⚖️ Accidentally befriending clients on Duolingo?

After 60 something weeks, I fell flat and disappeared this month. Balancing a new career with an established past one is tricky, so I am going to move this newsletter to a bi-weekly one.

And I know I know promised to do a session after the career series, that will come soon as I am past the current overwhelm episode, promise.

We’ve all experienced Instagram and Facebook suggestions for befriending random contacts from our phone. This means that we might inadvertently come across our client’s social media profiles. The chances of accidentally befriending a client as a result of these suggestions on the platform is low thanks to the clearly displayed names and profile pictures.

But that might not be the case everywhere.

I have been getting suggestions on Duolingo to add contacts as friends. Duolingo displays usernames (eg jonsnow) and an avatar and it is possible to accidentally befriend a client on the platform without realising it. This means that you will now be receiving updates on each other’s language progress, being part of ‘friend’ challenges, helping each other with streak freezes and congratulating each other on achievements.

Navigating the profession as digital natives will mean putting in extra effort to uphold the boundaries we otherwise put a lot of care into creating by keeping ourselves up to date with how technology and online platforms operate. Some things that can help in scenarios of this kind-

• Separate email ID and phone number for all professional and personal pursuits.

• Pay attention to which email ID or online cloud Contacts are getting synced with.

• Avoid befriending people whose identities you are unsure about.

Have you encountered any such experiences/challenges? I’d love to hear.

Until next time,
Suvrita

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