role?
Or just leave it and mind my own business?

Blimey. LinkedIn must have changed since I last used it.

Are you their manager or just a colleague?

Is it someone you would feel comfortable asking if they are OK? It doesn't sound like they are. I agree LinkedIn prob isn't the best place for this content but if they are burning out more important they talk about that and make a plan to get help. Which could be via HR, GP, just using some AL, talking to line manager about adapting duties or changing job role. Burn out is awful.

At the last company I worked for, it was written into our contract that we needed to represent them appropriately on social media, in public, etc. - we even had regular training (online and in-person) about what is and isn't appropriate to post. This is just on personal social media where we wouldn't necessarily even have our job/company name on a profile. On LinkedIn, where you have your company name attached to your posts, that would be an even bigger no-no. Definitely speak to HR.

And while I'm sorry to hear your colleague is going through stuff, so is everyone, but it doesn't mean you need to splash it all over LinkedIn where clients can see everything. I had major MH problems (many of them work-related) and wouldn't dream of doing this.